Connect Oct/Nov 2012

October/November 2012

Big Data Business intelligence and why it matters to you and your brand

INSIDE Marketing Insights | 4 Big Data | 6 Perception | 10 Build Your Content Marketing Plan | 14 ustomer Profiling & C Stereotyping | 15

publisher ’s letter

The End of an Era

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s we have mentioned before in the pages of this magazine, there are some who believe the information age has come to an end. The idea stems from the fact that we have more information available to us than ever before. In addition, information is available at a moment’s notice. The surplus of information and the ease of accessibility will have major ramifications for all marketers and businesses in general.

Some would argue that there are no secrets anymore and that a lack of mystery exists. Great brands can have an aura about them – and a little mystery isn’t so bad. But with a level playing field, one where consumers have as much knowledge as sellers, trust will escalate. Today, we can do business without looking over our shoulders and wondering if we have been duped or not.

Honesty is one of the cornerstones to a solid relationship. In turn, when one party has more knowledge than the other, the chances for dishonesty increase. As a direct result of the overwhelming amount of data and the constant stream of communication in our faces, the job of today’s marketer has become even more challenging. Developing a trusting relationship with a market demands great empathy and sincerity.

Fortunately, we’re stepping into a new age where marketers will rule. Your clients have the power. They can choose where, when, who and on what to use their resources. Chances are they will only spend their time and money with the companies and brands they love and trust.

Getting into the circle of trust of today’s consumer is difficult. Heck, holding someone’s attention today is a challenge. But we can’t begin to build those relationships or hold their attention,

Publisher Gina M. Danner Managing Editors Rosanne Kirn Chris Lakin Art Direction Brent Cashman • Creative Director Jaime Mack • Graphic Designer Connect is published bimonthly by Mail Print 8300 NE Underground Dr, Pillar 122 Kansas City, MO 64161 copyright 2012 All rights reserved

Honesty is one of the cornerstones to a solid relationship. … Developing a trusting relationship with a market demands great empathy and sincerity.

out and make people take notice. Our hope is that your clients soon will be able to recognize your brand identity.

Enjoy our latest issue and all the best,

Gina M. Danner

until we grab their attention.

In our cover story, Big Data, we highlight some ideas around gathering data about your respective markets. Good marketers know that data provides insight and that it is the key to understanding.

Our second feature, Perception, delves into what it takes to stand

Contents 3

Publisher’s Letter

10 Perception

4

Marketing Insights

14 Build Your Content Marketing Plan

6

Big Data

15 Customer Profiling & Stereotyping

For more information contact www.mailprint.com 866.938.3607

To discuss any information contained in Connect by Mail Print please contact Mail Print at 866.938.3607.

4

marketing insights

For every 1,000 customers receiving a direct-mail piece, 34 will respond on average.

34:1

Source: AdAgeMedia News, June 15, 2012.

Direct mail is the channel cited most by B2C direct response marketers as delivering the strongest ROI for customer contact, retention and acquisition.

Source: Target Marketing Sixth Annual Media Usage Forecast

Can’t you hear me knockin’?

T

he “we’re-always-on” nature of social media means that customers expect to be engaged 24/7. So, with great power comes great responsibility, or so it goes. According to a recent Oracle study, customers tend to be unforgiving of companies that fail to stay on top of their social channels.

The “Consumer Views of Live Help Online 2012: Global Perspective” study reported that 50 percent of Facebook users and more than 80 percent of Twitter users expect to receive personal responses within a day of submitting questions or raising concerns via social networks.

50 percent of Facebook users and more than 80 percent of Twitter users expect to receive personal responses within a day.

Also important was the fact that respondents most often connected to a brand on a social network for news about products, and one-to-one customer service. In addition, almost 31 percent linked up with a brand to gain access to a customer service representative or product expert, while 43 percent connected with a company to get a direct response to their questions.

B2B companies missing out on social mentions When it comes to social media to track (and follow up on) what customers are saying about their brands, B2B companies are lagging behind their B2C counterparts. According to the “Worldwide Social Media for Business” study by Satmetrix, 27 percent of B2B companies are tracking and following up on social media comments, while 53 percent of B2C companies are doing both. In addition, 47 percent of B2B companies did not track or follow up on brand mentions on social media.

October/November 2012 • Connect by Mail Print

19% 12%

In the U.S., 19 percent of companies feel that standalone direct mail generates the most business for them.

In Europe, 12 percent of companies report this.

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Source: Pitney Bowes Channel Preference Survey.

30% of US firms cite a combination of direct mail, email and web campaigns as generating the most business for them.

Source: Pitney Bowes Channel Preference Survey.

marketing insights

The percent of marketers who have integrated mobile elements into their marketing last year, against 39 percent who said their brands did not use mobile, and 3 percent who did not know, according to the “Chief Marketer Mobile Marketing Survey.” In addition, 51 percent said they plan to run more mobileonly marketing this year, while 26 percent said they are undecided about whether to run a mobilecentric campaign in 2012, the survey reported.

76% of consumers state making a purchase as a result of receiving direct mail.

Source: ExactTarget

65% 36% 70% 40% 10%

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The percentage of millenials that state they would prefer to read something on paper (versus a screen).

Source: Deliver Personalizing your marketing communication increases response rates 36%. Source: CAP Ventures 70 % of students are more likely to purchase brands that support a charitable cause and 63% are willing to spend more on products tied to a charity.

Source: Barnes & Noble 2012 College Marketing Report 40% of mobile ad clicks are fraudulent or accidental.

Source: eMarketer 10% of magazine ads now include a quick Source: Nellymoser response (QR) code.

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Mobile me, maybe Thirty-five percent of mobile users say they don’t want brands communicating with them through mobile social networks, according to a poll by the Direct Marketing Association’s Mobile Marketing Council. An additional 31 percent don’t want to communicate with brands via mobile devices. But the number of people who already interact with brands via mobile social media (43 percent) is actually higher than those who say they are happy doing so (23 percent).

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6

Big Data Business intelligence and why it matters to you and your brand

By Michael J. Pallerino

October/November 2012 • Connect by Mail Print

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ata, data, data. When it comes to branding, building and solidifying what your message means to the intended audiences, nothing is more critical to your strategy than data. The data, you might say, is the brand.

“Companies of all shapes and sizes...have utilized our participation reports and annual sales studies to get a grasp of

how big an industry is and where it’s headed,” says Tom Cove of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. “Knowing that’s the case, our commitment to excellence and accuracy is paramount. For many companies, the biggest reason they decide to join Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA) is to get access to the research. We take our role as the provider of research very seriously.”

It is the numbers – including the exhaustive research that SGMA compiles – that has helped the association build its credibility as the No. 1 resource for sport and fitness research for manufacturers, retailers and marketers in the sports products industry. The research helps SGMA promote favorable public policies, and deliver purposeful thought leadership and product promotion.

For example, one of SGMA’s latest reports – the Sports, Fitness, & Recreational Activities Participation Topline Report (2012 edition) – was a joint effort within the Physical Activity Council, a collaboration of sports associations that includes SGMA, the Tennis Industry Association, National Golf Foundation, International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA), Snowsports Industries America, The Outdoor Foundation and the United States Tennis Association (USTA).

Matt Powell believes that a company must know where it stands in the marketplace to make strategic decisions and drive sales. And data helps. “Without adequate market research, a company cannot know how it stacks up against its competitors,” says Powell, a member of Princeton Retail Analysis, a Scarborough, Maine consulting and independent research group that specializes in retail and consumer goods.

“Market research helps frame your decision-making,” Powell says. “Data can help evaluate the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. Without adequate knowledge of the marketplace, you may over or underestimate your market potential. Companies do not exist in a vacuum. Understanding your

Snapshot:

How the process of gathering data has evolved

“Twenty years ago, about 60 percent of data from interviews was gathered via phone. Today, about 60 percent of interviews are gathered via online data collection – only 20 percent is done by phone and 20 percent via mall intercepts.

Increasingly, companies are monitoring online behavior/purchases to collect data on customers/ potential customers.”

– Joe Hair, Ph.D, Senior Scholar, Professor of Marketing & Professional Sales, Founder of the DBA program in the Michael J. Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University

own (and your competitors’) strengths and weaknesses are keys to success.”

Princeton Retail Analysis mines its data through focus groups, independent data and research providers, industry statistics and lots of surveys. “The internet has made the process more sophisticated,” Powell says. “Marketers now have the ability to mine data and collect information quickly and accurately. Powerful software also enables a marketer to sift through the data and understand it on several levels. I believe we will get even more sophisticated over time. We’ll get richer information even faster. We’ll be able to create feedback loops with the end consumer to improve the customer experience.”

Details, Data, Details

Quiz time: Try to remember a major decision your company made. The decision may have compelled you to devour everything and anything you could get your hands on – endlessly sifting through reams of data.

Keith Hickerson, principal of Evans Continental in Signal Mountain, Tenn., knows that knowledge is power. He understands that having more information drives smarter decisions and that the more details you absorb, the better off you are in the long run. A nationally respected business and branding strategist, Hickerson has more than 25 years of experience in branding, marketing, public policy and operational results for Fortune 500, non-profit and professional firms.

“At the brand level, research is vital on two fronts: determining the current perceptions of customers and prospects; and determining what brand positioning is capturable,

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Big Data

sustainable and differentiating,” he says. “Branding is always a judicious mix of leading and reflecting, and elevating the best elements of the brand’s core to build a compelling vision of the future.”

At the product and service level, Hickerson says that while research is important for improving current offerings, it may not always be the best way to identify big innovations. “Relying too heavily on research from current customers can lead businesses toward incremental change, but rarely to reinvention.”

Hickerson believes that directional data is helpful for companies looking to secure their brand moat, as maintaining brand relevance is vital to compete well. “Insight is just as important as information,” he says. “Companies must find that ‘aha moment’ from the trends they’re seeing and be able to translate that opportunity to their brand and operational capabilities.”

Data-Driven Segmentation & Messaging

When it comes to data, Jeff Hayes is the man with the numbers. As president of InfoTrends, a leading worldwide market research and strategic consulting firm, he has conducted numerous strategic market and product planning assignments for a host of firms in the consumer imaging, office equipment and production printing industries.

Brands such as Adobe Systems, Canon, Eastman Kodak, Hewlett Packard, IBM, International Paper, Lexmark, Ricoh, Sony, Toshiba and Xerox all have turned to Hayes for research, analysis, forecasts and advice to help understand their market trends, identify opportunities and develop strategies to grow their businesses.

“Two of the most important ways that market research and data can help enhance a company’s sales and branding efforts are to guide targeting and messaging,” Hayes says. “Companies have scarce resources and

ways you can start mining for data While you may aspire to have the marketing sophistication of a P&G or an Amazon.com, there are steps you can take to get started right now.

Jeff Hayes, president of InfoTrends, shares 8 points.

1. Make an inventory of your customer touch points 2. Figure out what data you have, what data you need and how best to collect it

October/November 2012 • Connect by Mail Print

must focus on the best customer segments and deliver relevant messages through preferred channels to drive sales.”

Hayes says that customer data from your website, CRM or other operations systems (e.g. field maintenance logs, customer support calls), along with data from occasional surveys and third-party sources (think Dun & Bradstreet, ZoomInfo, social media) are essential to segment your customer base, using various behavioral, attitudinal and, what he calls, “firmographic” attributes (industry, location, company size, credit score).

“All this data must be organized and analyzed to develop insights that can drive actions,” Hayes says. “Depending on the amount of information and rigor of your analysis, you may use simple spreadsheets or more advanced data tabulations, regression analysis, and segmentation modeling software to characterize your customer base and identify high value prospects. Some companies prefer to develop in-house expertise to gather and analyze this information, while others look to outside experts that have the appropriate tools and experience to create a program and deliver results.”

In either case, Hayes says it is critical for senior management to be involved so they can articulate their requirements, understand the process and have confidence in the results and recommendations. He believes that insights from this type of program can help determine whether you should make a promotional offer to a customer and what type of offer has the highest probability for success. “This approach has its roots in business-to-consumer (B2C) markets, but can be applied to some business-to-business (B2B) markets, too,” he says.

“There will always be an art to marketing and sales, but increasingly these processes are being driven by data,” Hayes says. “The most successful firms of the future will have a strong proficiency in collecting, analyzing, and applying data to optimize their sales and marketing resources.”

3. Collect and compile your data for on-going analysis 4. Analyze your data and develop a market segmentation scheme 5. Test various messages and promotional offers, and measure the impact 6. Continue to refine your data collection, analysis and messaging 7. Get senior management involved – there will be costs and may be some internal “turf” issues that need to be resolved, plus you want their buy in when the data challenges traditional assumptions 8. Consider working with an agency or consulting firm, especially to help you get started

9 arket research helps frame your decision-making. Without adequate knowledge of the marketplace, you may over or underestimate your market potential.”

– Matt Powell, Member, Princeton Retail Analysis

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To discuss any information contained in Connect by Mail Print please contact Mail Print at 866.938.3607.

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October/November 2012 â&#x20AC;˘ Connect by Mail Print

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R Using your brand to make an impactful first impression with potential customers

PERCEPTION

By Graham Garrison

T

oo often, the cart comes before the horse. When creating a brand, a company spends all of its creative energy on a visual, rather than what will make them viable to a customer.

“People are tempted to start with something like a sexy tagline,” says Lisa Earle McLeod, a sales leadership expert who works with organizations such as Apple, Kimberly-Clark and Pfizer to help create passionate, purpose driven sales forces. “We need to think a little more earnestly, and factually, about how we really make a difference in the lives of our customers.”

Here are branding experts’ takes on creating and delivering a brand that will make a lasting impression on customers and potential clients.

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Perception

“ People think they’re having a brand problem, when in fact they’re having a customer problem, and the customer problem is causing you the brand problem.”

– Sales leadership expert Lisa Earle McLeod

‘Noble Sales Purpose’

“ Know your audience.

If you want to grab someone’s attention, you really need to know the audience you’re trying to attract and really understand them, not just a profile of them, but insight into their behavior, psychographics instead of just demographics.”

– Jenna Lebel, VP of Global Marketing for Likeable Media

October/November 2012 • Connect by Mail Print

In order to effectively communicate one’s brand, McLeod encourages companies to develop a Noble Sales Purpose. “It is a declarative statement in how you make a difference to your customers,” she says. “That is the linchpin of your brand, as well as all of your sales activity.

People think they must have this sexy brand with a great tagline, but it doesn’t mean anything. Customers are going to be a lot more interested if you have something simple that says, ‘We help our customers become more effective and successful, here is how we do it.’

Especially in a B2B sale, you’re not buying an ‘aspirational’ quality, you’re buying results.”

There are three steps to help you identify your “Noble Sales Purpose.” The first step is to identify how you make a difference to your customers, McLeod says. Do you help them be more efficient? Do you help them be faster? Do you help them reduce costs? Do you help them bring service to their customers?

The second piece involves identifying how you are different from your competitors. “How you’re different from your competition might be that your products last longer or you give better service,” McLeod says. “It might be that you care more and you’re more fun to work with.”

The final piece is a more personal question. “On your best day, what do you love about your job?” McLeod says.

“Those three things speak very factually and emotionally to your brand,” she adds.

“You identify how you impact your customers, it speaks to differentiators and it also has this inspirational quality to it. We use those three areas with clients and brainstorm around those, and that helps us establish their Noble Sales Purpose.”

The Noble Sales Purpose will look different for each industry and each company. For example, one of McLeod’s clients is a manufacturer of component parts for railroads, and their Noble Sales Purpose is, “We make transportation safer, faster and more reliable.” “It’s not the sexiest thing in the world, but if you think about their industry, it’s huge,” McLeod says. “If you want your transportation safer, faster and more reliable, well, you better buy your stuff from them.”

Another one of her clients does project management software, with the Noble Sales Purpose: “We help people build a better world.”

Finding the audience, setting the hook

Jenna Lebel, VP of Global Marketing for Likeable Media, says researching who you are delivering the message to is just as important as the message itself. Likeable Media leverages social media and word of mouth marketing to create more transparent, responsive and likeable companies, organizations and government entities. It has consulted and helped develop plans for brands such as 1-800-Flowers.com, Verizon FiOS, Neutrogena and Stride Rite.

“Know your audience,” Lebel says. “If you want to grab someone’s attention, you really need to know the audience you’re trying to attract and really understand them, not just a profile of them, but insight into their behavior, psychographics instead of just demographics.”

Lebel recommends companies figure out their core message, and then how best to adapt that to certain audiences. Coca-Cola is a great example, she says. The Coca-Cola brand has a long history across many demographics, but the core remains intact. “They’ve never really

13 gone too far from that core message they’ve always had. Once you have the core, you can just adapt it to different audiences, but the core values are still prominent in that message.”

When it’s time to deliver the message from the brand side, you must disrupt “schemas,” or mental models used to make the world work, a term coined by marketing guru Steve Knox.

“Basically, we all have a prewired way of thinking about things,” Lebel says. “We can predict certain outcomes. An effective brand can come in and completely disrupt that and put something outside of what we would normally think to grab attention. Anything that will connect with people on an emotional level, or motivate them, can be powerful in grabbing someone’s attention. There always needs to be that hook. Whether it’s an emotional hook, or motivational hook, it needs to be the right message to reach that audience.”

Hello, you may have heard of me Companies that do branding right Apple:

“We think about the cool factor of Apple, the reality is that at a basic level, it’s very practical,” says sales leadership expert Lisa Earle McLeod. “They make products for the way people live.

The cool stuff is the periphery.”

Nike:

“Nike’s ambush marketing campaign during the Olympics really grabbed people’s attention,” says Jenna Lebel, VP of global marketing for Likeable Media. ”They weren’t even an official Olympic sponsor and they were still able to capitalize on the Games by taking a local approach (local athletes from small towns named London were highlighted).”

“Customers are going to be a lot more interested if you have something simple that says, ‘We help our customers become more effective and successful, here is how we do it.”

– Sales leadership expert Lisa Earle McLeod

Using mistakes

With the rise of the digital and social media world, mistakes are discussed more than brands would like them to be, Lebel says. Mistakes are inevitable. Luggage is lost. Cars break down. Restaurants don’t deliver service on par with customer expectations. And print solution providers will find product quality or service slips through the cracks on a project.

“If that brand can just be human – if it’s a mistake, own up to it,” Lebel says. “If it’s coming into the spotlight for business reasons (i.e., Chapter 11), disclose. Keep everybody informed. People always think of a brand as so far from an actual human being, but if you can illicit some of those human characteristics and values into a brand, you’ll connect more deeply with consumers.”

“People think they’re having a brand problem, when in fact they’re having a customer problem, and the customer problem is causing you the brand problem,” McLeod says. “You don’t fix the brand problem until you fix the customer problem.

In a lot of situations, when a company does have a problem with a customer, it is a huge opportunity for the brand. The way you respond to that will distinguish you. Every airline loses luggage, everybody misses a ship date, but it’s your response, and the way you articulate that response.”

make a difference with their customers. They are very clear on how they affect people’s lives. The second piece is they’re creative in how they communicate that. One of the mistakes we make is that we assume their success lies in their hocus pocus art form. When really, that’s step two.”

Square one

With branding, whether it’s the creation stage, implementation or damage control, customers – not gimmicks – come first. “The companies that do it well have two things going for them,” McLeod says. “They really do focus on how to

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columnist

7 tips to build your content marketing channel plan

Once you create content, you must decide how to distribute it. Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, outlines seven factors to consider while building your content marketing channel plan. For the whole story, check out http://mprnt.co/7contenttips.

Step No. 1: Situational analysis – This

first step addresses every channel. This is where you use the information from your persona and engagement cycle mapping to look at your current “situation” to determine where you can have the most impact with your story. Obviously, some of your existing marketing efforts (blog or website) will come into play here. The idea is to map what you have to what you need to effectively tell your story. Ask yourself: What do we do that

tells this story? What must change? What must stop (if anything)? This will help you prioritize and budget the tactical things that must get done.

Step No. 2: Channel objectives – This is where you map channel objectives to the engagement cycle. It’s okay if a channel only “contributes” to another channel.

For example, based on the goals of your content marketing and the story you’re telling, you may decide the primary objective of your Facebook page is to create increased and loyal traffic. To drive that traffic, you may need to create a following on Facebook. So your first “objective” will be to “build your Facebook “Likes” to create that community.

Step No. 3: Content plan – This is

how you map the channel to the larger story structure. This typically takes the form of an outline or narrative and is used to organize your content plan for the channel. For example, in the situation described in Step No. 2 – because your primary objective for the Facebook page is to increase loyal traffic to your blog, you want to build a community. So the first part of your content plan for Facebook might be a “contest,” email marketing program or some other type of community building action to build subscriptions. The second part might kick in once you’ve reached a “goal” (number of subscribers, etc.). Next, refocus your content to drive specific personas to your blog.

Step No. 4: Metrics – We use the word

metrics here very specifically, as opposed to key performance indicators (KPIs) or “results.”

With as many channels as you have working,

October/November 2012 • Connect by Mail Print

against all the different campaigns – and as your content marketing inevitably will overlap into your channels – you want to track metrics.

Here, metrics are “goals” that will align with your plan.

Step No. 5: Personas addressed – Not every channel will address every persona. So, for each channel you’re considering, identify which personas will be addressed. Once you’re done with your channel plan, approach it holistically and make the needed adjustments. You may find you’ve done a great job of creating a channel plan that fails to address your most critical persona. Or, you may find you’re trying to address too many personas through one particular channel.

Step No. 6: Content management process – For this stage, ensure that you have

a method and process (e.g., people and tools) to manage the content and conversation for this particular channel. What will you manage?

Who will do it and how?

Step No. 7: Editorial plan – Lastly, you’ll need an editorial plan. This will be set to your global editorial calendar, but doesn’t identify dates or times yet. The editorial plan will help you define velocity, tone, desired action and structure for this channel’s content. For example, for your Facebook page, you might have the following: velocity (three posts per day); tone (friendly, funny, tongue-in-cheek attitude); desired action (we want them to click through to the blog); and structure (10 to 20word post, plus pictures [if applicable] and a conversion link).

blog.mailprint.com

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When Customer Profiling and Stereotyping Are All in the Line of Duty Airport security guards are warned not to violate civil rights by profiling passengers. Human Resource recruiters are under watch by the EEOC so they don’t racially profile candidates.

And police officers are under constant watchdog scrutiny to prevent future criminal, predictive, or racial profiling.

However, Chief Marketing Officers are one of the few professionals who must profile people as part of their jobs. Of course they must follow privacy and disclosure laws, but a successful marketing manager can and should profile customers with the intent of selling them appropriate products and services.

Customer profiling in the marketing world is defined as finding new prospects just like your best customers by comparing the demographic profiles of these individuals with your prospect population.

During what we’ll call the lazy years of marketing, marketers might describe who they believed to be their best customers to a list broker and that list broker would sell them a list of prospects based on a few pieces of business or consumer criteria (revenue, location, number of employees or age, income, education).

Fast forward to today and multiple overlays (one option includes 140 different overlay tools of variable data) can be applied to your customer database to pinpoint with laser accuracy what your prime customer profile is and how to duplicate it.

Just turn over your customer file to be matched against a comprehensive dataset of U.S. business and/or consumers to create a customized market penetration analysis. The strength of customer profiling lies in its ability to provide consumer business demographic overlays, revealing your true customer.

Using data to drive your business decisions, you can then take your marketing (and your business) to a whole new level and construct marketing models to squeeze even more sales out of your budget.

commercials, pharmacy displays, and sales calls. However, this was unprofitable relative to the 25% spending-to-sales ratio.

As a result, this healthcare company reduced spending 10% and held the savings to optimize

Scan here or visit

http://mprnt.co/OF0jxH to read the blog

Healthcare Company Fine Tunes Its Marketing Spend through Profiling and Analysis

its current budget. The reduced spend scenario increased profits while maintaining sales.

A $20 billion healthcare company used analytics to optimize its marketing spend. Client marketing was geared towards direct to consumer advertising, with TV accounting for more than 50% of the budget. The seven-brand portfolio had a high spend-to-sales ratio of 25%, and management wanted to increase efficiency.

Using data sources such as the client’s internal data, as well as financial and government records, models were built to measure sales by marketing tools targeted to pharmacists and other audiences.

The models found that 13% of sales were due to direct marketing programs, TV

How You Can Apply Data and Profiling Don’t let the analytics or terminology stop you from profiling, analyzing your data and conducting data mining. There are plenty of companies on standby to assist you with creating a snapshot of your best customers and best marketing approach to reach them. The best data is data that is put into use finding more great customers.

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