Direct marketers will serve their companies or clients best by turning themselves into experts on their customers—not “the average customer”, but the segments, clusters and groups of customers that they appreciate and understand better than anyone else in their organization.
That’s the message Matt Moog, president and CEO of Q Interactive, delivered in his keynote yesterday to the 52nd annual DM Days conference held by the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing. The Internet has conventionally been viewed as either an advertising and marketing channel, a retail sales channel, or a customer relationship vehicle, Moog said, and each view has developed its own discrete success metrics.
But those narrow categories are no longer capable of creating a 360-degree view of the customer, Moog told the audience. “One of your abilities as direct marketers, with your insight into what the customer wants and when, is the ability to bring together the advertising, sales and service channels into one more holistic picture,” he said. “That really how the Internet has raised the performance for direct marketing overall: This is now about customer insight and customer marketing, as opposed to just using e-mail, direct mail, phone calls or anything else.”
Conceding that Q Interactive is in the business of acquiring customer-permitted information (through online coupons and Web registrations) that can be turned into leads, Moog pointed to instances of personalization and insight that direct marketers themselves can generate from their customer knowledge. One insurance company client told him they had found in their survey data a strong predictor of good homeowner insurance risks: the presence of window boxes, which indicated customers who were house-proud and conscientious.
Moog pointed to Best Buy as a company striving to learn how to sell to and serve its customers as individuals, not as the “average customer”. The retailer has identified four major customer types within its base, including price-sensitive buyers, technophiles and those confused by high-end gadgetry. Best Buy then started revamping all its stores to appeal to one or another of those types; for example, to soothe those customers intimidated by technology, the chain has swapped out 20% of the merchandise in some stores, added signage relating to families and even put sales associates into pastel uniforms.
The result in some California Best Buys has been to increase same-store sales by 50% while earning the highest customer-satisfaction ratings in the chain.
“It used to be all about the great 30-second ad that raised brand awareness and consideration,” Moog said. “It’s now all about customer segmentation, targeting, ad optimization, measurement and tracking. Those are all words from the language of direct marketing, and the rest of the world is starting to get religion. You can lead the way.”
