GI Insight - InTouch 03 by GI Solutions Group

InT uch From GI Insight

Database Marketing and Customer Loyalty Experts

LOYALTY MARKETING Should you test the water or jump straight in? Bonmarché reap rewards Data insight helps fashion retailer overcome store closure challenges

Get to grips with Big Data

GI Insight’s 5 step guide shows you how

Issue 03

Welcome to InTouch Welcome to InTouch – the customer magazine from GI Insight focusing on current topics, industry news and features on customer loyalty, communication and database marketing. There are many decisions to be made when you are considering a loyalty programme for your customers and getting it wrong can be costly. So how can you be sure it will work? One of the ways to do this is through a pilot and on pages 4 and 5 we look at what value this can add before a loyalty programme is rolled out.

Contents

On page 3 we share details of how we worked with fashion retailer Bonmarché to identify those customers most at risk from store closures, and how those efforts have been recognised with a win at the Database Marketing Awards 2013.

04 | Loyalty Marketing - Should you test the water or jump straight in?

The DMA and fast.MAP have released some new research on the perception of direct mail by consumers, which we cover on page 7 and we also include more details about our Database Marketing and Customer Loyalty Seminar. We hope you enjoy this issue of InTouch. Please let us have any feedback and thank you for reading our magazine.

03 | Intelligent use of data insight reaps rewards for Bonmarché

06 | Get new format ideas at www.creativeformats.com 06 | Get to Grips with Big Data 07 | Ask the Expert 07 | Power of print

Yours sincerely

Andy Wood Managing Director, GI Insight E andy.wood@gi-solutionsgroup.com http://uk.linkedin.com/in/andywoodgiinsight This magazine was delivered in an Oxo-degradable plastic polylope and printed by GI Insight, 147 Scudamore Road, Leicester, LE3 1UQ. Tel: 0116 232 1711; Fax: 0116 232 1611; Website: www.gi-solutionsgroup.com. For more information contact Tara Pickles, Marketing Manager on 07970 263 943. We will hold your details in accordance with our Privacy Policy and may contact you by mail, email or telephone on the products and services offered by GI Insight. If you would like to unsubscribe from the GI Insight mailing list please email marketing@gi-solutionsgroup.com with your details.

2 | InTouch

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InTouch Case Study Intelligent use of data insight reaps rewards for Bonmarché CHALLENGE

RESULT

Bonmarché were challenged with converting customers who lived in the catchment area of closing stores into multi-channel customers who would still shop with Bonmarché. The team use database marketing through the intelligence gathered in Bonus club in collaboration with the account team at GI Insight. Together they developed a strategy to: • Communicate with their loyal customer base; • Defend their at risk customers from attrition; • Migrate customers to existing stores; • Widen the options to purchase. The target was to retain 20% of customers at risk and maintain revenue levels.

Through the activity, Bonmarché were able to retain a quarter of ‘at risk’ customers representing a value of £8.5m. This significantly exceeded expectations. Bonmarché launched a new channel to market, which now produces 20% incremental revenue. Without the collaborative efforts of the Bonmarché management and marketing teams, the GI Insight account team and the knowledge held within the Bonus club database, the store closures could have had a seriously detrimental effect on the whole business. By reacting quickly, planning carefully, communicating through the successful method of direct mail and ensuring the information was targeted, Bonmarché has secured excellent results.

COMMUNICATION STRATEGY Bonmarché have a regular mailing cycle which promotes specific products to customers and rewards them with coupons. The mailings now contain variable personalisation to include information about the stores nearest to the customer and a strong promotion of alternative ways to buy products from Bonmarché. A high profile was given to ordering online and by telephone, including the promotion of a 20% off online event. This mailing also asked customers to register their interest in receiving a mail order catalogue to allow Bonmarché to gauge the level of interest in mail order as a new channel to market. Sarah Wilkinson, Marketing Manager at Bonmarché said, “The response was fantastic, delivering 20% incremental revenue and a 103% ROI. One of the additional benefits of the catalogue mailing is that it also drove 93% in store traffic.”

marketing@gi-solutionsgroup.com

AWARD Bonmarché and GI Insight are thrilled to have won the Innovation in Insight-Driven Direct Mail Marketing for B2C at the Database Marketing Awards. The award lauds companies who have achieved excellence in consumer-based direct mail marketing. “The response was fantastic, delivering 20% incremental revenue and a 103% ROI. One of the additional benefits of the catalogue mailing is that it also drove 93% in store traffic.” Sarah Wilkinson Marketing Manager, Bonmarché

0116 412 0017

www.gi-solutionsgroup.com

InTouch investigates

LOYALTY MARKE Should you test the water or jump straight in?

Launching a new loyalty programme is a big commitment for any organisation. Despite the great benefits profitability, there are many diverse elements that need to come together to make it successful. One of th you are able to test whether your reward programme will appeal to your customers in the way your resea their behaviour. It will also allow you to test a number of key aspects of the scheme, refine and learn and

MECHANIC You may have decided not to use a plastic card and encourage connection to the loyalty scheme through a mobile app and website. There are many pitfalls to this thinking. A pilot will allow you to ensure you are not missing out on customer engagement through this method and ascertain if some of your profitable customers would prefer something more tangible.

STAFF For a loyalty scheme to operate successfully, all staff who come into contact with customers must be fully engaged. Loyalty schemes work through full participation of your customers and that is how you build your knowledge. It is worth incentivising staff to ensure they encourage customer sign up, advise customers on benefits and act on directives which are issued by head office, such as store or product offers linked to the scheme. A pilot will allow you to control the communication with staff closely and see if your plans will work.

MARKETING COLLATERAL Targeted communication is an essential part of your loyalty scheme to ensure your customers are engaged with your programme. You need to understand the channels they will respond best to and the messages that will work for you. A pilot will allow you to test data selections, format ideas, channels and creative treatments so you can learn what works for your customers. You can also ensure that the responsiveness is captured in your relational database for use in further campaigns. 4 | InTouch

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For your copy of our Loyalty Guide call 0116 412 0017 or email marketing@gi-solutionsgroup.com

LOYALTY Can it really make a differen ce to your company?

s, such as gaining insight into your customers, allowing targeted communication and delivering proven he ways you can mitigate the risk involved is to conduct a pilot scheme. When you run a pilot scheme arch has demonstrated. Research is not always reliable as it is not based on your actual customers and d ensure they will work for the roll out. There are a number of crucial elements to take into account.

DATABASE The reason to initiate a loyalty programme is to allow you to collect data and use the insight to get your customers to spend more, spend more often and stay with your business. Is the data you are collecting doing this for you? This is a good time to ensure you are collecting all of the data you need to run a profitable business, as missing useful pieces of information are difficult to add once the database is live. For example, you need to be collecting mobile phone numbers if you want to use mobile phone as a communication channel.

REWARDS

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Do your customers value and use your rewards? Do the rewards encourage them to engage with the scheme? What changes could be more effective? What do they particularly like and what is missing? These questions can be asked of the customers involved and where necessary tweaks to the offer can be made early on. This prevents any major changes to the scheme after full launch which may then reduce engagement and confidence.

RESULTS It is vital to set expected metrics to measure the success of the pilot. You will have a customer journey plan with customer segmentation and specific ACV and ATV values you are looking to hit. Comparing your actual results to forecast will give invaluable insight into the mechanics of your scheme. If you have experience of operating a successful loyalty programme or have expert partners supporting your launch, then a pilot may not be necessary. But a pilot will give you insight and knowledge and may help you avoid some expensive mistakes.

marketing@gi-solutionsgroup.com

0116 412 0017

www.gi-solutionsgroup.com

Get new format ideas at www.creativeformats.com Using one piece mailer formats can help to deliver better responses from customers. The right format for you will depend on your industry, your campaign requirements and your customers â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and also the budget you have available. To help generate new ideas, try www.creativeformats.com a website from GI Solutions containing hundreds of formats. They are split into features and sectors so you can search for your specific requirements and all formats are animated to bring them to life. All the products can be personalised and there is a section on digital print ideas where you can change your images according to your customer profiles. Alistair Ezzy is Sales Director for GI Insightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sister company GI Solutions. For more information on great format ideas please call 07970 232 491 or email: alistair.ezzy@gi-solutionsgroup.com

Get to Grips with Big Data Big Data is a continuation of the increasing amount of information we are all exposed to in the modern world. To help you focus on what matters, we have produced The Ultimate Guide to Big Data. There is a great deal of value to be gained from the intelligent use of insight from professionally delivered database marketing. The journey to uncovering the strength of that information and using it to appropriately target loyal customers with relevant information is far from complete.

Use our 5 Step Guide and see how you can maximize the value of essential data. For your copy of this guide call 0116 412 0017 or email marketing@gi-solutionsgroup.com

B I G DATA THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO

THE 5 STEP GUIDE

TO BIG DATA MARKE TERS

6 | InTouch

Barry Smith, Senior Consultant at GI Insight, answers your queries on database marketing and customer loyalty

Ask the Expert

We are a specialist retailer and are planning a number of new store openings. One of our stores is not doing as well as expected and we want to make sure our new stores deliver good returns. Is it possible to use our customer database to predict the revenue we can expect from a new store? This is one of the great benefits of having a transactional customer database. Not only can you forecast revenues from new stores, you can also ascertain if they will have any impact on your existing stores in terms of cannibalisation. Using the database, a model can be created which overlays the customer segmentation according to postcode and drive time from store. This model allows you to map the predicted revenues from your customers for that store based on existing customer spend patterns. Initially, the model should be trialed against existing stores to evaluate accuracy. Once this has been done, you can then use this tool to forecast minimum, mean and maximum revenues for potential new stores. This is a tool we have built for a number of our customers and has been in regular use for a number of years.

Power of print