Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Package Deal

Guess what? I have good news! I received a letter informing me that I qualify for a $50 gift card. All I have to do is open a PMA Package.

There’s only one problem. I have no idea what a “PMA Package” is.

So what does “PMA” stand for? Practical Measuring Apparatus … Powerful Muscular Abs … Plump Mouthwatering Asparagus?

Well, the letter is from Wells Fargo, so I imagine it has something to do with banking. That narrows it down. Could it be Perpetual Money Access? How about Preposterous Mortgage Adjustment? Maybe Puzzling Malfunctioning ATM?

This is the letter (click to enlarge):

As you can see, there are five mentions of my $50 gift card, but nothing that tells me just what a PMA Package is.

In fact, the first paragraph of the letter just discusses the gift card offer. Then there’s a section of bullet points under the heading, “Enjoy Benefits, Bonuses, Discounts, And Rewards.”

That’s great, but rewards on what? These bullet points don’t clear it up at all.

• Competitive interest rate on a “PMA Prime Checking” account

• No monthly fee on linked checking and saving accounts

• Bonus interest rate on linked savings accounts and CDs

• Free checks and online bill pay

• 100 commission-free trades when I open a linked “WellsTrade Brokerage Account”

You can see that the first bullet point even brings up another product, the “PMA Prime Checking” account.

Then, the letter closes with a heading of “Simplify And Save to Reach Your Financial Goals” and another mention of my $50 reward.

This letter is pretty good at presenting benefits, but there’s no cohesion. What the heck am I signing up for?

I even looked through the disclaimers, but didn’t find a clue. Later, after much searching of the Wells Fargo web site, I found that PMA stands for “Portfolio Management Account.” It helps “simplify your financial management by combining most of your Wells Fargo accounts onto a single monthly statement.”

Well why didn’t you say so?

If you’re going to market a package of services, you should give it a name that provides some meaning. For example, McAfee packages a variety of anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-spam services as “McAfee Total Protection.” But with a mystery meat acronym like “PMA,” the reader gets lost – and the letter gets tossed.

I’m betting that when the copywriter wrote the first draft of this letter, the PMA Package was explained with more clarity, but the $50 gift card was only mentioned four times.

Along the line (no doubt at the last minute), someone at Wells Fargo reviewed the copy and said, “I see a problem here. In 240 words, we’ve only mentioned the gift card four times.”

So a fifth reference to the gift card was added, and that vital clue that clarifies the PMA Package got dropped.

I call that Painfully Misguided Advertising.

Posted by Richard Bloch

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