This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Welcome Wagon Helps Newcomers Thrive and Businesses Prosper

Welcome Wagon has not only changed with the times, but is also leading the way towards profiting in our modern economy, benefitting itself and the people and companies it serves.

An American business icon has not only changed with the times, but is also leading the way towards profiting in our modern economy, benefitting itself and the people and companies it serves.

And it does so with a modern ethos of protecting the planet.

Welcome Wagon was originally founded in Memphis, Tenn., in 1928, to encourage wagon train families to settle there. It has during the proceeding decades become something of an American icon, building its reputation on hostesses going to homes of new members of a community with gift baskets from local professionals and merchants and sitting down to discuss the local community, the local schools, town hall and so forth.

Find out what's happening in Portsmouthwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

But by 1998, Welcome Wagon had recognized that changing family dynamics meant that relatively few households had someone home during the day, and it went through a makeover. The result was a more targeted service-oriented company that accounted for a community’s unique commerce, demographics and other factors. Not only did this new approach help assure that new community members were being introduced to companies they would be most likely to use, but it also provided local businesses with a cost-effective alternative to other traditional – and more costly – methods of advertising.

“What the company did was to transition from hostesses going to the homes of new movers to sending area gift books to new movers through the mail,” explains Julie Lapham, Welcome Wagon’s community marketing manager, based in Rye, N.H.

Find out what's happening in Portsmouthwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The transition involved developing very accurate demographics.

“We do all our in-house demographics from thousands of resources and filter it to 98 to 99 percent accurate,” Lapham says.”And that allows us to find new movers. It’s not wasteful and the results are far greater than traditional ‘spray and pray’ marketing approaches of sending out mass mailings. It’s logical to get a higher return when you send out information to the type of customer you know responds to your product.”

What’s more, by advertising specifically on behalf of local businesses, Welcome Wagon employs its gift books to help neighborhood new movers more quickly adjust to their new community, thus instilling a recognition of the importance of doing business locally. “The research has showed that the books have a 6- to 8-year shelf life. So people are holding on to it and they’re using it. It’s a vital community service.”

“Welcome Wagon has 2.4 million business partners nationally, but we value our small, local business partners,” says Lapham. “Although we have large national accounts, that’s not the mainstay of the business that we cherish.”

And the results are impressive.

The New Movers and Demographic Pinpoint programs are “incredibly successful,” Lapham says. “In fact so successful, that we have a business partner retention rate of 75 to 78 percent. And, when you factor in that there is an organic 20-percent loss of business, that retention rate is incredibly high, meaning that our business partners are getting the results that they are looking for and they’re staying with us.”

”These are the choice new movers, people who have just purchased property, have new mortgages, and need new services,” Lapham says.

Welcome Wagon is a business partner of the Green Alliance, a union of local sustainable businesses promoting environmentally sound business practices and a green co-op offering discounted green products and services to its members. Green Alliance businesses partners can take advantage of Welcome Wagon's iconic New Movers program and receive a substantial discount off the published rate.

Welcome Wagon’s connection to the Green Alliance is a natural one, Lapham says. “I think the Green Alliance has that same mission as Welcome Wagon. Welcome Wagon eliminates wasteful marketing and is community based, and I think that the Green Alliance is very community based. Obviously the mission is to prevent waste and be more sustainable. So I think there’s a lot of common ground there. I admire what the Green Alliance has done.”

For more information about Welcome Wagon, visit www.welcomewagon.com. And for more information about the Green Alliance, visit www.greenalliance.biz.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?