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Sector Report: Factors driving direct Lettershops response’s rapid evolution vol. 31 • No. 4 • April 2018
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Fulfillment The Amazon Effect
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The Authority on Data-Driven Engagement & Operations
Tuning in for growth ❱4
Courtesy Thane Direct
Thane Direct’s Amir Tukulj outlines his company’s strategy and his take on industry trends
Amir Tukulj is Chief Executive Officer of Thane Direct.
the new censusplus has arrived
From Marketing Potential To Marketing Performance
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Customer Personas ❯❯10
The power of personas
Vol. 31 | No. 4 | April 2018
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EDITOR Brendan Read - brendan@dmn.ca
Why and how Toronto personalized its communication strategy
PRESIDENT Steve Lloyd - steve@dmn.ca DESIGN / PRODUCTION Jennifer O’Neill - jennifer@dmn.ca Advertising Sales Mark Henry - mark@dmn.ca Robert Fisher - robert@dmn.ca
SECTOR REPORT: LETTERSHOPS
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Rupen Seoni Nicole Andani Stephen Shaw Laura Artibello Bryan Sweeney Janice Dumphie Ken Zrobok John Leonard Jackie Sebesta
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Research, read and reach out with data
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Thane Direct tunes in for future growth
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Delivering the “Amazon Effect” to fulfillment suppliers
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Industry news
Direct response evolving at the speed of light
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Getting the most from DRTV for the newcomer April 2018
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EXCELLENT EXECUTION
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Ensuring the connections with your customers DMN.ca ❰
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Customer Centricity
Thane Direct tunes in for future growth By Brendan Read
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hane Direct is one of world’s best known direct response and retail marketers, with a reputation for creativity, innovation and integrity. Thane has created highly successful brands in such diverse product categories as health and beauty, fitness, weight loss, kitchen/house wares, entertainment, self-improvement and pet care that are sold in over 100 countries. Direct Marketing Magazine (DMM) recently visited Thane Direct at its global head office in Mississauga, Ontario. We interviewed Amir Tukulj, Thane Direct’s CEO. Mr. Tukulj joined the company in 1997 and became CEO in 2005. In 2016 he won the Electronic Retailing Association’s Marketer of the Year award. DMM: Bring us up to date on Thane, from your reorganization to the present day. Amir Tukulj (AT): Thane has been a private equity owned for over 15 years and since the MBO (management buy-out), the focus has been on streamlining the business, right sizing our overhead and cleaning up our balance sheet to reposition the company for future growth. We are now leaner, faster and more agile than we have been for many years with focus on generating response and perfecting our omni-channel strategy, with digital media being a huge part of our future.
Amir Tukulj, Thane Direct’s CEO.
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Courtesy Thane Direct
DMM: How do you differentiate Thane from your competitors? AT: The main differentiating factor between Thane and all of our competitors whether they are based in North America or elsewhere is the strength and breadth of Thane’s international distribution, with offices in Canada, U.S., Mexico, U.K., Scandinavia and Australia. In addition, Thane is one of the few companies in the business that relies on four major pillars for its continued growth: internal product development, external product licensing, internal direct to consumer distribution in the countries mentioned above and external third-party distribution. DMM: What are the key opportunities and challenges in the Canadian DRTV market? AT: In many ways the Canadian DRTV market is similar to the U.S. market with the depreciating Canadian dollar being a main challenge and access to retail being the main opportunity. DMM: There have been ongoing efforts to bring QVC into Canada. What are your thoughts? AT: Competition in every area of the business is a healthy thing. If a renowned and
innovative retailer like QVC were to enter the Canadian market, it would be a huge benefit to the consumer and to companies like ourselves who view QVC as another outlet to get our innovative products to the end consumer. DMM: What changes are you seeing in the channels and devices that Canadians use to respond to DRTV content? Are they moving away from phone to web and social, and to smartphones from TV sets, and for which products? AT: The main changes are not so much in the type and amount of content that people consume but in the way those consumers consume that content! Simply stated, everybody is multitasking while watching TV and /or surfing the web. Mobile devices are having a huge impact on the way people process, research information and shop! It’s all about mobile for the foreseeable future! DMM: What differences, if any, are there between how Canadians and Americans engage with DRTV and are they shrinking or evolving? AT: With such efficient access to information, it is hugely important to have a great sales and marketing strategy that is consistent across both countries. Canadians and Americans are distance shopping more than ever. The future is about being able to connect directly with your customers and being omni present in all channels where your customers shop. DMM: Discuss your in-store retail strategy, what has prompted it and what have been the results? How are you driving customers to your products in stores? AT: Retail is a huge part of our sales strategy and while distance shopping is growing, many people still prefer to touch and feel the product and buy it from a trusted and favourite retailer. Our television and digital advertising creates a lot of awareness and pent up demand which turns into profitable sales at retail level . DMM: Where do you see Thane in the next three years? What changes and innovations are on your corporate roadmap? AT: The next three years will be about going back to basics and applying true and proven direct response techniques to all of our product lines. We are continuing to add to our existing product portfolio as well as innovate in new product categories and above all focus on creating awareness by driving web sales using digital media. April 2018
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DRTV
Direct response evolving at the speed of light
Direct mail Direct mail Direct mail Direct mail Pre-Roll Pre-Roll Pre-Roll Pre-Roll display
By Nicole Andani
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very year new trends and innovations sweep through the direct response marketing world and 2018 is evolving at the speed of light compared to 22 years ago when I first started here at Northern Response. To understand them we have to remember what the true definition of “DRTV” is: Direct response television (DRTV) is any television advertising that asks consumers to respond directly to the company, usually by calling an 800 number. Northern Response was the first company to air an “infomercial” here in Canada in the late 1980s. “Informational commercials” usually 28:30 minutes in length, were aired on TV primarily for a variety of campaigns that have become well known household names. In addition to TV, they were also featured on a very early-stage shopping channel, in addition to radio and print through credit card inserts and catalogs like Consumers Distributing and Regal Greetings & Gifts in the 1990s. Instead of traditional advertising on a budget with no indication whether an ad worked or not, direct response marketing was measurable in terms of the return on your investment on the media spend. We could easily track the impact that advertising made by the number of calls or inquiries; orders actually converted and received and at what dollar value; in addition to “upsells” or additional items purchased beyond just the basic advertised offer. Impact of Internet and social media As time has gone along, with the abundance of TV channels ❱ DMN.ca
available to eyeballs watching, in addition to PVR/recorded programming and digital streaming boxes further splintering attention, we’ve stumbled upon the Internet and the power to go mass on a global platform, but without as much measurability and a lot less accountability. Mass word of mouth can bode well if the review for your product is great or it can spread negative and sometimes uninformed commentary like wildfire. Now in the era of social media and digital adapting algorithms for paid Google ads, organic marketing, vloggers, bloggers, influencers, search engine or mobile optimization and viral advertising through platforms like Facebook and Instagram streaming very targeted 10 second videos, that measurability has been challenged. We still make money but cannot always determine whether our TV or social advertising is just a way to drive retail sales or strictly online. The new definition of DRTV extends beyond “AS SEEN ON TV” and more so “AS SEEN EVERYWHERE”—big screens, small screens and any platform to target eyeballs or fingers is the goal—and then scale up once we establish target demographics and customers willing to “click to buy”. This new focus doesn’t mean that traditional marketing methods have been displaced, but the playing field has been revolutionized. Marketing where you live online “Follows” and “Likes” are just not enough anymore. Marketers are always experimenting with channel-specific messaging to zero in on HOW consumers like to engage with their brands of
display display display email email email email
We have to meet customers where they live online and enhance our product offers to engage customers at different stages in the sales funnel. choice. To do that we have to meet customers where they live online and enhance our product offers to engage customers at different stages in the sales funnel. That might mean offering content that helps a customer use their product or service with confidence and avoid competitive alternatives or solutions on the market that might be comparable. The old trend is new again i.e. paper Digital media has so much heat on it these days, taking all of the attention in the marketing world. It’s easy to think that direct mail or traditional print has lost its place. With changing demographics in North America
and abroad, leading to an influx in Baby Boomers and now Gen X’ers emerging, there’s still a tendency for print preferences. But there’s also a lot less mail in peoples’ mailboxes fighting for customers’ attention so it’s a good place to continue testing, or reaching your existing consumers, especially if you have products or services those generations might benefit from. Direct mail also delivers some of the highest response and conversion rates that marketers can rely on. Big Data analytics offered by so many service groups or as free tools online, allow companies to use transactional data to create “the perfect lead or prospect” for your product or service. You April 2018
DIRECT MAIL DIRECT MAIL DIRECT MAIL DIRECT MAIL PRE-ROLL PRE-ROLL PRE-ROLL PRE-ROLL DISPLAY DISPLAY DISPLAY DISPLAY EMAIL EMAIL EMAIL EMAIL
WHAT GETS PEOPLE TO BUY WHAT THEY BUY? Ct Connectivity
Ph Da Physicality
Data
To answer this question, Canada Post has completed extensive neuroscientific research. The results suggest an integrated marketing campaign that includes direct mail is more effective in driving consumer action. In fact, campaigns including direct mail can drive greater consumer attention, more emotional intensity, and higher brand recall than single-media digital campaigns. Read the research that confirms, what we call, the connectivity effect.
Download our whitepaper Connecting for Action at canadapost.ca/getconnected
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Trademarks of Canada Post Corporation.
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DRTV can then target the potential customers who are most likely to purchase from you. Value-added advertorials in familiar forms Consumers have become very savvy in their shopping efforts and have more options than ever in their inboxes. As a result, they have more opportunities to turn down or ignore marketing efforts despite rolling out the red carpet for your brand or service. In a familiar and less invasive value-added approach, customers receive information positioning you as the authority. If your online or email copy is sales hype, you’ll be clicked into oblivion and training your customer to ignore you like a dreaded unwanted pop-up. One of our top selling items, “TUB SHROOM”, enjoying the likes of millions of satisfied customers, is featured in a variety of ways to reach the end customer. Here are a couple of ways to position expert copy: ❯❯ Newsalogs look like a newspaper and feel like a newspaper, but
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a friend recommends it, so referralbased marketing is a huge focus for many companies. And smart marketers in 2018 will realize that the one-size-fits-all approach is a sales deflator and the trend now is a move toward microsites and landing pages and targeted informational pieces delivered in familiar format.
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they are actually direct mail pieces and customers are leaning towards familiar formats and influencers in their social network for product or service validation; and Magalogs are four-colour sales pieces that resemble traditional magazines. They are infomercials in print and have a resurgence in terms of the delivery of product information.
Moreover, customers are 10 times more likely to purchase a product if
Niche marketing “Niche is the New Mass” - Chris Anderson. Successful brands will be those that understand the importance of designing communications and creating content that has the ability to single out an individual within a large pool or crowd to create a personalized experience. Niche advertising is more successful than ever and postal mail and email lists will be in big demand by direct marketers looking for specific niches to fill. Baby Boomers love premiums while Generation X loves discounts. With so much focus on generating new leads, prospects and attracting new customers,
many businesses have neglected their most profitable segment: their existing customer base. With so many channels it can be tempting to simply push out as much content as possible and ignore the obvious. This year, businesses should remember to make the most of creating quality content that remembers the customers that helped build their companies by buying product(s) and service(s) to date. Then it’s about building trust through the proper messaging. Finally, it’s about a cohesive and consistent message across all platforms for reliability in view of the end-consumer. Nicole Andani is vice president, international
sales and marketing, Northern Response (International) Ltd. www.NorthernResponse. com. Nicole is also a marketing and strategy consultant, writer, speaker and mentor. Nicole joined the international team of Northern Response in 1996. Nicole is an ex-officio chair of the Asia Committee Membership of the Electronic Retailing Association (ERA), sits on the Advisory Committee for the ERA Magazine and serves as an awards judge for the ERA’s annual Moxie Awards.
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DRTV
Getting the most from DRTV for the newcomer By Bryan Sweeney
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fter spending 18 years developing products and running operations for several DRTV (Direct Response TV) companies that brought you products like “The Shake Weight”, in 2011, I launched a campaign management and consulting business. I wanted to offer my experience to start-ups and medium size businesses looking to enter the world of DRTV marketing. Having spoken to hundreds of inventors, investors and small business owners since then, one thing has become abundantly clear: there is a lot of misinformation being shared throughout the industry. The information isn’t bad, but the interpretation can be. The lesson is this: one size doesn’t fit all when determining how to move forward with a new product. Newcomers not seeing the DRTV picture Newcomers to this industry spend weeks and months researching including talking to many DRTV industry professionals, which is great. But they talk to people who rarely have access to all the data or who have the full picture, such as a media agency, contact center or a web developer. These insiders provide valuable insight into segments of the industry through having been exposed to so many products. But they rarely see behind the curtains of their respective clients’ full operations. Because of this, they have incomplete pictures and they tend to fill in the blanks or repeat the stories that their clients are telling them. We all know that people tend to brag more about their successes and talk less about their failures. Although these vendors are often well intended, they aren’t so well informed. As an example, I often hear things like, “you can’t make money on TV these days” or “you have to load up retail to make money with a DRTV product”. April 2018
These comments aren’t inaccurate for the most part. But this information has come from the strategies being employed by the well-established DRTV marketers with existing retail relationships and shelf space. They load retail shelves with a considerable amount of inventory and blast hundreds of thousands of dollars-worth of TV media for several months. Their goals are to ignite retail sell-through and maintain sufficient sales velocity: after they pull their ads off the air. Here’s my advice to businesses who are new to DRTV: Employ certain DRTV strategies with caution The standard strategy employed by established players fails more often than it succeeds for newcomers even though the water cooler gossip says otherwise. Not only is this a huge risk for companies new to the DRTV space, but it is virtually impossible to execute. Why? Because in most cases the viewing customers have not heard of the newcomers, which gives potential buyers scant reason to tune in and watch. Moreover, retailers will not establish new vendor accounts for new entrants without a very good reason, which would require them to generate massive sales to convince them: a very tall order. Mass retailers understandably only want to work with companies they know will be around at the end, so that there will little, or no inventory left on their shelves. The branding pitfall “It’s going to be a brand” or “It is a brand”! This is a big hole that newcomers can easily fall into. They make the mistake of falling in love with their own products. You must be objective when looking at your marketing, for as soon as you start believing your own hype you’ve lost the game. Your product is not a brand until you have achieved critical mass and
There are no short cuts in any business, including DRTV. consumers think of you as a brand. A very low percentage of products have launched on TV and have become a brand. So be objective and hope for the best, but don’t discount worst. Knowledge is power, but not all knowledge makes you feel good. Misunderstanding continuity/ auto-shipping Another area of misunderstanding has to do with continuity/autoshipping. The story I hear on a regular basis is, “We will sell this widget now and get rich on the back-end”. This is true for many products that deliver on the promise and have low attrition rates. But the dark side of the story is that this strategy too fails much more than it succeeds and requires considerable capital. It will also run at a loss for many months, even up to a year, before running profitably. There are a few well-established companies who thrive on this model, but they have the data, experience and, most importantly, the capital to pull this off. For example, selling a fitness product at a loss, hoping to turn a profit selling supplements through an auto-ship program sounds great in theory. If the campaign is close to a break-even on the front-end, this model has a highly likelihood of success for a start-up. But to run this model requires considerable patience. You need to run your test, pull back and wait months to properly measure your attrition rates so you can determine your LFTV (lifetime value) and long-term profitability. Not doing
so i.e. rolling out immediately after the initial testing, hoping your assumptions are accurate can and has cost companies a lot of money. Instead be smart, patient and “follow the process”. No short cuts, only hard work There are no short cuts in any business, including DRTV. Trying to be a big brand before a company or product is even a brand or copying a model that the big players are following is usually a recipe for disaster. You can’t get around the fact that you must crawl before you walk, then walk before you run. To succeed you need to take a conservative approach when testing new products, minimizing variables while conserving capital with the goal of collecting solid, quantifiable data. You can’t build a house without a solid foundation. Launching a new product isn’t much different. Finally, be careful about the advice from companies that are trying to land you as a new client. If they make it sound too easy, that might be a sign. Be aware that many people will tell you what you want to hear rather than what you need to hear. Bryan Sweeney is Founder and CEO of BS Direct Management Consulting www.BSDirectManagement.com. Bryan is a highly accomplished DRTV industry veteran with over 25 years of experience in operations, campaign management and product development. Bryan currently runs a campaign management and consulting business, offering his 25 years of experience to small and medium size companies looking to enter the world of DRTV. DMN.ca ❰
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Customer personas
The power of personas By Stephen Shaw
Marketing personas bring the defining characteristics of customers to life, helping to build universal consensus around their needs. For brands seeking to deliver a better experience, it is a powerful tool to foster greater insight and empathy. People love to eat chicken. All kinds. Fresh. Frozen. Wings. Legs. Thighs. Backs. Boneless. Roasted. Barbequed. Thin sliced. Whole. Halved. Fried. The list goes on. Chicken is the most popular meat amongst Canadian households, seen as healthier and more affordable than beef or pork. The average household eats chicken at least once per week when preparing meals at home—and spends about $250 per year. Yet when Craig Evans, president of Granny’s Poultry, a farmerowned food processor based in Winnipeg, wanted to increase sales of its nutritionally-enhanced line of chicken products—known as “functional foods”—he was uncertain whether the market was large enough. And even if the market size warranted the gamble, could he risk staking the future of the company on a niche category? He had other uncertainties: Which consumer segments were worth targeting? How could he even reach them when the shopper buying decision often revolved around price? And how could be build brand awareness in a low involvement category? As if all that was not enough, the store category managers rigidly control their shelf allotments. As Craig admits: “Walmart doesn’t return our calls.” Especially in the frozen food section, shelf space is at a premium, making it hard to displace established brands. And although Granny’s Poultry had always enjoyed strong regional brand recognition, it lacked the media firepower to make itself a national brand. Without stronger ❱ DMN.ca
consumer demand, Craig was unlikely to win shelf space. He needed a more innovative approach to brand building—one that would give his company sufficient name recognition while capturing the attention of those grocery shoppers who care most about the quality and origin of the food they eat. To give him the facts he needed to bolster his business case, Craig commissioned a market
segmentation study. But he wanted more than just facts. He wanted a story he could tell the grocers—his board—his employees—and, most importantly, the primary shopper. For that, he needed to develop personas which would bring the segments to life: vivid character sketches of people who represent typical shoppers, describing their attitudes, values, lifestyle orientation, concerns, aspirations, dreams and behaviour
in a way that would be understood by everyone. A persona tells the story of a person in the same way a biographical profile does, revealing their inner thoughts and desires. It might also chronicle a “day in the life” of that person and be liberally populated with verbatim quotes, just to make it as real as possible. Personas are a great tool for helping marketers see the world from the perspective of a customer—for evoking empathy—for exposing April 2018
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Customer personas
latent needs—for experience design—and, in the case of Granny’s Poultry, for figuring out the best go-to-market strategy. The market segmentation study identified five distinct segments, two of which were predisposed to health and wellness messaging: young mothers drawn to social causes who were highly active online, and a fussy group of shoppers who were ultra-conscious of their nutritional needs. Both these groups liked to research their food options; preferred chicken raised locally and ethically; and were willing to try nutritionallyenhanced food products. Even more encouraging: they already favoured Granny Poultry’s products. The segments were converted into personas based on their survey responses. The socially active Mom became Kaitlyn Community Organizer: “highly April 2018
Granny’s Poultry could seize the moral high ground without anyone challenging its authenticity. principled who believes companies she supports should be too.” The savvy shopper became Michael All Natural: a single guy with an active lifestyle “who tries to take a natural approach around food and health care”. The opportunity with Kaitlyn—tap into her social advocacy enthusiasm and community activism by taking a leadership position in the progressive food movement; with Michael, serve as a vital source of information on food origin and nutritional value.
In appealing to these two segments, Granny’s Poultry had a distinct advantage over privately owned food processors: as a farmer’s co-operative, it was perceived as more socially responsible, with animal care and food safety taking precedence over profits. “Doing the right thing is an underlying model of the company,” Craig says, adding: “The future lies in changing the food habits of a population through innovation in food.” Confident that a brand messaging strategy
around responsible food choice would resonate with its primary market, Granny’s Poultry could seize the moral high ground without anyone challenging its authenticity and position itself as a “virtuous producer” who could be trusted to act in accordance with its principles. Sea of skepticism Connecting with the passions, values and belief systems of customers is critical for brand building today. Persona development brings DMN.ca ❰
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Customer personas those attitudes and motivations to life, drawing on the voice of the customer. And that is critical in rallying everyone around the purpose of a brand: why it exists and how it serves the needs of people. In the case of a large construction products manufacturer, whose end-user market is made up of building contractors, owners and design professionals, personas became an essential tool in the process of shifting to a new selling model. In the past the company leaned heavily on distributors to tell its story. But that market channel was too limiting for the company to differentiate itself. It needed to get closer to its end users, the contractors, to drive demand more directly. In many large commercial enterprises with a vast army of sales people, change management is always an exercise in persistence: repeatedly making the case for change until everyone accepts that business as usual is not an option. Sales people instinctively resist change, afraid of the unknown and skeptical of the payoff. They tend to scoff at abstract marketing concepts like “customer intimacy”. Their constant refrain: what’s in it for me? Driving adoption in a sea of skepticism means one thing: finding early believers who will validate the
In the construction market, building contractors differ greatly in their attitudes and business practices, although they all share a passionate enthusiasm for their work and are mindful of their legacy. They take immense pride in their contribution to the architectural landscape—to the buildings and structures they help to put up. The sales people just needed to be convinced that contractors craved more direct help from manufacturers—wanted someone knowledgeable to guide them through the myriad of product choices based on an understanding of their individual needs. Someone who would care as much about the success of a project as they do. Someone who would be there when things took an unexpected turn, as they often do on a project. And, most importantly, someone who could be counted on to have their back. A market segmentation study found four major segments of contractors, differentiated mainly by their business goals and management orientation, which tended to be highly correlated with company size. A select number of contractors representing each segment were interviewed in depth to learn more about their business history and company ethos. Those
lookout for ways to reduce labour costs. The smaller contractors were divided into two groups: one saw themselves as “craftsmen” with a higher order purpose while another was made up of gruff, plain-spoken, tough-minded owner/managers with no time for “relationships with sales people”. Each of these segments had unique challenges, perspectives, goals and needs. Each needed to be treated differently. And each demanded varying levels of support and responsiveness, not simply from the sales representative but from the manufacturer as well. The main takeaway: the company had to persuade contractors to believe as strongly in the integrity of the sales relationship as they did in the quality of the products. Marketing versus buyer personas The acknowledged inventor of persona design is a software engineer by the name of Alan Cooper who popularized the idea in a book he published in 1999 called The Inmates Are Running the Asylum. At the time, the common practice was for business analysts to collect “user requirements” (often through “Joint Application Design” workshops) and then pass those findings on to developers in
Sales people instinctively resist change, afraid of the unknown, and skeptical of the payoff. They tend to scoff at abstract marketing concepts like “customer intimacy”. transformation vision through their personal success and agree to serve as champions of change. How personas can help That’s where personas can help: even the most cynical sales professionals will suspend their disbelief if they see compelling evidence that customers are strongly in favour of change. ❱ DMN.ca
personal narratives were then used as the source of inspiration for persona development. On one end of the spectrum were large established contractors whose driving vision was not simply to be the biggest but to be the best at what they do. Another key segment was unsentimental in their outlook, with a watchful eye on the bottom line and always on the
the form of prioritized software features. A better approach, Cooper argued, was to think of the end users of a system as real-life people and then design the experience around them. User personas have since become the cornerstone of web and application development. Marketing personas are similar in their purpose, the goal being to foster empathy toward customers
by looking at the world through their eyes. But the use of marketing personas is much broader, cutting across many strategic areas of a business, from brand positioning, to product and experience design, to content marketing. A subset of marketing personas is a “buyer persona”, used to gain a common understanding of buyer roles and expectations to align and sharpen sales messaging. Whereas marketing personas are generally crafted around needsbased segments, buyer personas tend to reflect the different types of decision makers involved in the buying process and can usually be created without the effort and expense of a segmentation study. In situations where marketers are deeply familiar with the dynamics of the market, they have the fast-track option of inventing “assumption personas”, drawing on a mix of past research and the collective insights of customerfacing staff. For marketers directly in charge of customer experience design, personas are part of a larger arsenal which includes other insight-generation techniques. For example, personas are used as the conversational starting point in a “game-storming” workshop called Empathy Mapping where participants are asked to speculate on what a certain type of customer may be thinking or feeling in different usage scenarios. Personas are also used as input for Customer Journey Mapping, which describes the exact steps a customer must take to complete a task while traversing touchpoints, helping to spot the major potholes they are likely to encounter on the way. Too often marketers reduce their strategic planning to a set of high-level market facts and loose hypotheses about what matters to customers. A rigorous persona design process, beginning with segmentation, will take the guesswork out of experience design and lead to a more empathetic brand whose starting point is always how customers feel and think. Stephen Shaw is the chief strategy officer of Kenna, a marketing solutions provider specializing in customer experience management. He can be reached via email at sshaw@kenna.ca. April 2018
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Customer personas
Why and how Toronto personalized its communication strategy Data-based avatars enable the City of Toronto to connect with hard-to-reach parts of the community By Rupen Seoni
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he 506 streetcar slips through the heart of Little India, grazes the top of Chinatown and breezes past the open-air patios of Little Italy. Diverse scenes are commonplace in Toronto. It not only makes the city unique; it makes Toronto, Toronto. The city takes great pride in its diversity. It’s even reflected in the city’s motto: Diversity, Our Strength. But diversity is more than a slogan. It is a powerful vision statement that guides everything the City of Toronto does. Consider this, the municipality is frequently recognized as one of the top diversity employers in the country. Its 24-hour 311 customer service line can answer queries from residents in more than 180 languages, ranging from Arabic to Yoruba (a language spoken by some 40 million people in Nigeria and Benin). Even so, city planners feel they have more work to do to connect with the broader community. “We tend to be very good at engaging a very particular demographic,” explained Daniel Fusca, coordinator of stakeholder engagement and special projects, in the City of Toronto’s City Planning Division. “But we tend to miss the diverse and newcomer communities, including young people and renters.” The city recognized that not connecting with these communities was a critical challenge when it started developing its communications strategy for TOcore, a new 25-year April 2018
vision plan for downtown. Over the next decade, immigration is expected to be one of Toronto’s biggest sources of population growth. Many of these new Canadians could very well end up downtown, as city planners expect the population of Toronto’s core to double in the same period to some 475,000 residents.
to use avatars to communicate directly with the public and emphasize why his city’s plan should matter to them. It was a delicate matter. The city knew they had to improve their understanding of the types of people who use the core without over-generalization or offending anyone.
Diversity is more than a slogan. It guides everything the City of Toronto does. But for this new vision to truly have impact, planners felt it was imperative that their new blueprint reflected the values and feedback from every corner of the city. Turning to data-driven avatars That challenge fell to Fusca and his team to better understand who was coming downtown and what they did when they were there. To help answer that question city planners turned to Environics Analytics’ authoritative data. Their goal was to use this data to segment the city’s population and help create avatars to represent the major groups of people who regularly use and who also live in the core. The inspiration for this approach came out of a similar project in New York City. It used avatars as an internal tool to evaluate how the city’s various demographic groups would be impacted by a new regional plan. However, Fusca and his team saw a unique opportunity
“We were afraid that people would see the avatars as a way of stereotyping communities, that we’d be criticized at worst as racist and at best as subscribing to stereotypes,” said Fusca. “So, we wanted the avatars to be grounded in real data to give them credibility.” In response, most of the avatars were based on custom population segments that integrated into Environics Analytics’ PRIZM5 segments, drawing on demographic data from the DemoStats database and lifestyle data from Numeris. From this data, a picture started to emerge of the various population types who gravitated to the central part of the city. To round out the avatars, Environics Analytics produced reports to show how each persona breaks down according to their financial situation, education, leisure activities and family size. Once this information was
analyzed, the avatars started to take shape. As examples:
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Ruth, a recent grad who lives downtown and enjoys nightlife;
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Oscar, a suburban teenager who sometimes hangs out downtown with his friends; and
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Fatemeh, a grandmother from North York who enjoys the symphony.
Unveiling the avatars In spring 2016 the city unveiled 16 avatars on large panels to portray the main groups who used Toronto’s downtown core. DMN.ca ❰
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Customer personas They were displayed in the main rotunda of City Hall. “By having avatars representing race, gender, age and sexuality, as well as housing tenure and disability, we could show how different people experience the city,” explained Fusca. “People say that they don’t engage with us because they don’t see themselves reflected in our work and because they don’t know why our work should matter to them. We used the avatars to communicate that everyone is affected by planning policy and that they should care about the impact of those policies.” A well planned out social media campaign also was launched to steer people to the TOcore website where they could learn more about the avatars and their backstories. Artists created jpegs of the avatars that were posted on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram along with a few lines about their lifestyles and interests.
Avatar success Despite some initial resistance, the TOcore project has not only caught the attention of residents and planners in Toronto, it has been featured in Landscape Architecture magazine and honoured by the Canadian Institute of Planners with an award for planning excellence in 2017. It was an important initiative for the city, Fusca pointed out. The downtown area is an economic powerhouse that is indispensable to the health and prosperity of the region. A third of all Toronto’s jobs are based in the city’s core. “People thought it [using datadriven avatars] was bold. It’s really a new way of strengthening the relationship between government and the public,” said Fusca. With the success of this project Fusca is now looking to socialize the avatars across more city divisions and create even more segments to encourage dialogues between
We used the avatars to communicate that everyone is affected by planning policy The social media strategy paid off. Three paid ads on Twitter generated almost 40,000 impressions, while another series of ads on Facebook over the course of the project reached more than a 100,000 people. “We had the avatars explain in their own words how different policy proposals would affect them,” said Fusca. As part of the consultative process for TOcore, Fusca and his team also wanted feedback directly from these hard to reach groups. Once again planners leaned on the avatars help to drive people to an online survey. While long surveys tend to have lower response rates, that wasn’t the case in this instance, he pointed out. The researchers noted that while the survey was designed to allow residents to skip sections, more than half of the respondents spent up to two hours filling out the complete questionnaire. Fusca noted that many of the respondents were Millennials, a notoriously difficult group to reach. ❱ DMN.ca
the public and city planners. His colleagues also have begun adapting the avatars for other processes. When developing new policies around short-term housing rentals like those offered by Airbnb, for example, staff used the avatars to communicate scenarios in which short-term rentals would or wouldn’t be acceptable under the proposed regulations. In summary, despite public fears, data-based avatars have not only become a valuable way for governments to ensure they are considering the needs and interests of diverse communities, but they also offer an effective way to communicate with those communities. “You need to appeal to diverse audiences, so they can see themselves in the work that you’re doing,” said Fusca. “And you can’t do that if you only see the work through one pair of eyes.” Rupen Seoni is a senior vice president and practice leader at Environics Analytics.
Who’s in Toronto’s core? The avatars developed for the City of Toronto are based on an amalgamation of various segments of the people in the downtown core.
Amena
Ann
Charles
Cindy
Fernanda
Fred
Jerome
Jo
John
Lily
Marilyn
Peter
• 12 years old • Refugee • Mother is underemployed • Has never been Downtown
• 43 years old • Young, 1st generation family • Owns a Midtown condo • Enjoys museums & libraries
• 22 years old • College student • Newcomer • Transit user • Arts and culture lover
• 33 years old • Young professional • Rents with a roommate • Walks to work
• 32 years old • Precariously housed • Unemployed • Suffers from chronic illness • Downtown • Worried about gentrification
• 44 years old • Disabled • Lives Downtown • Owns a House • Drives to Work
• 30 years old • Métis • Works & lives Downtown • Rents • Walks everywhere • About to start a family
• • • •
• • • •
• • • •
23 years old Single mother First Nations Living in a shelter
75 years old Retired Downtown Aging at home
18 years old Trans youth Homeless Downtown
• 64 years old • Immigrant • Lives in Markham • Sometimes drives downtown • Wants better transit options
• 58 years old • Owns a house • Takes transit to work downtown • Enjoys the arts scene Downtown
Sajith
• 57 years old • Immigrant • Owns in Rexdale • Drives a taxi • Concerned about congestion
Source: City of Toronto https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/ planning-development/planning-studiesinitiatives/tocore-planning-torontos-downtown/ tocore-downtown-stories/
April 2018
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Sector Report: Lettershops
Research, read and reach out with data By Laura Artibello
L
ettershop. I’ve always liked this industry term. It has a clean and classic ring to it. For those not familiar with it, it describes what we know as a “mailing house”. Outdated? I admit, we don’t reference the word much. New and younger customers appreciate “Communication Service Bureau” when discussing advertising and marketing with direct mail. So here is what is new with the lettershop industry. It is being driven by two main factors: research (data) and campaign programs which utilize data. How to evolve lettershops All industries evolve. The quicker we adapt to constant modernization the more successful we become. So how do you evolve a traditional lettershop? One way is to keep producing what you do each day then you start by reversing the operation by night. Allow me to explain the process: from start to finish. Promotional flyers are digitally printed, folded and information documentation are automatically inserted into the envelopes. Addressing machines then imprint recipients’ names and addresses, the envelopes are sealed and stamped and ready to be delivered by Canada Post. When I began working at Data Direct Group (DDG) we introduced the company to offering information gathering for initial research. We designed and formatted surveys so the clients could ask their customers what they liked or didn’t like about products and service. The print and mail survey process used same equipment but in reverse. Open envelopes, remove information documentation and scan to databases. Same skill set in each department. On-line surveys used April 2018
the same process without the paper. With surveys someone must ask the questions. We’re happy to write them and manage the projects, including verification, classification and index to database reporting for actionable outcomes. We provided one-page executive reports as first reads then performed business analytics and prescriptive analytics. Most firms today immediately inquire after purchases and/or conference events. Sometimes just by viewing a site we are asked: “what did you think”? But learning that so many companies simply used, for example a “free” software program then doing little to action the data just doesn’t make sense to us. For example, we are familiar with the phrase, the cost of attracting new customers far outweigh the cost of keeping current ones. So why then did a retail organization go through the exercise of survey collection through a free software to do nothing with the results? Because, nothing is free. Downloading the data is charged, indexing is additional. Then, what to do with these results? Analytics requires no less then classification and modelling for strategic objective of survey content. Companies who wish to explore their customers buying behaviours best practice to, educate internally. Responsiveness and product alignment point to separate divisions, yet they must respectfully communicate their clients concerns. Smart data improves operations. Canada grows when businesses grow. Charitable organizations improve revenue streams when they ask their caregivers “how can we help you help us?” Loyalty is learned behavior appreciated. DDG is constantly asking questions and growing. Lettershop-supporting research Canada Post has invested heavily
in outside research, utilizing third party data to determine each level of consumer interest and it has tapped behavioural and neurological studies to understand how people read and respond to mail, with comparisons to digital, mobile, billboards, radio and TV. Turns out we do read. Even better, we enjoy it more on paper. It’s a screen break for many and we’re not talking about any one generational group here. Naturally white papers and magazines are openly shared to Canadian consumers to read. It doesn’t end there. In aggregation with Environics Canada and other Canadian companies Canada Post remains at the forefront of efficiently and effectively delivering mail. It focuses on advertising tailored by numerous clusters of interest: people with the same-like buying patterns of your own customers. The organic growth concepts. We recommend all clients looking to attract new business to use Canada Post’s research data first. Yes, but the world is on-line! We agree, people do buy direct. We don’t attack Amazon; e-commerce and fulfillment of goods are major areas of growth in Canada. Canada Post remains the number one parcel delivery service. Whether it be Amazon or local retailers, the massive infrastructure is built. Use it, Canada. Apply Big Data Gathered for eons predominantly for global corporations and for medical breakthroughs Big Data is becoming available for more businesses. The internet opened every opportunity to gather intel that allows us to find what is important to our businesses. Whether for problem solving, or value driven we use effective data for efficient growth. Data analysts dissect, construct narratives and even draw pictures. In short: Marketing Intelligence.
Seek technology and human balance Invest for success but don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. Offer or look for suppliers that are technology-driven, with offset and digital printing, e-commerce platforms that manage warehouse inventory and precision pick/ pack and ship, but which apply the human touch. Seek or have automated data cleaning yet still eye level reviewed. Recommendations drawn from data conveys objective holistic views that are written to be read. White glove packing for classes not masses is an art and skill of handassembly workmanship. Look for inspiring partners Marketers have choices in print collateral suppliers. Representing DDG I can say that our diversity of people, range of equipment and array of services are most impressive. Our president, Debbie Major values trust and happiness above all else. She is an author, speaker, company leader, expert partner of Canada Post and promoter of “how can we help you?” We have known each other for near 30 years. I learn from her every day. Laura Artibello is advisor, marketing analysis
channel at Data Direct Group Inc. She is responsible for emerging and directing data to customers for successful database-driven marketing results including brand awareness, increased engagement, geodemographic segmentation and ROI. Laura Artibello describes herself as spirited, and diversity reflects her career. Beginning at CIBC as mortgage collection officer in 1981-82 she became a parts data entry clerk and then vice president sales and marketing for Addressall. Laura opened her own direct mail fulfillment company, Mailennium in 2000. Closed after 17 years she left building a legacy of quality output, diverse offerings, community social activism armed to elevate and expand the power of data intelligence at Data Direct Group.
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Sector Report: Lettershops
The lettershop/service provider evolution By John Leonard
I
’ve been lucky to have spent my entire career in the lettershop and mailing part of the communications industry. I’ve seen many changes along the way, from the full implementation of Letter Carrier Presort in the 1980s and the growth in available data and technology for personalization in the 1990s, to Canada Post’s Postal Transformation initiative and the roll-out of machineable mail. I also have lived through Y2K (and survived) watched as mail volumes gave way to the digital revolution followed by a dose of social media. Public cynicism shifts from mail to digital Most recently I’ve seen a helping of digital doubt and I have been watching closely as the targeting used within social media is being scrutinized by politicians and the public. I have no doubt this will change the digital trajectory,
were often perceived as being “low class” marketers. Over the years as postal costs crept up the number of shady offers shrank. At the same time true direct marketers became more sophisticated by employing better targeting and demographics. Consequently more credible marketers sought out the channel and it flourished because of that targeting and the ROI it created. Now we see the low cost of digital (social and email) has become the place where many of these less-than-credible entities exist. Emails offering inheritance or worse and pop-ups on line promising ageless youth, to name a few. The clutter of our digital spaces has replaced the clutter that used to be in our mail boxes. Service providers becoming communications consultants So we find ourselves and the market in the midst of change. For one thing I think the term “lettershop” while apt 20 years ago
So we find ourselves and the market in the midst of change. For one thing I think the term “lettershop” while apt 20 years ago is an understatement today. but over time digital overall will continue to grow. There was a time long ago when mail was viewed with some cynicism as well, there were more “shady” offers in the mail stream due to the low cost and “mailers” ❱ DMN.ca
is an understatement today. Even “Mail Service Provider” doesn’t quite do the trick. Today a service provider is really a communications consultant, helping clients on a broad variety of matters from postage
recommendations, format ideas, printing, developing timelines for production and (as a Canada Post Expert Partner) to working with clients, estimating delivery times through the postal system and seeking out possible discounts (when they apply). Add to this is the increasing necessity for data security and procedures that can be a daunting and expensive endeavor to implement and execute. To illustrate: 10 years ago Cover-All’s ISO certifications were a nice to have. But today’s clients are demanding it to protect their data and reputation. It’s an obvious fact that today’s consumers have a different expectation around timeliness and immediacy that is driven by what the digital world provides. Our clients expect us to take all the knowledge we’ve built up over the years, mix in the valuable elements of targeting and variability and compress it all into shorter timeframes. While this may sound daunting (it is sometimes) it is also exciting. The industry is smaller and there can be more of a fight for business, no doubt. But what we can do today to create relevant communications are really amazing. What lettershops/providers/ consultants can now do Companies like ours now get to execute communication strategies for and with our clients that are like nothing before. The messaging and formats we can employ can be from basic to pretty cool. Now with automation available we can create programs that react very quickly to needs or triggers from other sources generating physical and trustworthy communication in a very short timeframe. Some might suggest that it would be easier to do via e-mail and while that can make sense in certain circumstances
I think the credibility and combination of mail with digital makes a compelling connection. Here’s an example. I recently attended an ice-fishing event with eight people I’d mostly met online. Before the event I pulled images of our forum members that I had found online, created a collage and then personalized a small poster for each member attending, including their name, username and image. I figured it would be a neat thing for their bar or garage. I handed them out and the following day I saw that several of them had posted pictures of the posters above their work benches and behind their bars. The posters struck me as this neat combination of physical and digital and staying power! It led me to come up with a phrase I’ve used with certain customers (auto, banks and not-for-profit) i.e. “Do you think your piece is neat enough to earn a place on a wall or the corner of a desk or stuck on the fridge?” The physicality of direct mail can do that and Canada Post’s Expert Partners can help with that. That’s where I see the state of the industry and the service providers’ role in it. Digital will continue to grow, even with the bumps and grinds of fake posts, data hacks and phishing scams. Our job is helping customers leverage that and the physical mail to create relevant and cost effective communications that generates ROI. While some of the tools and terms are new, that’s always been our challenge and one that can still be quite exciting. John Leonard is vice president sales and marketing, Cover-All. John has an extensive background developing, acquiring, on-boarding and servicing clients in datadriven environments as well as a long history of involvement with data and operations and Canada Post. April 2018
Sector Report: Lettershops
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2018 Print & Mail Vendor Fair Fair participants and presenters engaged in lively discussions on key topics and trends. There is a sense that the future is becoming brighter for mail as even the Millennials are finding it easier and more enjoyable to read content that has been printed rather than available only online.
James Smith (left) from Environics introduces his co-presenter David Young of David Young Law to open the Breakfast Briefing on big data, privacy and compliance in marketing at the 2018 Print & Mail Vendor Fair which was held in Markham, ON on April 19.
Representatives from Insource talk with an attendee at the 2018 Print & Mail Vendor Fair in Markham, ON, April 19.
Warren’s Waterless Printing explains its unique process at the 2018 Print & Mail Vendor Fair which was held at the Sheraton Parkway Hotel in Markham, ON on April 19.
April 2018
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Sector Report: Lettershops
Susan Hallett Program Manager Go Direct Supply Chain Solutions 460 Admiral Blvd, Mississauga, ON L5Y 3A3 905-568-5688 susan.hallett@godirectsolutions.com www.godirectsolutions.com
Go Direct Supply Chain Solutions Integrated eCommerce solutions, real world product fulfillment and distribution, customer support, and management analytics that enable you to take your business online, and to the next level. Let us show you how. Schedule a demonstration. We provide a fully outsourced “web-to-door” sales solutions for your company.
Insource Corp Technology company providing leading-edge equipment, software and services to companies that are producers of print and mail communications. Kareem Sesook Director, Business Development Insource Corp 85 Citizen Ct, Unit 6, Markham, ON L6G 1A8 905-709-3344 kareem@insourcecorp.ca • www.insourcecorp.ca
❱ DMN.ca
April 2018
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Fulfillment
Delivering the “Amazon Effect” to fulfillment suppliers By Jackie Sebesta
O
ver the past 15 years print and fulfillment providers have understood that providing a B2B e-commerce platform as a value-add service is essential if not mandatory for doing business. While many in the industry are offering an e-commerce channel, the “Amazon Effect” is raising the bar when it comes to customer engagement and user experience. In many ways, Amazon has set expectations for what the online ordering experience should look like and many companies are having to adapt by hiring thought leaders that come directly from the B2C e-commerce market. Amazon Effect impacts the B2B buying experience Most of us have shopped on Amazon. Their platform provides an intuitive user-friendly approach to purchasing. Finding a product is easy, product details and pricing are readily available, product suggestions are personalized for each user based on past purchasing behaviour and their speed to market is undeniably the best in online commerce. A Handshake blog written by Sarah Leung reported that B2B e-commerce analyst Andy Hoar revealed that 92% of B2B buyers actually use Amazon to research purchases for work and that 82% of buyers reported actually making work purchases on Amazon1. He noted that a majority of these purchases were for general office supplies but what is important to note is that B2B buyers are exposed to Amazon’s rich user experience and ease of ordering. Imagine a buyer using Amazon to procure general office supplies and then accessing your marketing fulfilment e-commerce site to place a business card order. Will they become frustrated with unnecessary steps? Can they easily access their price (which is contracted and unique from other April 2018
clients)? Can they see which stage their order is in and when they can expect delivery? All of these questions and many others are important to address and Amazon can provide a benchmark to ensure you maintain a positive user experience for your clients. The Amazon Effect also impacts the last mile of order fulfillment. From the time the order is submitted, picked, packaged and shipped it is now increasingly important that the order is in perfect condition. An emerging trend in 2018 is the quest for perfect orders and we can thank Amazon for focusing many resources towards this ideal end-state. The complexities of lastmile delivery make the odds against fulfilling a perfect order overwhelming, but as companies are discovering, perfect orders are the ultimate measure of customer satisfaction. Perfect orders are the percentage of orders delivered to the right place, with the right product, at the right time, in the right condition, in the right package, in the right quantity, with the right documentation, to the right customer, with the correct invoice. And in 2018, getting the orders not just right but perfect will be even more important than it is already. How Lowe-Martin creates an Amazon-like experience 1. Offering more than just print fulfillment The marketing supply chain consists of many types of marketing not just print. Within the print industry offering a fulfillment solution for print alone is no longer an option. Providers must be ready to accept inventory such as promotional products, client product samples and speciality packaging. With the addition of non-print inventory comes the complexity of warehousing. Many of these
products will be required to be GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) certified which is an auditable certification under the Government of Canada. At Lowe-Martin we fulfill many programs that include print, promotional materials and client product. Some of the product we fulfill requires a Medical Device Licence (MDEL) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) certification. These certifications allow us to take on broader projects but also keeps us accountable for ensuring quality standards are met within our facilities. Our clients appreciate that they can outsource their entire marketing supply chain and contain their costs within one supplier. 2. Fulfilling orders faster Same-day delivery will be the norm by 2023, predicts a new study that asked retail and logistics professionals for their views. “The Future of Fulfillment Vision Study” from enterprise stock solutions business Zebra Technologies, also suggests a significant minority foresee twohour delivery by 2028. Looking to the future, they predicted disruption as innovations including drones, autonomous vehicles and crowdsourced delivery come to the forefront. To start preparing for shorter delivery times LoweMartin is taking a serious look at our current warehouse capabilities, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and warehouse management systems (WMS) integrations and courier contracts that include committed service level agreements. We have invested in warehouse technology and have scaled our operations to become more elastic in nature. Elastic logistics, another emerging supply chain trend in 2018, refers to the flexibility to expand and shrink capabilities to align with the demands within the
supply chain during a given timeframe. 3. Choosing the right e-commerce platform The right e-commerce solution will be one that can accommodate the complexities of B2B purchasing while maintaining a simple, intuitive user experience. Finding a solution that prioritizes ease of use on mobile as well as on the web is imperative. Be sure that you’re offering a streamlined, personalized experience on the web, on mobile and in-person through your sales team. All of these channels should provide a consistent experience to the customers and they’ll be willing to pay more for that experience. Over the past eight years with over 80 implementations, LoweMartin has developed e-commerce and fulfillment solutions tailored to meet the specific needs of our served market. Our e-commerce solution is designed to facilitate the procurement process, provide brand control, minimize waste and provide reporting tools to plan and control costs on a real time basis. In the end, customer experience will always win. In order to provide an Amazon-like experience you must continue to challenge your business to innovate, evolve with customer and market demands for better, faster service, and continue to streamline cumbersome processes by eliminating mundane tasks to create a more effective B2B offering. Jackie Sebesta has over 13 years of experience
in the e-commerce and marketing supply chain outsourcing industry with a keen focus on client engagement and retention. As director of client engagement, e-commerce and fulfillment at Lowe-Martin, Jackie is a subject matter expert who works with clients to enhance the e-commerce and fulfillment offering. 1 Leung, Sarah “The Amazon Effect on B2B eCommerce & What B2B Businesses Need to Do About It” Handshake blog January 6, 2016 https:// www.handshake.com/blog/amazon-effect-b2becommerce/
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Fulfillment
What’s in the box? By Janice Dumphie
J
ust the sight of a box on your doorstep brings the anticipation of a surprise and delight opportunity—even if you ordered something yourself and were expecting it to arrive—somehow the arrival of the package itself brings joy. But when you aren’t expecting anything and you truly are surprised—it can definitely be a magical mystery moment. Here at Marketing Kitchen, we are at the back end of that box—doing the prep, assembly and distribution of those packages— providing essential fulfillment services. In our digital age, many of the traditional fulfilment programs no longer exist: think Book of the Month or K-Tel Records. Although there are still many companies that get that special customer experience with a well thought out Welcome Package, you would be surprised at what the “new fulfillment looks like”. It’s multi-channel, it’s creative and we showcase it to our friends through our digital channels. Meet Influenster No one knows the impact of a physical brand in hand piece better than Influenster. Originating in New York, Influenster launched in Canada in fall 2016 with Trey Geiger as the director of brand partnerships. Influenster’s member base has since grown to 250K socially-savvy consumers across Canada. In a conversation I had with Trey he described the company this way: “Influenster is a digital destination where millions of consumers research and review products and where brands can target and connect with highly engaged, empowered shoppers. Influenster is the place to discover new products, read honest reviews and tap into a thriving community of passionate, like-minded consumers.” “Outside of Amazon, Influenster hosts the most number of organic reviews online,” added Trey. “This allows us to build strong connections between our clients ❱ DMN.ca
and different consumer groups. Consumers can find new products and seek advice to make smart purchases through online reviews and other forms of user-generated content. We drive authentic engagement and advocacy while also providing brands with key insights about their target markets.” Top brands work with Influenster to connect with hypertargeted groups of their most engaged, impactful and influential members, putting product directly in their hands to drive genuine social advocacy, review generation, market research, in-store activation and more. Working with brands such as Unilever, General Mills, PepsiCo, P&G, Revlon, Benefit Cosmetics, McCormick and others, Influenster is able to create a customer experience that helps launch new products and creates authentic excitement. From food to cosmetics, hair products to pet food, Influenster can help jump start any new product introduction. For many campaigns, members are invited to receive, test and review real products. This is where the fulfillment and assembly of their product is key to the success of brand engagement. Our work with Influenster No two Influenster boxes are the same. As their fulfillment partner, we have developed a highly collaborative partnership to problem solve unique packaging requirements and optimize the look and distribution of their custom packages. Boxes can contain one item or have as many as six or seven items. The box contents can be themed by seasons, a specific item, or by a brand’s new launch. Together we create packaging and branding that is not only aesthetically pleasing but also meets Canada Post specs for the most efficient and cost-effective distribution. Box dimension, size, weight and thickness along with each specific distribution file all play a role in selecting the best mailing class for each campaign. Every detail is reviewed right
down to how much the items may shift in the box and what the customer experience will feel like when they open the box. We work with special bubble wrap sleeves, tissue paper, hay stuffing and Styrofoam chips to insure the products are safely assembled, secured and ready to mail so the customer will have the best encounter possible when the Influenster package lands on their doorstep. The brand is further promoted with color print inserts and color labels to add to the experience. Our latest fun challenge was coming up with a solution for their Hello Flavour Campaign that included mouth-watering
McCormick seasonings, marinades and a bottle of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce: just in time for BBQ season. For thought leaders and brand advocates, the discovery of new products brought to you by Influenster is a surprise and delight on your doorstep each and every time. It is a fantastic example of using mail in the physical world to create a customer experience that can be shared in the digital world. Janice Dumphie is a senior account director at Marketing Kitchen, a direct marketing and fulfillment company that helps clients be a little smarter and a little more creative when using direct mail. She can be reached via email at janice@marketingkitchen.ca. April 2018
Do you make decisions about your marketing operations? Are you responsible for customer acquisition, retention or loyalty? Is your department in charge of fulfilling orders or customer service?
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Industry news
Stephen Thomas adds new clients Stephen Thomas Ltd (ST) has added four new clients to its rapidly growing national non-profit account roster. DRTV, direct mail, digital donor acquisition and telemarketing are in the mix of fundraising tools being on boarded with them. Amref Health Africa Amref Health Africa (formerly The Flying Doctors of East Africa) recently turned to ST to develop a pilot direct mail donor acquisition programme that could be rolled out across Canada. ST was tasked with creating and executing a full direct mail donor acquisition fundraising effort. In launching the programme in Canada, ST has tested its creative against some of the direct mail control packages being used by Amref in the Netherlands and continues to work with the organization as it explores a diverse mix of acquisition channels to achieve its goals for growth. Christian Blind Mission Working in collaboration with Toronto-based Mission Productions and Media, ST
has successfully helped international Christian development organization Christian Blind Mission (CBM) acquire new monthly donors through a TV-led, digitally integrated acquisition campaign, also known as Digitally Integrated TV (DITV). As the strategic lead on the campaign, ST helped CBM to develop multiple creative concepts for its DITV campaign to promote Healing Hugs, a monthly donor programme to directly fund surgeries, medical care and rehabilitation for children living in poverty in the world’s poorest countries and communities. The resulting effort was the production and airing of a 120-second TV spot that successfully drove donors to CBM’s homepage and/or to the campaign’s custom URL, www.healinghugs.ca. Eva’s Initiatives for Homeless Youth For Greater Toronto Areabased Eva’s Initiatives, which provides homeless youth with emergency and transitional housing, harm reduction support for drug and alcohol
addictions, counselling, employment and training and services to reconnect youth with their families, ST recently won an assignment to create a digital lead generation pilot programme to help grow the charity’s monthly donor commitments. The focus of the initial campaign, which ran from January to April, was on increasing monthly donor conversions through social media and telemarketing. In particular, the campaign focused on leveraging a series of targeted Facebook ads and Instagram stories created by ST to drive potential donors to support the cause to end youth homelessness. Focused telemarketing outreach was also conducted to convert prospects to monthly donors. Nature Trust of BC The Nature Trust of BC, a leading land conservation organization in British Columbia, recently hired ST to conduct a review of its annual giving programme. Wanting to expand its programme and increase revenue, Nature Trust turned to ST to evaluate the organization’s
existing annual giving programme and make best practice recommendations for improvement. The review, which is now complete, included ST providing recommendations for modifying Nature Trust’s approach to direct mail, email and online communications around annual giving, as well as a review of the overall financials for the programme. “The diverse scope of the health and social problems being tackled by these newly acquired clients for ST offers testament to the breadth of creative and strategic talent we have within our agency,” says ST executive vice president and chief creative officer Bryan Tenenhouse. “Our ability to keep coming up with fresh, innovative and effective creative concepts and strategic media executions for all our clients— regardless of how big or small they may be—is obviously being noticed in the non-profit sector and it’s paying off for us with a steady flow of new business.”
Lettershop industry: growth and consolidation Steve Wilson, president of Adworks is seeing two key trends occurring in the lettershop industry. First, growing interest and demand for lettershop services, driven by consumers and business decisionmakers’ renewed interest in reading print mail pieces, particularly magazines. Wilson pointed out that reading magazines in hard copy is much more preferable than on the Internet. Moreover, emails are easily deleted; very rarely do the emails get read. There is also a realization by businesses that product samples, which made easily available with hard copy, are much more popular with consumers than ordering free samples on the Internet. Which, he said, is usually not free any way. “Businesses are coming back to direct mail because they get better results,” said Wilson. Second, the lettershop industry has become much more consolidated. This has led to a lot of smaller specialized firms no longer existing. “If you cannot provide an all-one-service it is difficult to maintain clients,” said Wilson. ❱ DMN.ca
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Ensuring the connections with your customers CONTINUED from page 26
use two or three different carriers to deliver those services. That way, if one carrier goes down, then the others can pick up the slack. Another option is to use different trunk types delivering the service at each location. Instead of three PRIs you implement two PRIs each with a specific carrier and the third delivered via session initiation protocol (SIP) trunks. This method would address carrier specific outages and trunk redundancy locally but not enterprise wide. When delivering any trunk service to the contact centre location you need to work with the carrier to ensure that you have set up call forwarding to your redundant trunks. Therefore, if the service ends at the primary location the calls at the carrier level with forward to the redundant location. Connecting home based/ remote agents Using home/remote agents is a proven customer contact strategy: including when disasters strike bricks-and-mortar centres. But what happens to them when redundancy takes over? The short answer is, it really depends on how and where the remote users connect to the office network. Let’s assume the primary contact centre is at the head office and the remote agents are connecting back to it. And let’s assume the head office is no longer functioning and the contact centre had switched over to the redundant location. How do you connect the remote agents? The best solution lies in having redundant virtual private network (VPN) appliances: one at the head office and the other at the redundant location. The remote agents will most likely re-register to the VPN and reconnect, resulting in a very small (minute or two) loss of connectivity. Active failover testing The key to maintaining a redundant contact centre is to ensure that it works. If you set April 2018
up everything in the most fault tolerant, resilient configuration but you never actively test the configuration, then you still do not have a redundant centre. At this point, you are waiting with fingers crossed that you never need one. The successful redundant contact centre are those who regularly force their principal contact centre servers into redundancy mode. If you can control when your contact centre server is in redundancy mode, then you’ll be able to identify potential issues with the failover as well as confirm that the technology works as expected.
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Protecting the cloud Going to the cloud for contact centre applications enables companies to have, in most cases, the redundancy they need through the hosting manufacturers or third-party providers. What this means for your organization is less burden on purchasing and supporting on-site hardware because all of it is in the cloud and the only requirement for onsite hardware could be the physical phones. If your company decides to run on softphones clients or WebRTC softphones, then the need for physical phones is no longer required. But should you go to the cloud you must exercise due diligence to ensure that the provider has the tested resilient methods, like those discussed above, in place to ensure continuous service to your customers. Summary When implementing a redundant contact centre on-premise or from the cloud, or just reviewing your existing redundancy design, ask the question, “What do we do in the event that there is… (choose one of the disaster scenarios from earlier)?” Hopefully the design addresses how your operations will continue during those disaster scenarios. If your redundancy design or that of your cloud application provider does not address them then ask: “Why not?”
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Ensuring the connections with your customers W Ken Zrobok is director of operations, LANtellligence Inc. He has worked extensively in the LANtelligence contact center and on advanced integrations projects. Ken’s primary responsibility and goal has been to interact with customers, defining their requirements and then designing and building complex solutions to meet those requirements.
hen many Canadians think of disasters they look at the horrific events that occur in other countries. But Canada is also vulnerable to damage and destruction caused by nature and by people. According to the Canadian Disaster Database, the following disasters occurred in a span of just three years: ❯❯ Meteorological - Hydrological: Winter Storm ❯❯ Meteorological - Hydrological: Flood ❯❯ Meteorological - Hydrological: Wildfire ❯❯ Meteorological - Hydrological: Tornado ❯❯ Biological: Epidemic ❯❯ Hazardous Chemicals: Leak/Spill Release
you want to look at is separating the primary and the redundant servers. The further your redundant contact centre server is from your primary server the more resilient your centre becomes. However, physical distance is not as important as ensuring the servers are located on different power grids. Therefore, if the power goes out in your primary location, the redundant location will not be affected by the local or regional outage. Secondly you want to ensure that the connectivity to the locations are serviced by separate carriers as well as with disparate media types. By doing this, you are protecting against a specific carrier’s outages as well as physical issues, like cut fiber or copper.
And according to Natural Resources Canada, British Columbia, the St. Lawrence Valley and portions of New Brunswick are also vulnerable to earthquakes. Coastal B.C. notably faces the risk of volcanic eruptions, including from neighbouring Alaska and Washington State and tsunamis. Then there are the more common events that disrupt lives and businesses. Like when a truck knocks down a power pole. Or when a contractor slices an underground line. Finally, there are the even more widespread technology-related disasters. After all, hard drives fail and servers crash. There could also be external issues like Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks or even ransomware. Customers rightfully expect to be connected to individuals who can help them when they dial in to order products they are seeing on infomercials, in response to direct mail pieces or flyers, to find out order status or if they have problems with their purchases or billing issues. In turn businesses depend on customers’ orders and their loyalty. That is why businesses need contact centre redundancy i.e. the ability to ensure that the applications keep running in an event when there is a planned or unexpected outage occurs. Customers may or may not know that an outage has occurred and they may likely be sympathetic when it does. But ultimately, they expect businesses to provide them with the sales and service they expect.
Wide area network connectivity With redundant contact centres, distributed over geographic areas, the next piece of the puzzle is the connectivity between the primary and redundant locations. The connections between these locations should have low latency, either Multiprotocol Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) or with a Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) solution. Most redundant contact centres operate in active/ active or in active/standby paradigms. At some point the two applications will speak with each other and their conversations or communication is what transfers information and data back and forth. This continual synchronization keeps both participants up to date with the most current routing information and data configurations prior to an unexpected event occurring. When an event occurs that the primary server goes offline, customers and agents are registered and routed through the redundant location. If the connectivity is suspect or not up to par, then it will affect the customer experience and the agents’ abilities to serve customers.
Geographic separation When looking at redundancy, you must plan for the worst and expect the unexpected. The first thing ❱ DMN.ca
Trunk failover When you have primary and redundant contact centres located across geographic areas, the next item to address is the potential failure of trunks into each location. This can be a result of a carrier outage or an outage of your primary location. One way to respond to this failure type is by having multiple carriers serve each location. Therefore, if you have three Primary Rate Interfaces (PRI) at a location, CONTINUED ON PAGE 23 April 2018
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