Canadian DM Goes North: Increasing sales fueled by CRM, says Gustavson
A move toward integrated and information-based marketing means business is booming for direct marketers in Canada, according to John Gustavson, president and CEO of the Canadian Marketing Association.
Indeed, direct response sales grew 9% last year, earning some $13.5 billion (Canadian) and employing about 230,000. In 1999, the CMA anticipates $15 billion (Canadian) in direct response sales.
“Customer relationship management continues rapidly,” Gustavson says, “as companies understand the lifetime value of a customer,” in terms of generating repeat purchases or the effectiveness of loyalty programs. In addition, customers have come to expect more tailored offers and services.
While e-commerce is as much a trend up North as it is in the United States, Gustavson warns: “It’s a mistake to think of e-commerce as separate. It’s one of many media that can be used. People will receive information in one medium, explore offers in another and order products in a third.”
However, the real trick, he admits, is how to get e-commerce “to make money for our members.”
Also affecting the Canadian scene is national privacy legislation expected to pass at the end of the year.
The bill – which Gustavson describes as “appropriate” and “not unduly intrusive” – requires the consent of individuals before personal information can be collected, used or disclosed to a third party.
The CMA claims credit for proposing amendments exempting business and some public domain information, and for blocking provisions that would have eliminated implied consent, negative option consent and express consent.
If the measure is passed, it would apply to the provinces in three years, unless a province passes its own similar law.
Other legislative issues Canadian direct marketers face range from international agreements on the taxation of e-commerce to federal restrictions on telemarketing and licensing catalogers in Nova Scotia.
The Canadian government has provided two examples of its own attempts to develop rules on just and appropriate uses of personal data.
First there is C-6, a bill that requires businesses to obtain individual consent before collecting, using or disclosing personal information. In an editorial last month, The (Toronto) Globe and Mail endorsed the bill as a start toward defining “data as personal property that requires negotiation before it can be taken away.”
The second is a proposal made in October’s Throne Speech, a Canadian State of the Union address of sorts. The government proposed introduction of mandatory smart cards for identification and to gain access to such government services as health insurance and Social Security.
Privacy advocates object to the proposal because of the possibility of comprehensive electronic surveillance. And even Ontario information and privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian has been quoted in the national media as saying such a system might be vulnerable to hackers. In addition, she believes security and privacy can be maintained if such concerns are built into the system from the start.
Although smart cards have been used to collect consumer data and governments have sold that data to DMers, CMA president and CEO John Gustavson doesn’t believe American marketers will be able to access the data.
