Business interest shifting to emerging markets in Eastern Europe is one factor a European database firm hopes will help them build an American customer base.
Hakan Axelsson, sales director for Goteborg, Sweden-based EuroInfoPool, said the company currently offers business data from 13 countries, with an eventual goal of covering the total business universe of the European Union.
EuroInfoPool partners with major players in Europe that maintain business databases on a national level. Data from these national files is merged to create a European database which can be accessed by clients. The company also partners with firms across Europe on the sales side, using them to represent the database in their local markets.
The company does some work with clients on a traditional one-off use brokerage basis. But Axelsson prefers to work with clients to manage their existing inhouse data, and help them with the challenge of keeping business files up to date.
In this type of arrangement, EuroInfoPool helps clients clean their house data and uses that as a starting point, appending information to their files such as type of businesses or company size. The existing customer base is profiled, to determine the types of companies that could produce profitable leads.
A major goal for the company is to educate clients that a smaller number of more targeted leads can more efficient than purchasing a broad spectrum of data, he noted.
“Some might say we’re shooting ourselves in the foot by educating our clients that they can use less data,” admitted Axelsson, who noted the concept is sometimes tough to sell to list brokers, who are used to providing their clients with numerous lists to test.
Agencies, however, love the concept, because they see the benefit of their creative reaching a more targeted audience, said Axelsson, who is working to create partnerships with list brokerages to market the product.
Axelsson attended Direct Marketing Days New York last month to meet with brokerages and network. His company is particularly interested in doing business with companies just getting started in marketing in Europe, because such firms don’t have existing partner relationships established in other countries yet.
By the end of the year, EuroInfoPool hopes to begin creating generic propensity models that would allow clients to make selections for companies based on things like demand for specific products or services, like business travel, mobile phones or PCs.
Before joining EuroInfoPool, Axelsson worked in the utilities industry in Sweden, helping to establish CRM strategies for companies in that sector after deregulation. He also spent time with a mobile marketing start-up.
Axelsson made his first visit to New York in 20 years for DMDNY. While in the city, he caught a performance of his favorite musical “Rent” and visited Ellis Island. On the day he chatted with Direct, he was headed home for Sweden’s Midsummer festival.
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