Problem:  Our client was not only looking to solicit new franchise owners but also the ability to identifying sales prospects for each franchise owner and their respective geographies.  The company needed a systematic approach to direct marketing success on both fronts.

 

Solution: 

Part 1: Finding Franchisees

Current franchisees were profiled by appending business-oriented data elements.  Trends were categorized in regions and provided a more robust “picture” of the ideal new franchisee. 

 

Part 2: Finding Customers

Current customer files were consolidated and extensive hygiene processing was preformed.  Updated data was then matched up against business data resources for append.  Extensive analysis was conducted to create a Total Customer Profile of the business and ownership demographics providing insight as to where new business opportunities existed.  Subsequently, regional profiles were created to delve deeper into demographic and psychographic differences in our client’s vast customer base.

 

End Result: Marketing pursuits are directed to those most likely to respond like never before.  Newly designed customer profile and models reflect the variances in customer base by geography and provide new franchisee owners with a snapshot of the market they are about to enter, and where the biggest opportunities for new business development reside.

 

 

Problem: Who responds to what?

Our client profiled their customer base before and had a good idea what their average customer “looked like.”  But what demographic variances exist across product lines?  Do online buyers “look” vastly different than buyers who call in off a direct response card?  If Step 1 was to profiling an entire pool of customers than Step 2 was to segment buyers in some meaningful way and profile those individual segments.

 

Solution:  Not one customer, but several different and unique compilations.

The task was set, the foundation laid.  Our client collects new sales from three major venues:  Online/Web, Direct Mail Response and Trade Show.  The characteristics of these three buying groups are already a part of the company-wide buyer’s profile.  When run separately however, the variations from one group to the other were astounding.

 

Under each unique “method of communication,” variance in customer age and income were noticed.  Other less-obvious life-style characteristics also became apparent.  The presence of children, education level and house-hold profession/trade served as other “information pockets” that provide the ability to craft new rules for building effective prospect lists.

 

End Result:  The right approach for the right person.

Now when preparing a marketing campaign, the end result is considered first.  Trying to solicit an online purchase or a direct-response call-in?  Or is the ultimate goal to drive attendance and trial at an upcoming trade show?  Each prospect list is modeled directly from the most-relevant of these three profiles.  Our client can effectively contact less people without sacrificing # of responses. 

 

 

Problem:  Acquisition leads to new prospects.

Our client had a database of 1.2 million customers.  They were about to acquire a company with 7.2 million customers in a vastly different geographical area.  Accustom to mailing half a million records two times a month, they were not able to simply mail all of the new customers they were about to acquire.   What can be done?

 

Solution:  Drawing lines and finding common ground.

With thanks to extensive profiling on their own customers, our client had a good foundation to model only the best “prospects” within the acquired firms’ customer base.  But what about building a strategy in the other direction?  After profiling customers from the newly acquired firm, our client was astounded by the vast differences between the two customer pools.  

 

More differences than similarities, our client was able to form a marketing “plan of attack.”

 

End Result: When 2 come together…EVERYONE wins!

When marketing their own product, our client selects only the newly acquired customers that “look” most like their original client base.  Likewise, when marketing a mix of newly acquired product, our client selects native customers that “look” most like the acquired firms top customers. Regardless of what is being showcased in their direct mail piece, our client is certain the most relevant audience is being reached.

 

Additional success stories to come.