By Katherine O’Brien, Senior Editor, American Printer, OutputLinks Communications Group

Katherine O’Brien, Senior Editor of OutputLinks’ American Printer Division discusses what direct marketers can learn from a Harris/Xerox survey on holiday shopping trends.

This article features Xerox’s Shelley Sweeney, XMPie’s Christine Winter and XMPie’s Larry Zusman.

Xerox’s Shelley Sweeney will be among the estimated 152 million Americans doing some holiday shopping this weekend. “Black Friday” takes its name from old bookkeeping conventions. All retailers—and their print providers—want to end the year “in the black.” So how can marketers help make this happen?

“Know your customers,” is Sweeney’s mantra. How do they want to receive and respond to information?

Sweeney, a 2008 OutputLinks Woman of Distinction,  has done her shopping homework—she’s collected e-mail offers for weeks from her favorite retailers and studied the newspaper circulars. She’ll do some last-minute reconnaissance that morning with the help of her parents, husband (Tom); son (Thomas); and daughter (Bridget) as well as the newspapers.

As she joins the post-Thanksgiving shopping scrum, Sweeney, vice president and general manager for the Service Bureau and Direct Marketing Sector of the Graphic Arts Industry, will focus on practical matters such as finding a parking space.

But Sweeney has spent 15 years studying one-to-one marketing. She’s the manager of Xerox 1:1 Lab, a proving ground for direct mail campaigns. So she also will take a keen professional interest in her fellow shoppers. What brought them here?

We Need A Little Relevancy, Right This Very Minute

While door-buster deals are credited with drawing consumers in droves, Sweeney says that nothing succeeds like relevancy. The most successful marketers, she adds, are those who target their prospects’ specific interests and respect their communications preferences. Personalization helps marketers stand out from the crowd.

A recent telephone survey conducted among 1,001 U.S. adults for Xerox by Harris Interactive provides some additional insights. The survey found:

• More than four in ten respondents (41 percent) said they find information and offers related to their specific interests valuable in promotions they receive during the holiday season.
• 45 percent of women are more likely to read, save and use communications that are personalized with their name and/or interests – such as referencing past purchases or products researched online.
• Nearly one in four adults (24 percent) under the age of 35 is likely to react to communications sent via email, whereas only 8 percent of adults age 55 and older say the same.

“This survey validates that earning a spot at the top of a consumer’s mind, and ultimately driving a purchasing decision, takes insight, individual attention and can be influenced by the way the message is delivered,” says Christa Carone, chief marketing officer, Xerox.

Christine Winter, PR/Marketing Programs Manager for XMPie says that most businesses never set out to be impersonal but until recently it was impractical to maintain an ongoing one-to-one dialogue. “But now, in addition to broadcast media channels, technology exists (i.e., digital printing, email, Internet, mobile, social media, variable data and cross-media software, data mining, analytics, etc.) that enables us to have customer relationships like people used to have with their corner grocers, and people increasingly are starting to expect this one-to-one communication.”

Data driven personalization delivers results for Target

In the early days of variable data printing, personalization often was restricted to featuring the recipient’s name prominently throughout the marketing piece. Today’s techniques are much more subtle and sophisticated. Using XMPie PersonalEffect, for example, retailer Target created a personalized “clipless coupon” mailer.

According to Winter, the retail chain built individual shopper profiles from data gathered from credit card purchases as well as the Web and e-mail interactions of 2 million customers. Personalized self-mailers featuring products and coupons based on each recipient’s previous purchases were designed and distributed. The results: double-digit response rates and a 50 percent lift over previous static direct-mail pieces.

But don’t forget the Sweeney family poring over the newspapers at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. The Harris/Xerox survey found 41 percent of adults ages 55 and older still react to newspaper inserts, as do 50 percent of adults ages 35-54.

A National Retail Federation (NRF) survey confirms newspapers are a popular option for tracking holiday sales and promotions. Half (50.5%) of the shoppers NRF surveyed will use advertising circulars throughout the holiday season and nearly one-third (31.7%) said they will tune in to watch retailers’ holiday commercials. Additionally, nearly one-quarter (23.1%) will seek out coupon websites like RetailMeNot.com and FatWallet.com, and 32.3 percent will specifically keep track of the e-mail coupons they receive from retailers.

Dear Santa: Please Bring Me a Smartphone

QR codes have become ubiquitous over the past several years in the U.S., but few consumers have figured them out, according to an October 2011 survey from strategic marketing firm Russell Herder. Results from “The QR Question” indicate 72% of consumers say they have seen a QR code, but nearly 30% do not know what it is.

The Harris/Xerox survey raises a more basic issue: 57 percent of respondents reported they do not own a smartphone.

Chris Lehan, director of product development for a Minneapolis printer, likes JCPenney’s “Who’s Your Santa” QR code effort. The Santa Tag code allows the gift giver to scan the tag with a QR code reader and record a personal voice message. After recording, the giver simply affixes the QR code Santa Tag on the present

Snarky commenters on Gizmodo.com are dismissive: “You’re supposed to stick them to a gift, scan the code and then leave a 60 second personalized message for the giftee, who then has to jump through all the same hoops to hear it played back. As an alternate idea, why not try using your phone’s pre-installed phone app to simply call the person?”

“Lots of companies are using QR codes for their campaigns,” observes Larry Zusman, Worldwide Marketing Manager, XMPie. “They are an excellent tool for linking print to personal mobile sites (PURLs)—but it’s more important to view this ‘category’ as technologies that bridge offline and online communications. By looking at it this way, you can leverage the concept with a wide selection of technology choices. For example, with the rise in mobile, voice systems and geo-location systems can also be used to bridge various modes of communications and can be factored into the cross-media mix.”

Yes Virginia, Customized Communications Work

It’s one thing to say that personalization increases relevance, but how do you prove it? Xerox 1:1 Lab is where the rubber meets the road. Although the name may conjure up images of percolating beakers and test tubes, this “lab” is virtual. Results from a customer’s existing static campaign are tested against one with one-to-one messaging.

Xerox conducts about 10 1:1 Lab projects annually. The marketing offer and creative are similar to the original mailer, with the key difference being the increased personalization of the 1:1 version. The Xerox Graphic Communications customer and direct marketing provider then print and mail out the revamped pieces, at no cost to the client, to measure how well the new mailers do as compared to the less-personalized versions.

As we’ve previously noted, Xerox’s 1:1 Lab delivers some impressive results. “We’ve generated 70 percent increases in revenue, huge ROI improvements, and 500 percent improvement in response rates or more,” says Sweeney. “Customers love these tests. It gives them a proof source and a lot of media exposure that they can sell to their current clients.”

Another way Sweeney and Xerox helps its customers is with business development tools. “Our ProfitAccelerator Digital Business Resources is the first of its kind, collecting best practices of more than 100 tools to help customers develop their businesses,” says Sweeney. “We’ve been doing this for a lot of years, and we’ve got the most complete portfolio of offerings to help our customers change their businesses and become more successful.”

Race You to the Checkout Line

You have to get up pretty early if you want to stay ahead of the relevancy game, not to mention the holiday shopping season. According to the NRF, last year 24% of the shoppers hit the stores before 4 a.m. (Sweeney won’t be among them.)

Hate crowds? The data may well work in your favor: Two-thirds of online shoppers prefer gift cards, according to an NRF survey. 

In Closing

I hope my industry reviews prove of value to your professional interests. You can follow me via the RSS feed button below and talk to me via the Comments Section. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you,
Katherine O’Brien
Senior Editor American Printer
Senior Editor OutputLinks Communication Group
KOB@OutputLinksCG.com