Reformation Information: Lutheran Brotherhood resolves to get some attitude.

Lutheran Brotherhood, which provides a variety of services to Lutherans, has turned to attitudinal research to enhance its marketing efforts.

In the past, the Minneapolis-based organization had relied primarily on church directories to identify Lutherans for prospecting. Its sales force handled most of the selling, although the organization also tried direct mail and telemarketing several times. The response to those efforts was underwhelming, at best.

As Lutheran Brotherhood saw it, the organization’s demographic and geographic information was insufficient for the kind of segmentation it needed.

It was the goal of Susan E. Goode, the organization’s assistant vice president of research services, to use market research to help new agents, along with those plumbing fresh territories. Older field reps, of course, had a hopper full of market information – both tangible and touchy-feely – in their heads.

Which is not to say that Lutheran Brotherhood had not used databases previously. It had, but those files consisted of demographic information alone, without the benefit of attitudinal data.

When Lutheran Brotherhood called in Minneapolis’ Custom Research Inc. late in 1998, its mandate was to revamp the organization’s data mart and create a system to capture attitudinal data. The aim was to supplement what Lutheran Brotherhood’s field reps were seeing and hearing with market research information and demographic data the company had purchased.

Custom Research began by creating demographic profiles of Lutheran Brotherhood’s customer base. One of the initial tangible results from this, launched in early 1999, was a data mart that allowed simple queries from marketing staff to be answered by Custom Research analysts, freeing the Lutheran Brotherhood’s internal IT work force to address other demands.

With Custom Research’s team focusing exclusively on answering marketing-related questions, the turnaround time for database queries has shrunk considerably.

The next step will be creation and dissemination of a questionnaire. Such research can corral essential attitudinal information for marketers to use to improve their communications with both existing customers and prospects, according to Joan Palmquist, senior vice president of Custom Research.

Lutheran Brotherhood hopes to settle on four or five questions appropriate to the organization’s target segments. These questions will allow the company to best coordinate sales efforts. Ideal attitudinal statements would segment prospects among distinct groups, for example technophobes and technophiles.

“A good attitude statement is something that divides people, and that people at each end of the spectrum feel strong about,” says Palmquist. She cites “I feel comfortable about using the computer” as one essential piece of data a firm could collect.

“If a financial institution sent out a piece of direct mail touting its Web site, that would be a divider. Some prospects would see it as a threat,” says Palmquist. These are the customers who would react negatively to the loss of personal touch.

For Lutheran Brotherhood, such modeling identifies not only which demographics people fall into, but the attitudes they hold, allowing marketers to practice segmentation without alienation. Technophiles can receive a mailing touting online access, for example, while the technophobes receive a letter describing the dedication of an organization’s customer care representatives, who are always ready to provide assistance.

According to Custom Research’s Palmquist, good attitudinal questions avoid universal truths (“Eating five fruits and vegetables a day is good for you”) while personalizing the question (prefacing the statement to be evaluated with “I feel,” for instance).

The direct marketing staff at Lutheran Brotherhood anticipates incorporating this quality of questioning into its direct marketing efforts, according to Goode.

“It will enhance what they can do for direct response,” she says. “It will create efficiencies in getting the right message to the right people.”

But the information gathered through the market research efforts will not be linked back to individuals. In compliance with the guidelines of the Council of American Survey Research Organizations, once the Lutheran Brotherhood research is completed, it will be used in aggregate to learn how people think and act.

“We do not single out a particular consumer and market to them based on what we learn on a marketing research survey,” explains Palmquist.

Instead, district representatives will be given profiles, or probabilities, of someone being in a specific category. It will then be up to district reps to use ongoing dialogue to make sure the organization is communicating in a way that supports its relationship with the individual and serves his or her wants.

For the past 82 years, Lutheran Brotherhood has provided financial, value-driven services – ranging from insurance to charities – for members of the community.

The organization’s assets total around $23 billion. It contributes $66 million to a variety of outreach programs.