Keep Me Posted

The Keep Me Posted campaign was positioned as ‘the Consumers’ right to choose’ … that choice being very specifically paper bills and statements … with an additional sub-clause … the right to choose paper bills and statements ‘without charge or other penalty’.

Very quickly the campaign also embraced vulnerable consumers as a societal subject with specific scenarios over and above the general consumer one, thus leading to the campaign’s mantra: Better for All, Essential for Some.

We celebrated the fifth anniversary of the campaign in July 2018. It seems an appropriate time to pull together the key learnings and share them with the financial services marketing community:

Key Discoveries – all Consumers
• in multiple research exercises, a large majority of consumers specifically embrace ‘the right to choose’ how they manage their relationships with their service providers for financial management of their affairs. (i)
• in addition, again in multiple research exercises, a large majority of consumers specifically stated they would consider changing providers if their right was ignored or disrespected, or they were charged for a paper bill. (i)
• a majority of consumers also worry about missing paying bills if they do not receive them through the post. (ii)
• in the last 2 years only, a large majority of consumers have started to fret over the safety and security of their online data. (i).

Key Discoveries – Vulnerable Consumers
• In this context vulnerable consumers have been discovered to be not just the old and the disabled, but also that those living in poverty or ‘not spots’ (iii)
• latest Government figures show that these groups account for 1 in 10 of all consumers (iv)
• 22% of disabled adults alone have never used the internet (iv)
• those in debt are least likely to have personal access to the internet (v)
• those who don’t use the internet pay, on average, more than £560 more each year for basic services and goods (vi)

Key Discoveries – Neural and Behavioural science
• paper requires less cognitive effort and triggers better motivational response (vii)
• consumers are most easily distracted when looking at information on screen, and have a clear preference for print for complex documents (viii)
• a controlled test for Keep Me Posted revealed a substantial difference between recall to a paper statement and an on line one (ix)
• student research shows increased learning with actual textbooks (x)

Key Discoveries – the Risks of Printing at Home
• “if you print at home, it is not a legal document”. Anonymous
• “if you print at home, it’s a much less sustainable approach and more environmentally damaging.” Anonymous
• paper is one of the world’s greatest renewable resources (xi)

Key Discoveries – the Business Case
• costs don’t leave when businesses push consumer on line: the consumer defaults to the call centre (xii)
• consumers who receive and pay by post pay the quickest and cost the least to handle (xii)
• businesses who charge for paper are not charging cost reflectively, thus causing reputational damage (xii)

I hope you find these findings of interest.

We would be delighted to discuss our campaign with you and help you to be seen to ‘do the right thing’ by;
a) recognizing that some of your customers will be ‘vulnerable’ and should be helped, not hindered, if they can’t go online
b) appreciating that all of your customers are consumers who should have the right to choose

If you would like to know more, please contact Dominic Stewart or Judith Donovan.

i. Print And Paper In A Digital World, Two Sides (2017)
ii. Insight Exchange (2011)
iii. Vulnerable Consumers in Regulated Markets, National Audit Office, 2017
iv. Office for National Statistics, 2017
v. Offline and Shut Out, Christians Against Poverty, 2017
vi. Protecting Consumers in a Challenging World, Citizens Advice, 2018
vii. A Bias For Action, Canada Post and True Impact Marketing, 2015
viii. Print Power, 2015
ix. Study for the Keep Me Posted campaign, London Economics and YouGov, 2015. Managing Money Online- Working As Well As We Think? A behavioral economics
x. Students Learn Better From Books Than On Screens (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/10/students-learn-better-from-books-than-screens-according-to-a-new-study), World Economic Forum, 2018
xi. Confederation of Paper Industries, 2013
xii. Will The Check Be In The Mail? An Examination of Paper and Electronic Transactional Mail, The Office of Inspector General United Services Postal Service, 2015