StrateScapes - Does your creative team get it?


		Excerpted from StrateScapes - Volume 6, Number 2

Creative segmentation in action

A creative piece that can be adjusted to fit each segment will not only speak to your customers better, but it will also be lighter on your budget. This is achieved by keeping the overall branding and layout the same, but altering the piece enough so it appeals to different segments of your customers.

Swap graphics — If you know a particular segment buys bath accessories and draperies, while another tends to purchase kitchen products and flooring, use the appropriate product shots for each group. Ford Motor Company took this approach with a recent personalized direct-mail invitation to its “No Boundaries Experience” events. According to 1to1® Magazine, Ford based its campaign on information mined from its Customer Knowledge System database. If customer data revealed an interest in kayaking, for example, that individual received a personalized brochure with a kayaking photo on the cover.

Alter lasered copy — Whether completely different messaging and tone are required or just a few key words need to be adjusted, merely swapping the lasered copy for each group will keep production costs down and the message right on target. That’s what Dillard’s did with its VIP Rewards™ newsletter, Exclusively Yours. The design — or “shell” — of the newsletter and the majority of the inside copy was consistent across several customer segments, but the article on the back page differed depending on the audience. This allowed Dillard’s to target offers and product affinities, such as super-cushioned walking shoes for health-conscious mature couples or a red leather jacket for fashion-conscious affluent women.

Place emphasis — Sometimes rearranging bullet points or photo placement can be enough of a change to speak to each segment a little bit differently. For example, when cross-selling a home equity loan to existing home loan customers, those in their 20s and 30s may be more interested in debt consolidation and interest savings, while customers over age 50 may be more focused on tax advantages and purchasing a vacation home or boat. All benefits need to be communicated to all groups, but prioritizing them for each segment can be effective in adding an element of personalization.

Does Creative Get It?
The importance of an analytical creative team when using segmentation in your next direct mail campaign.

You already know the value of using segmentation to make your marketing pull better. But, after doing all that research and investing in data analysis, can your creative group follow through to develop relevant, cost-effective communications that build relationships and generate sales? If not, all that hard work and investment may be for naught.

Here’s how to make sure your creative team can delve into data — and create a direct mail piece that resonates with each audience segment.

Make the data actionable.
Once you have transactional, demographic and lifestyle data, taking it to the next level starts with a detailed analysis that helps you better segment customers and develop a targeted communications plan for them. For instance, a Market Basket Analysis can be used to pinpoint your strongest product/service correlations, so you can determine which items to promote to which customers. Likewise, a Gap Analysis measures the gaps in customer activity so you can synchronize the timing of your marketing messages.

By using such data analysis tools and peering closely at the results, a communication strategy that defines who to send messages to, what those messages are and when to send them, begins to take shape, allowing you to make the most of your data’s potential in a given campaign.

Master the hand-off between data and creative.
In some agencies, strategists and data experts sit on an entirely different floor from the creative team, making it difficult to bring the left and right side of the brain together. But no matter what the physical layout of the office may be, data findings and the resulting communications strategy need to be personally handed off to both art directors and copywriters at the onset of a project, so they understand the audience, objectives and reasoning behind the piece. Placing a 50-page Market Basket Analysis in the copywriter’s in-box, for example, just won’t cut it.

“It’s not just a matter of walking through the data to explain what the results mean and what our strategic communications plan is,” says CCG’s Lane Ware, Senior Vice President of Strategic Marketing, “It’s also important for industry experts to share what else they know — things you just won’t find in the data.”

“For instance, we know that service is a big motivator for loyal, high-value customers. So when we work on messaging and imagery for that customer segment, we need to create something in line with that insight, in addition to all the other knowledge gleaned from the data.”

Step inside the customer’s shoes.
Even if your data has been appended with detailed third-party segmentation information such as Personicx® or Cohorts,® it’s helpful to create identifiers and detailed profiles for different customer segments that put a face on the segment and describe their motivations. For example, choose names such as “gamers” or “music aficionados” for home electronics customer segments. Or “upscale, mature women” or “active newlywed” for cosmetics boutique customers. This makes it easier for everyone on the team to discuss the audience, and it helps to bring the segment to life.

Take it a step further by looking at what purchase and personal data say about particular customer segments. The more you can try to understand your customers, the better your communications will hit home with what’s important to them.

When segmentation combined with a Purchase Gap Analysis for The Great Indoors identified customers working on a significant home remodeling project versus those performing ongoing home decorating, it synchronized its communications — sending comprehensive how-to information to the do-it-yourselfers and decorating tips to the home designers, complete with targeted offers, messaging and images.

Providing the right message to the right customer is the right strategy to increase marketing ROI. And that means making sure the right brain of your organization is fully aware of what the left brain has learned.

STRATESCAPES and STRATESCAPES SUPPLEMENTS are published by Customer Communications Group, Inc., a full-service agency specializing in relationship marketing and customer communications. Our comprehensive, turnkey services include data analysis, customer segmentation, strategic consulting, account management, creative execution, print production and multimedia solutions.