Post on 17-Jul-2020
transcript
Case Study:
OptionsHouse
• Quick Introduction
• Background on OptionsHouse
• Stumbling Blocks to OptionsHouse Growth
• The Key Growth Factors at OptionsHouse
• Brand Building
• Transformation to Customer Centric Organization
• Efficient Digital Marketing
• Outcomes for OptionsHouse staying focused on what
Matters
What I’ll Review Today
• Graduated DePauw University, Economics
• NYC internship convinced me to move into Advertising
• Spent 2 years in Atlanta building portfolio
• Started out doing contract work in NYC, Atlanta and Bend,
OR
• Spent ~1 year with Buntin Group in Nashville, TN
• Spent ~5 years with VSA (Microsoft account) and Leo
Burnett (MillerCoors, Coca-Cola) in Chicago
• Graduated DePaul University, MBA
• Spent ~5 years at OptionsHouse (and parent company
PEAK6)
• Now back in Nashville with Advanced Network Solutions
A Little Background on Me
• PEAK6 Investments found in Chicago in 1997.
• Capital Management Firm
• Unique options strategy/early adopter of digital trading
• Utilizes proprietary trading platform
• Then one day, one of their tech people says, we could
make a lot of money if we released our platform online and
so . . . .
Brief Backstory on
OptionsHouse
• . . .OptionsHouse is born 2006 to crickets. No customers,
no one jumping at their offer to trade at a 3rd of the price of
any major competitors.
Background on
OptionsHouse
Stumbling Blocks to Growth
• OptionsHouse has a compelling offer to clients. Open a
brokerage account and you can trade for $2.95 a stock
trade and options trades were an even better deal.
• OptionsHouse was well backed financially via PEAK6, so
client money was safe.
• OptionsHouse was staffed with people who had a deep
and thorough understanding of accounts, trading, options,
financial strategy, stocks, etc . . .they know financial
services inside and out.
Here’s What OptionsHouse
Has (Elevator Pitch 2006-
2009)
• OptionsHouse stock price point is so much better than the
competition that people literally think it is a scam.
• And that awesome options price, well, it is great if you
have have :30 minutes to understand it but its too
complicated
• OptionsHouse is well backed financially, but no one
outside the industry has ever heard of PEAK6
• OptionsHouse is well staffed with people who understand
financial services via working in some of the best capital
management firms globally, but have no idea what’s
important to more novice, retail customers.
Here’s What OptionsHouse
Actual Has
• OptionsHouse has marketed itself here and there, but has
never made a significant investment in outreach.
• It’s broad competitors TDAmeritrade, Fidelity, Etrade,
Scottrade are household names. It’s closest competitors
OptionsXpress, ThinkorSwim, etc. are owned by
TDAmeritrade, Fidelity, Etrade, Scottrade.
• Their software is technologically advanced but missing one
crucial component – 24/7 uptime/stability.
And a couple other things . .
.
Key factors of Growth
Essential Early Factors to
Growth
Investment in Research/Planning
Sharpens Focus (Core KPIs)
Measurable Improvement
Process:
Bring in subject matter experts
(outside category input)
Build strategy/processes
Build teams around strategy/processes
People:
Did You Know:
Brand Building: If you stripped Coca-Cola
of every employee, factory and bottle . .
.took everything away.
The name is worth 79.2B. That’s more than
the value of all other materials combined.
Did You Know:
Customer Centric Organizations: Are
60% more profitable compared to
companies that do not leverage customer
feedback.
Did You Know:Digital Marketing: The average costs to reach 2000
people by channel . . .
Did You Know:Marketing: 44% of people begin their shopping
journey with an online search engine.
Brand Building:Product Benefit statement read as the following:
OptionsHouse provides a great value, with fast
execution, a cutting-edge platform and great
prices.
A free thinking tech brand liberating the world from beige conformity
An advocate of women’s self-esteem battling against the falsehood of media-defined beauty
An authority-defying rebel uniting a community to take back the roads
A companion on the hero’s journey constantly compelling athletes to “just do it”
Brand Building:
OptionsHouse is the ally of
active traders seeking a
competitive edge in the market.
Brand Building:
Brand Building:
Brand Building:
Becoming Customer Centric
• OptionsHouse circa 2010:
• Primary research had taken place but had not been
utilized or information been disseminated
• There were no client surveys, no metrics around call
drivers, no readout on FAQ clicks, etc.
• Our product, the platform, gave no user feedback and
had never been user tested by a third party
• Marketing was by and large cut-off from the rest of the
org and there was a bit of bad-blood in the water
Becoming Customer Centric• OptionsHouse circa 2012:
• Every employee new exactly what we gave customers.
Every employee had been thru training.
• A Customer Satisfaction team was organized with
representatives from each department – Each tasked
with resolving at least 3 customer-related initiatives
• All product enhancements were put through a brand
filter; no more “what about this?”
• Product utilized usertesting.com to improve the platform
and marketing did the same for website
• Lines of communication between MKT and key
stakeholders were created to develop financial specific
content and disseminate it outwardly.
Efficient Outreach
• Efficient Digital Marketing Starts with KNOWING
YOUR CUSTOMERS
• The biggest obstacles to effective digital
marketing is:
• Not properly utilizing website
• Lack of customer understanding/clear value
proposition to customers
• Underdeveloped business intelligence
• Trying to represent in every channel (You
can’t be everywhere immediately)
Efficient Outreach
• Email • Linkedin• Facebook • Google • Yahoo • Youtube• Display • Affiliates • Partners • Referrals • Organic
Typical B2C CR is 2.35%
X
So How’d We Do It• The company began with a clear value proposition – you
can trade for half the cost, but needed help to be heard.
• We invested heavily in understanding our target
audience:
• Where they were
• What they were interested in
• Why they chose XYZ brokerage
• Etc.
• We took these learnings to build a brand and the
direction of the company itself.
• We tracked everything and leveraged insights to improve
acquisition and marketing spend.
• Finally, we made mistakes. But we learned from them
and got better and better.
OptionsHouse in a Nutshell
Founded 2006
2009 No customers/little trading. Hired CMO to help issues.
2011 I joined mktteam as Brand Manager –charged with building Brand ID. Growing customer base, but company loosing 5-8M annually
2011-2014 Grow customer base from ~30k to ~120k, revenue by 70M
Company sells to PE firm for 200M
**2016 OptionsHouse grows customer base by ~10k, sells to Etradefor 725M.