Analysis January 2012 Service Area Business Development Strategies Comments or Questions?
Table of Contents Introduction... 3 Data-Driven Personal Messaging Matters!... 3 Delivering Messages across All Channels... 5 Engaging Consumers to Create Rich Opt-in Relationships... 6 Embrace the Change... 8 About the Author... 9 List of Figures Figure 1: What percentage of your marketing campaigns are personalized as follows?... 4 Figure 2: Marketing Budget Change According to U.S. Marketing Executives... 5 Figure 3: How many different types of media does your company use for a typical direct marketing campaign?... 5 Figure 4: Kohl s Cares Donation Campaign... 7 InfoTrends 2012 2
Introduction Whether you are an operations executive or a marketer, the number one challenge in today s market is reaching the customer. Customers are clearly in control of the media they consume. Mobile devices, ipods, DVRs, and the Internet have changed marketing forever. Marketers are trying to leverage every customer touchpoint with a mix of interconnected channels. One thing is certain effectively using cross-media communications delivers better business results. Delivering multiple impressions and giving prospects a variety of ways to respond can have a dramatic impact. Over the past several years, we have heard about making the transformation to a marketing services provider with a focus on 1:1 communications and variable data. The media dynamics are changing. As we look to the future, there will be three critical components for success in the much larger cross-media opportunity: 1. Data-driven personal messaging 2. Support in delivering messages across all channels 3. Delivering campaigns that engage the end customer Data-Driven Personal Messaging Matters! Marketers continue to see the value in intimate and direct communication with consumers. Not so long ago, families gathered around the TV; now individuals surf the Web and watch videos on personal, handheld devices. Consumers have grown comfortable with, and have even come to expect, a one-on-one dialogue with marketers. Personalized marketing messages are essential to attracting consumers attention and delivering communications that increase sales. In today s market, customers don t have the time to deal with irrelevant information. Data-driven personalized messaging has never been more important. If you sell a product or service (business-to-business or business-to-consumer), organizations need to gather and use information about customers' purchases, how much they spend per sale, and when or how often they buy. Knowledge of past behavior is a valuable tool for predicting future purchases. In addition to guiding business decisions, this information is also critical for creating personalized marketing messages that increase sales. InfoTrends 2012 3
You must work with customers to personalize offers based on past purchases and preferences. Marketing needs to follow the customer not the other way around and content must be truly customized to specific needs. In InfoTrends December 2010 Multi- Client study entitled The Cross-Media Direct Marketing Opportunity, marketers were asked about the levels of personalization that they were utilizing. More than 60% of respondents were conducting personalized 1:1 marketing or one-to-few marketing. Figure 1: What percentage of your marketing campaigns are personalized as follows? Personalized (One-to-One) 20.9% Mass Marketed (One-to-Many) 39.9% From the print service provider s perspective, personalization is the future of marketing. You will need to clearly understand how to work with clients on data-driven campaigns. The problem is that personalization alone is not enough to compete in today s complex cross-media world. Segmented (One-to-Few) 39.3% N = 518 Marketing Respondents Source: Capturing the Cross-Media Direct Marketing Opportunity, InfoTrends 2010 InfoTrends 2012 4
Delivering Messages across All Channels Even if they already have the right message and content, marketers still need to find the right channel. E-marketer explored marketers changing media spending patterns in 2010. Dollars are shifting away from mass-media and moving to social, online, database, direct marketing, online, and mobile communications. Figure 2: Marketing Budget Change According to U.S. Marketing Executives In InfoTrends Capturing the Cross-Media Direct Marketing Opportunity study, marketers reported using an average of three channels for every campaign. Figure 3: How many different types of media does your company use for a typical direct marketing campaign? Mean = 3 Five or More 2.7% Don t Know 8.3% One 8.1% Four 12.4% Two 30.5% Three 38.0% N = 518 Marketing Respondents Source: Capturing the Cross-Media Direct Marketing Opportunity, InfoTrends 2010 InfoTrends 2012 5
Marketers want to integrate messaging and ensure consistency across all channels. In a world where marketers are strapped for time and resources, they are seeking a single partner to deliver the total campaign. In response to these new market dynamics, printers of all sizes are entering the world of cross-media services. During the fourth quarter of 2010, printing giant RR Donnelley acquired Nimblefish to support its ability to deliver automated marketing programs that touch customers and prospects with intelligent rules-based messaging that is responsive to their interests and actions. Transcontinental has also acquired a number of crossmedia companies, including Conversys, LIPSO, Premedia (Transcontinental Digital Services and Transcontinental Transmedia), Thindata 1:1, Rastar, Totem, and Vortex Mobile. In November 2010, Transcontinental announced that these acquired firms will be grouped under Transcontinental Interactive to offer customers marketing strategy and planning services, data analytics, premedia services, online direct marketing, one-to-one marketing, mobile marketing, and custom communications, including custom publishing and the digital printing of marketing products. In February 2011, three Texas-based companies (Whitley Printing Co., the Whelan Group, and Zoom Interactive Marketing) announced that they had consolidated to form TWG Plus. The joining of these companies under the common banner of TWG Plus was designed to provide full-service creative and innovative marketing solutions to the higher education market as well as other verticals. Service providers need to assess the role they want to play in the cross-media world. A print-only strategy means that you are NOT participating in the entire value stream. It s time to partner or develop the skills to become the external partner of choice across all channels. Engaging Consumers to Create Rich Opt-in Relationships Marketers realize that exceptional content delivered via the right channel is the key to acquiring customers, but even that isn t enough. It is also imperative to keep customers engaged with a brand via every touchpoint, including print, social, online, and mobile. Successful service providers need to understand the roles of a diverse set of media channels to help their clients collaborate, partner, and build communities with customers. Campaigns that engage prospects and existing customers will create rich longterm opt-in databases that can build relationships for future sales. Many organizations have effectively blended multiple media channels to deliver extraordinary business results. One of the best examples from 2010 was Kohl s Department Stores. Every campaign clearly starts with a good and innovative offer. In recognition of the 10th anniversary of its Kohl s Cares philanthropic program, Kohl s announced a contest to give half a million dollars each to 20 schools for a total of $10 million in donations. Consumers were invited to visit www.facebook.com/kohls to obtain more information, view the official rules, tell Kohl s what their schools could do with the InfoTrends 2012 6
funding, and cast their votes. During the contest, Kohl s Facebook fans could vote for public or private schools that serve K-12 students. A winning school needed at least one submission explaining how the funds might be used. Fans could vote up to 20 times for their favorite elementary, middle, or high schools during this time, with a maximum of five votes for any individual school. The top 20 vote-getting schools that met contest criteria won $500,000 each. Figure 4: Kohl s Cares Donation Campaign You might be wondering what this has to do with printing. The elements of the campaign included: Online/digital components coinciding with the program launch, including Facebook advertising and e-mails to Kohl s customers In-store presentation with printed store signage and receipt messaging Television advertising brand spots that aired in July and ran through the end of August Print advertising that started in mid-july and ran throughout the voting period Direct mail to Kohl s customers directly through various direct mail pieces between July 1 and mid-august In the end, the benefit to Kohl s was a community that grew from 1 million Facebook fans in 2009 to 2.8 million in advance of the 2010 holiday season. This opt-in database proved to be pure gold for the retailer. InfoTrends 2012 7
Embrace the Change Marketers and service providers must accept that the balance of power between buyers and sellers has changed forever. The economy, technological advancements, and cultural changes will continue to drive cross-media direct marketing opportunities. Campaigns need to communicate with customers and prospects across multiple channels, including print, mobile, social, and online. Customer engagement and interactivity will be essential to all types of marketers. Engaging customers will create uniquely powerful opt-in preference driven databases to enhance future communications. While there are no easy answers for getting into the cross-media game, former General Electric CEO Jack Welch summed up the current market situation when he said, When the rate of change outside exceeds the rate of change inside, the end is in sight. It is time to change! This material is prepared specifically for clients of InfoTrends, Inc. The opinions expressed represent our interpretation and analysis of information generally available to the public or released by responsible individuals in the subject companies. We believe that the sources of information on which our material is based are reliable and we have applied our best professional judgment to the data obtained. InfoTrends 2012 8
About the Author Barb Pellow Group Director barb_pellow@infotrends.com +1 781-616-2161 A digital printing and publishing pioneer as well as marketing expert, Barbara Pellow helps companies develop multi-media strategies. She assists companies in creating strategies to launch new products, building strategic marketing plans, and educating their sales force on delivering value. Comments or Questions? InfoTrends 2012 9