TRIED AND TRUE
This year’s Market Leaders roster has a slightly familiar ring to it – the list includes veteran DMers like Fingerhut and The Sharper Image. Why do they deserve such an honor? Because each is doing pioneering work in expanding its universe and serving customers. Fingerhut, for example, is pursuing a four-channel marketing strategy based on customer needs and wants. The American Heart Association has increased its retention rate through effective data mining. Then there are our two leaders from outside the traditional direct marketing world. ISO, the Danish supermarket chain, has embraced e-commerce: Customers can order groceries for home delivery from the company’s Web site. And Schering-Plough has nurses advising hepatitis C suffers by phone.
As we sat down to brainstorm for this year’s Market Leaders feature, we expected that several of our leaders would be Internet start-ups. Wrong. Most are traditional direct marketers like Fingerhut and The Sharper Image. But all of them could teach a thing or two to online upstarts. Fingerhut, for example, is working hard to ensure that customers are contacted through the most appropriate channels, and it’s doing trailblazing work in the newest one – the Web. The Sharper Image included more proprietary merchandise in its product mix (attracting a greater number of women), and is trying something new for an online cataloger – it’s conducting auctions on its Web site. Another veteran mailer, the American Heart Association, has done more effective mining of donor names, pumping up its retention rate by 5%. The remaining leaders, while not longtime DMers, are also venerable companies. ISO, the 35-year-old Danish supermarket chain, launched an ambitious e-commerce project last year! . Customers can order groceries for home delivery from the company’s Web site, or they can visit the store and use handheld scanners to tally their purchases. Finally, pharmaceutical manufacturer Schering-Plough added a new dimension to customer service: It has nurses advising hepatitis C sufferers by phone. What unites all these players is a tried and true DM concept: At the end of the day, you’d better have results to show for your efforts. They do, and that’s why they’re our 1999 Market Leaders.
