When you are in the middle of a pandemic, the last thing you likely want to do is add debt onto an already unstable situation. And certainly not onto your primary living space. So was the thinking in 2020 according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Home equity loan debt declined in 2019 and was projected to do the same in 2020.
However, with the rapid appreciation of home pricing during this past year, and the pandemic seeming to be on the downhill of its peak, homeowners may now be ready to tap into the equity opportunity that exists.
In fact, estimates are as high as a 10+ percentage growth rate for home equity lending volume.
What’s Fueling this Positive Outlook?
The lowering of mortgage rates earlier in 2020 increased demand for first mortgages, refinancing and new home purchases. The resulting impact meant home prices grew at double digit rates stemming from large amounts of buyers and not enough sellers. Basic supply and demand.
The Current Equity Market
According to CoreLogic, U.S. homeowners with mortgages have seen their equity increase by a total of $1 trillion since the third quarter of 2019, an increase of 10.8%, year over year. The average homeowner has approximately $200,000 of home equity.
The question becomes how to help the homeowner unlock this equity to use in a productive manner meeting their financial and lifestyle requirements.
Marketing Home Equity Loans
To generate the greatest success in home equity lending, several key promotional strategies should be employed.
1) Create a comprehensive integrated awareness campaign
This leverages all forms of digital and print merchandising to call attention to your rates, terms and service advantages. Build an effective theme to use as an umbrella and support it with impactful copy and messaging.
2) Implement targeted direct mail to highly targeted and focused outbound mailing.
The market for home equity loans will be heating up in 2021. Make sure to promote early and often to ensure that you secure your fair share of this large and growing segment.
3) Activate existing home equity lines of credit
Use a lettercheck campaign to encourage existing account holders to tap into their credit lines. The checks offer immediate results and convenience.
The market for home equity loans will be heating up in 2021. Make sure to promote early and often to ensure that you secure your fair share of this large and growing segment.
Need help? Contact your Westamerica representative or click here
How Can New Antimicrobial Print Coatings Help Your Business?
Antimicrobial soap has been around for nearly 50 years. Today, it is estimated that nearly 3 out of 4 soaps that are sold contain antimicrobial properties.
As consumers, we have become used to, and almost expect soaps to contain ingredients that deliver additional benefits. Not only do we want soap to clean our hands and face, We also want it to protect us.
COVID-19 Ushers in a New Era of Antimicrobial Treatments
Today we are constantly reminded of the threat of contracting the COVID virus. It’s ever- present in our work, home and play. It’s understandable that with an increased concern, new products and ideas are coming forth to enhance our safety.
Westamerica is an early adopter of specialized coatings that actually reduce the transmission of microbes from coated print materials.
Now, for just pennies, you can add an antimicrobial coating to your printed products. Think of it just like the antimicrobial soap, but for print materials.
Active Testing of the Antimicrobial Coating Continues Throughout the World
With the importance of transmission reduction only continuing to increase, it was just a matter of time before the testing agencies had a chance to review this coating for effectiveness against SARS-Cov-V2. While new information continues to come in daily on this topic, the latest information from London suggests that this coating actually will reduce spread significantly: https://www.addmaster.co.uk/news/biomaster-success-in-sars-cov-2-virus-testing
Who Should Consider Antimicrobial Print Coatings?
Most companies that interact with the consuming public should consider antimicrobial coatings in some or all of their printed products. The following industries are good candidates for antimicrobial coated print products:
Industry
Consumer Products
Pharmaceutical
Education
Restaurants and Hospitality
Retail and Financial Services
Healthcare
Usage
Packaging Coatings
Packaging Coatings
Print Materials, Signs and Displays
Menus, Signs and Displays
Brochures, Flyers and Point of Sale
Informational Brochures
One Company’s Example – An Early Adoption of Antimicrobial Packaging
Westamerica customer, Transfer Technology became an early adopter of this new coating for their products. As producers of Relieved Lidocaine patches, The Patch That Sticks!, Transfer Technology realized that adding the antimicrobial coating would add tremendous value to their product, differentiate themselves from other competitors and importantly, benefit their customers.
Dawn Hewitt, National Sales Director and Co-owner of Transfer Technology explained, “we believe that our retailers will appreciate the additional steps we’re taking to provide an extra layer of safety for the consumer. We are already raising the bar in the industry with our great product and now we offer an improved and enhanced package. It’s a win-win.”
Added Doug Grant , CEO of Westamerica, “we believe that with so much concern today for germ transmission, many products will be featuring these types of added safety precautions. For instance, having a protective coating at the consumer’s ‘point of touch’ will aid in reducing microbial growth. Think of how important this is for drug stores and other high traffic environments.”
Make the Consumer Aware of Your Use
Westamerica has developed support materials to help customers communicate their use of the new coating on any of the products that consumers may interact with. A dedicated web-site, CleanerPrint.com will host featured information on developments within this area and the latest on news and information.
Additionally, artwork to support the use of these coatings can be provided for placement in company artwork. These well-designed logo images are intended to communicate confidence and safety at the consumer’s “point of touch.”
As the US opens up for business once again following the COVID-19 Pandemic and stay-at-home social distancing recommendations lift from coast to coast, the first “post-pandemic” consumers might be arriving in your businesses soon.
When they do, will they be following social distancing guidelines and wearing masks? And what do you do if they aren’t?
Retail experiences will feel much different in the days and weeks that stretch into the summer of 2020 because of social distancing protocols. We still have things to learn about COVID-19 infection control, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and how it passes between people, or even who is at the most risk regarding health concerns. Therefore, the CDC, the WHO, the Federal Government, along with many state and local governments have either recommended or required that all people wear masks as part of their infection control guidelines. This is especially so when they are within indoor shared spaces where social distancing standards are challenging to maintain.
To see a social distancing summary on face masks by state, please click here.
Retailers have had a mixed response to social distancing protocols. Some have enforced masks; others choose to let their customers decide.
Please click here to read the full Costco statement.
Amazon, like Costco, requires their team members and customers to wear masks at Whole Foods Market stores. However, they also offer free disposable masks to all Whole Foods Market customers to any customers who did not bring a face covering with them.
Please click here to read the full Amazon statement.
How these brands will enforce their policies is likely to vary from location to location. One California Costco location had masks available to members who didn’t have them, but that is not to say all sites do. Amazon says they will have them available, along with other COVID-19 precautions.
However, other retailers across the country have experienced unfortunate optics on the enforcement of the face-covering recommendation or requirements. The NY Times reports that an employee in a California Trader Joe’s store in southern CA had an ugly exchange with a non-compliant customer in May that ended up online.
Some exchanges reported by The NY Times are more violent. A Target employee in Van Nuys, CA, broke his arm escorting customers refusing to wear a mask out of the store. A cashier in Perkasie, PA, was punched in the face three times after refusing to sell cigars to a customer without a mask. In San Antonio, TX, a man who could not ride the bus without a face cover shot another passenger.
While these stories are extreme, smaller unpleasant moments have erupted all across the country. None of them make anyone feel good about the brands associated with them. They also highlight that enforcement of the face mask recommendation and requirement is falling squarely in the lap of your customer-facing employees.
There are a few things you can do to help your team:
• Have a clear policy on face masks for your team and your visitors.
• Review the rules for your area. It’s a good idea to know what your state or local government has said the policy is in your area. You can read all about the laws in your state on Cnet.com here.
• Have a role-playing session for your managers to practice the conversation. Training and practice help your front-facing team navigate the tricky tightrope of enforcing the company’s rules and community in the best possible way. It is critical to give them words and phrases to use that can de-escalate a situation if it starts to take a turn for the worse. Also, make it clear what you believe is the limit of their authority by giving them boundaries. If they are unable to manage the situation to a satisfactory conclusion, what is the next step for them to take?
• Give front-facing teams an easy path to resolve the situation. It would help your organization make the best of what could become a bad situation to have a complimentary disposable mask available to offer customers. It might provide a middle ground in a confrontation that could save the day and the relationship with the customer. Our EasyMask™ courtesy mask offers a solution that is affordable, convenient, and environmentally friendly.
• Support your organization with signage and instructions for everyone visiting. Make sure that you’ve provided instructional signage, sanitizing stations and other important information to make sure consumers are educated on your commitment to managing the spread of this disease. For ideas on how to manage these issues, review Westamerica’s Reopen With Confidence brochure here.
As we all get used to what the expectations are for social distancing protocols as the country reopens, we owe it to our teams and consumers to be as prepared as possible to meet social distancing guidelines and the related health concerns of the “new normal.” Face masks are likely to be a part of our social distancing recommendations for brick and mortar interactions for the months ahead.
With clear communication, a little preparation, and common courtesy, we can preserve our relationships with consumers and provide the best possible infection control experience that leaves them smiling in the aisles—even if we can’t see it behind their masks.
Westamerica Communications is the new spirit of communications with creative solutions for every form of media, from web strategies to traditional concepts to print and mail options, and more. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
To schedule your free consultation with Westamerica Communications today, contact us, call us at (949) 462-3600, or visit us at MyWestamerica.com.
Sources:
MacFarquhar, Neil. “Who’s Enforcing Mask Rules? Often Retail Workers, and They’re Getting Hurt.” Nytimes.com. 15 May 2020. Web. 11 June 2020.
“Making masks available to Whole Foods Market customers nationwide.” Aboutamazon.com. 30 April 2020. Web. 11 June 2020.
Meyerstein, Avi. Brian Hendrix & Brad Hiles. “Returning to work with masks?” Answers to top employer questions.” Safetylawmatters.com. 3 May 2020. Web. 11 June 2020.
Roberts, Caroline. “Are face masks required where you live? Here are the rules for all 50 states.” www.cnet.com. 9 June 2020. Web. 11 June 2020.
Tweets:
To enforce the face mask or not to? That is the question your customer-facing employees are asking themselves. Here’s how you can help them:
What do you plan to do when customers arrive at your location without a face mask? We have some ideas in our latest:
What to do when your customers don’t have a face mask? The face mask question you and your employees must answer and here’s how we can help:
Today, many customers find that there simply aren’t enough hours in a day to handle all the demands of their busy departments. With marketer’s jobs expanding to cover all forms of media, creative design, marketing strategy, product development, analytics and more, deciding how to allocate scarce resources often results in a compromise. That’s where your Virtual Marketing Assistant comes in.
Virtual Marketing Assistant is a one-click portal access to all marketing things.
One of the many benefits of VMA is handling simple marketing tasks that will pull those lost hours back in your pocket while taking over simple marketing tasks, with the VMA you can:
Access pre-created micro-marketing campaigns
Implement local event marketing
Design and print promotional materials
Manage premiums and incentives
Curate corporate brand assets
Develop turnkey programs for outside development teams
Provide reports of your activity for project recaps and budgets
The VMA allows you to conduct all your tasks and communication in one place…right from your desktop!
To learn more or set up a 10-minute demo contact your account representative or check out Westamerica Communications Virtual Marketing Assistant.