STORES Magazine - October 2008 - (Page 48)

NUTS AND BOLTS / BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE analysis work,” Dittman says. The goal is to segment consumers based on their Hallmark shopping patterns. That data is combined with other customer information, such as whether they have children or spouses and if they’re purchasing cards for friends or family members. Hallmark then tries to reach the various segments with different versions of a communications piece. Determining ROI One challenge was identifying those consumers most likely to respond to specific promotions, such as for Mother’s Day: Reaching out to all 14 million than we used to,” he says. As a result, marketing analysts can review the information, develop the next round of questions or chase down a new angle, all within a matter of hours. Analysts also can look at information across multiple years, giving them insight into shifts and trends in the market. The entire process has become more dynamic, particularly when compared to a series of separate requests. “It frees up time to be pro-active and dig deeper,” Sarnevitz says. In addition to looking at historical shopping patterns, Dittman and his team have used the SAS application to ther’s Day 2007, “we had double-digit increases without hurting Easter,” Dittman says. Non-holiday promotions Another insight gained by looking at marketing and shopping patterns over the course of the year was the fact that “third quarter momentum drives holiday shopping participation,” Dittman says. “If we don’t invest and drive consumer purchasing in July, August and September, we’re less likely to get them to come in November and December. There’s a direct link between the two.” That presented a challenge because summer lacks a traditional card- or gift-purchasing event or holiday. As a result, Hallmark is driving traffic through everyday communications, such as items for birthdays or anniversaries. It will typically rely more on direct mail and e-mail promotions, rather than television, during these periods. Similarly, if Dittman and his team identify traditionally strong holiday shoppers who haven’t made a purchase during the third quarter, they may need to offer them an incentive to build momentum for the holiday season. Hallmark’s marketing team also wanted to determine how to communicate with consumers who aren’t regular shoppers. The Enterprise Intelligence Platform helps determine how to make the allocation that is likely to be most profitable, Dittman says. The ability of the SAS solution to help Dittman’s team develop specific marketing insights has produced uniformly high returns on the investment, based on comparisons between Crown Reward customers who’ve received promotional pieces and those who haven’t, StORES he says. Karen M. Kroll is a business writer based in Minnetonka, Minn. WWW.STORES.ORG Crown Rewards members with a mailed promotion would be expensive and a waste of marketing dollars. So Hallmark might send one version of a Mother’s Day marketing piece to older moms who are purchasing cards for their daughters, and another to young mothers with kids. Dittman and his team test and control the promotions by tracking results of different versions of each communication. “We can determine the return on investment with any marketing communication or e-mail,” he says. Using SAS, Dittman’s team can connect directly to sales information on the server and use the BI application to analyze it. “They grind through the analysis and are able to do that in less time 48 STORES / OCTOBER 2008 take a “longitudinal view” and analyze their marketing spending throughout the course of a year. The objective was to decide when and how often Hallmark should communicate with its customers. The research showed that Hallmark was overspending in January and at Easter and under-spending at Father’s Day. “The emotion tends to be stronger at Father’s Day,” Dittman says. “We appeared to have an opportunity to drive sales.” The analysis showed that Hallmark could build on the momentum of Mother’s Day and reallocate some advertising spending from Easter to Father’s Day. It also shifted dollars from television ads to direct mail. The analysis proved sound. For Fa- http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - October 2008

STORES Magazine - October 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Force of a Different Collar What Shoppers Think Bagging the Competition 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Favorite 50 Sticky Strategies for Retention Concept2Watch Kiosks Online Business Intelligence RFID NRFtech Wrap-up E-Commerce Credit Warehouse Systems Logistics Selling Tools Supply Chain LOEB Retail Letter Arts Update Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - October 2008

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