Whether or not you like their cuisine, you have to agree that Burger King is right about one thing: Food is definitely a category where people want it their way. A purveyor of a higher class of beef, Omaha Steaks, is testing culinary customization online.
The Omaha, NE-based direct marketer is one of 24 companies using Shop2u.com, a Fairfax, VA, firm that sends customized catalogs via e-mail to the catalogs’ buyers.
Stephanie Healy, interactive sales manager at Omaha Steaks, says the mini-catalog format makes the service a viable way to move toward one-to-one targeting. “Sometimes customers might get overwhelmed by a specific offer at a specific time,” she notes. “If you send them a few good offers at the right time, it sounds like a pretty good sell.”
BASED ON BEHAVIOR
Catalogers using Shop2u turn over their entire e-mail list (typically about 10% of their overall house file) and buyer data to Shop2u, which develops customized e-mail catalogs based on this information. The e-mail usually features about 20 products and allows the recipient to click back to the catalog’s full Web site if they wish.
How personalized the e-mail message is depends on the level of detail provided in the buyer behavior data. Working with catalogers, the company builds a product matrix that predicts, for example, “If someone bought one of your 200 products, then what other product are they next likely to buy,” says Keith Wardell, president of Shop2u.
“We try to personalize the catalogs as much as possible. In some cases we can personalize to what you purchased in the last month,” says Wardell, admitting the last-30-day buyers are generally the ones who get one-to-one messages. Generally, the e-mails are targeted to groups of buyers.
Each Omaha Steaks mini-catalog features filet mignon, a boneless strip, a rib-eye and – for the grilling season – burgers. Healy admits the offer is not the most personalized in the world. But, she says, “At Omaha Steaks, they are going to want a steak offer. Most people came on to the file buying steaks. The question is, do they want a steak offer with potatoes and side dishes and desserts?”
A comparison of the catalog’s busiest months – June and December – showed Shop2u sales increased 10 times in December, Healy says.
Wardell is used to strong response. “We get about 20% who will open the mini-catalog, compared with 5% of buyers opening catalogers’ e-mails. Of the people who see the catalogs, we get a 1% to 2% buyer rate,” he says, attributing the success to the little time it takes to scan the e-mail, compared to how long it takes to browse a typical Web site.
To glean more detailed information about buyers so catalogers can send more personalized offers, in February Wardell began surveying those who’d received e-mail offers on their apparel, home and lifestyle preferences. “If you tell me you have a traditional style in your living room, I know to send you traditional style offers,” says Wardell.
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