Crédit Mutuel’s geomarketing challenge

A new identity within the Crédit Mutuel : the Caisse Interfédérale (CIF) of Crédit Mutuel Sud Europe Méditerranée (South Europe Mediterranean Mutual Bank)

Two of the Federations in Crédit Mutuel’s southern area (Dauphiné Vivarais and Méditerranéen), created a new identity in 2006 : CIF Sud Europe Méditerranée. This new banking structure, the result of a drive to develop Crédit Mutuel, now has 1,674 staff and 136 branches in 16 French departments.

Crédit Mutuel, which is a cooperative and mutual bank, is structured around a network of regional federations that are both in touch with, and highly responsive to, their customers. Each entity decides on its own strategy, and on the avenues for development to pursue at local level. To leverage growth, Crédit Mutuel Sud Europe Méditerranée wanted to breathe new life into its sales network by focusing on two priorities : setting up new local branches and developing the customer base. To achieve this dual objective, Crédit Mutuel was keen to invest in a geomarketing tool that was easy to use but fully functional nevertheless, to :

 produce accurate market surveys, locate competitors and ensure better distribution of banking and insurance products,
 locate clients and prospects in relation to existing sales outlets,
 detect potential areas for locating new branches, and assess any risk of overlap between certain sales outlets.

In parallel with this project, CIF Sud Europe Méditerranée hopes to create between five and seven local branches per year in its main areas of activity, as the tangible response to a natural preference among customers and members for a service of proximity.

GeoConcept’s solution

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To optimise the client’s point of sale network, GeoConcept has been supplying the marketing departments of Crédit Mutuel Dauphiné Vivarais and Méditerranéen since 2003 with its decision-support tool, GeoConcept Sales&Marketing Expert, enabling them to :

 create dynamic, replayable, analysis scenarios ;
 define primary, secondary and tertiary catchment areas instantaneously for numerous sites, with automatic updating of statistical fields in the zones created ;
 automate the publishing of analyses and reports.

GeoConcept technologies contribute a predictive dimension to CIF SEM’s analyses, so allowing them to optimise the localisation of points of sale, accurately estimate the potential turnover for different sectors of activity, measure the impacts of different events on market share, and even examine competitors’ market positioning. Using cartography means that all the data stored in the company’s information systems can be used productively so they become yet another valuable knowledge resource.

Optimised sales territories

Combining user friendliness and professionalism, GeoConcept’s solution met the Crédit Mutuel’s highest expectations. "The GeoConcept Sales&Marketing Expert solution allows us to exploit geomarketing functionalities fully and also to save time. The tool is now fully integrated and valued within the company. It is a critical success factor" commented Isabelle Bertrand, CIF SEM’s Strategic Marketing Manager.

Calculating isochrone zones, defining catchment areas, measuring the attractiveness of ares of influence, linking up databases... The uses are many and varied for market analysts who are regularly called upon by branch managers keen to gain in-depth knowledge of their territory.

"The rising number of requests made to the strategic marketing department has confirmed our belief that geomarketing has become an indispensable tool, particularly for prospection campaigns in both the private individual and business markets. GeoConcept provides the perfect answer to this requirement, enabling us to produce comprehensible and informative surveys rapidly and painlessly" concludes Isabelle Bertrand.