| You’ve got coupons
Don't let the pretty colors and pictures on a coupon fool you. This piece of paper has become an industry-specific, highly strategic marketing tool aimed at driving business. “When you talk with a dry cleaner, you have to understand what drives sales in that business and what incentives to give people to get them to do business there," says Gary Sledge, who with his wife, Denise, recently bought Valpak of Baton Rouge, a direct mailing franchise. “Valpak made a science of it, tracking how often certain categories need to mail and the average circulation they need to purchase to get the desired attention and the type offers that need to run." Armed with high-powered marketing and a new high-tech plant, Sledge gratefully applies his “bachelor's of couponing" training from Valpak's Coupon University to growing their new franchise.
The Sears Wish Book Catalog Inspires its Holiday Marketing Campaign
HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill., Nov. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Millions of Americans remember the Sears Wish Book catalog with excitement -- and the hours they spent poring over each page, circling the gifts they wanted both to give and to receive during the holidays. Now, this year's return of the historic catalog has inspired Sears' new holiday marketing campaign, which launched November 4. Led by the tagline "Don't just give a gift, grant a wish," the integrated marketing campaign features an expanded, more diversified, multicultural media mix, including national television and radio spots, magazine insertions for jewelry and tools, and increased online media, plus new sears.com functionality, Wishing Hours sales promotions and sweepstakes, direct mail, circular, public relations and, of course, catalogs.
Honda revs up IT operations by ditching software upgrades
Honda Australia Motocycles & Power Equipment Pty Ltd (MPE) IT manager, Craig Bassett, has just completed a massive data cleansing exercise which was central to implementing a new two phase business strategy. The goal, he said, is to drive customer retention and identify new revenue opportunities but this meant taking the company's marketing campaigns to a new level. He couldn't do this with the company's seven year old contact database. Honda MPE has a database of approximately one million contacts, but only around 250,000 of those are qualified. Of the remaining 750,000, Honda MPE has little insight into details like their age, gender, occupation, customer purchase history, or even if the customer still owns a Honda MPE product. Bassett had run direct mail and e-mail marketing campaigns in the past, but was not sure he had targeted the right demographic, and had no way to measure the campaign's success.
Business in the Burbs: Reader's Digest enters print partnership with ...
Reader's Digest Association, based in Chappaqua, said yesterday that it has entered into a multiyear partnership with Williams Lea, a London-based company that provides printing and direct-marketing services worldwide. Williams Lea will take over the promotional printing operations of Reader's Digest's direct-mail business in 19 countries throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, the Asian Pacific region and Latin America, RDA said. RDA estimates that the outsourcing will reduce its costs by $130 million over the first three years by improving business processes and allowing RDA to get better prices on print products. "Williams Lea is one of the largest global players in the printing field, and as such we will use their resources, skills and contacts to get better prices on everything to do with printing - paper, ink, printing itself," said William Adler, vice president of global communications, in an e-mail.
BEA's Jim Haar: Using SOA to overhaul business processes.
Haar is responsible for BEA I.T. systems and operations worldwide. Before taking over the CIO role, Haar was responsible for a sales operations group, where he delivered substantial year over year license and maintenance revenue growth. Prior to joining BEA in 2004, he served as the director of marketing business operations at Sun Microsystems, where he played a key role in driving the company's pricing strategy, licensing models and marketing analytics, and held several senior positions with Compaq, where he spearheaded its Global Supply Chain Systems Group and led the I.T. integration effort during Compaq's acquisition of Digital Equipment Corp. Haar and Baseline's John McCormick conducted an e-mail interview. .
IWCO Direct Teams With Azuna to Provide 3D Imaging
CHANHASSEN, Minn., Nov. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- IWCO Direct, the nation's leading provider of integrated direct mail production services and marketing solutions, will now offer 3D imaging options on promotional plastic products through a licensing agreement with Azuna LLC of Jenkintown, Pa. IWCO Direct's license agreement delivers exclusivity for their direct marketing clients in North America. This patented three-dimensional design and printing technology produces high quality, four-color imagery with deep dimensional effects on a recyclable polypropylene (PP) plastic substrate. The imaging technology provides an effective way for IWCO Direct clients to differentiate their direct mail offer and drive response rates through an engaging image of their product or service. "We are always searching for innovative methods to help our clients increase direct mail response rates," explained Tom Wicka, IWCO Direct Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer.
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