“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. ‘Pooh!’ he whispered. ‘Yes, Piglet?’ ‘Nothing,’ said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. ‘I just wanted to be sure of you’” —A.A. Milne  

Inspiration
Our Clients

SCAN Health Plan

PROJECT:

Lead Generation

CHALLENGE:

Initially founded by a group of seniors in 1977 as the "Senior Care Action Network," SCAN Health Plan had maintained its mission of coordinating health and social services for frail older adults. However, amidst negative publicity, SCAN had been "dark" in the market for nearly a year. Seeking to recapture awareness of its extraordinary value as a geriatric-focused plan providing additional programs and services to promote health and independence, SCAN needed a viable lead generation plan that would re-introduce its Medicare health plan to seniors in Southern California's Medicare HMO battle market.

GOAL:

Generate sales leads, while "gently" rebuilding awareness of SCAN and its multiple unique advantages among targeted prospects.

[TOP]

 Given the negative speculation that surrounded SCAN at the time, mass media advertising was initially avoided upon the contention that it might lack credibility in the minds of prospects. At the same time, iacunato/mclane recommended an aggressive direct mail program—with its ability to laser-focus messages to the right prospect at the right time and place—as the medium of choice to rebuild SCAN's awareness, while staying "under the mass market radar." To validate the recommended approach, iacunato/mclane conducted member discussion groups, which helped to further define the members' point of view with regard to SCAN's key benefits. These insights, combined with a wide-ranging assessment of SCAN's current market position, led to the development of new and highly targeted messages, along with a strategic direct mail plan and test matrix based on timing and volume of leads necessary to achieve sales goals. The direct mail plan was exceptionally successful. In a battle market where the largest and most successful Medicare HMO at the time was generating, on average, a direct mail response rate of .05%, the initial SCAN package generated an "out of the ballpark" response rate of 1.5%! What's more, over the course of a year, three new direct mail packages were developed to test against the initial package. The goal was to identify a "control" package (one that continually beats others in response rate). Not only was the control package readily identified, it continued to out-perform all other new packages for the following two years, reaching a response rate of nearly 3%.