|
|
| |
 |
|
 |
| |
In This Section
|
|
| |
|
Barbara A. Pellow is Group Director – InfoTrends. Barbara recently assumed responsibility for the development and delivery of two new services at InfoTrends specifically focused on the evolution of the Graphic Communications Market – The Business Development Service and the Custom Communications Service. Pellow has served in a number of roles, including the Chief Marketing Officer of Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group. In this role, Pellow was responsible for all marketing activities for the division, including marketing communications, public relations, marketing intelligence, and advertising strategy. She was an active participant in developing business strategies and helping to define the group’s go-to-market organizational structure.
Prior to joining Kodak, Pellow was the Gannett Chair in Integrated Publishing Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) School of Printing Management and Sciences (SPMS). She has also held senior marketing roles at IKON Office Solutions, InfoTrends, Xerox, and IBM.
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
Pellow Talk: Take on the Data Challenge
|
|
Barb PellowPellow Talk
Each month receive Barb Pellow's perspective on the latest trends and developments impacting the high volume transaction output (HVTO) market. A digital printing and publishing pioneer and marketing expert, Pellow helps companies develop multi-media strategies that ride the information wave. Whether it is developing a strategy to launch a new product, building a strategic marketing plan or educating your sales force on how to deliver an effective value proposition, Pellow brings the knowledge and skills to help companies expand and grow business opportunity.
|
|
|
|
|
|
By Barb Pellow, InfoTrends
Everyone is collecting data on who is—or should be—buying their products or services. This data does not just consist of names and addresses. It includes information about what people bought, when they bought it, and the quantities in which they bought. It also includes birthdates, anniversary dates, marital status, the ages of any children, and personal preferences. This information opens up new ways to market more products and services for consumer and business-to-business marketers. In today’s competitive environment, it is critical to obtain and utilize data about who you sent a message to, the specific offer, and the recipient’s response.
It’s What Marketers Want!
Marketers understand that relevancy can prevent customer defection, improve customer satisfaction, and increase customer spending while reducing marketing costs. In InfoTrends’ recently completed multi-client study entitled The Cross-Media Direct Marketing Opportunity, more than 500 marketers were surveyed. Marketing respondents reported that more than 60% of their campaigns were targeted. Of these, 39% of campaigns were segmented (one-to-few) and 21% were highly personalized (one-to-one).
Figure 1: Marketers' Use of Personalization
.sflb)
Data-driven personalization and customization are essential as businesses seek to establish meaningful relationships with prospective and current customers. Successful service providers are working with clients on a combination of segmentation and data accumulation. Savvy providers are building the skills or establishing the right partnerships to help clients synthesize a large amount of consumer data into key target segments. InfoTrends’ research has confirmed that marketers need assistance in the area of data analytics, and this creates an opportunity for print service providers.
Figure 2: Marketers' Data Challenges
.sflb)
The Data Challenge
With the computing technology available today, most companies are gathering customer information. Unfortunately, these companies are frequently "data rich and information poor." In InfoTrends’ Cross-Media Multi-Client report, marketers were asked for their perspective on the quality of their customer data. More than 60% of respondents rated the quality of their data as average or below.
.sflb)
It is no longer a competitive advantage to offer consistent color and other graphical forms of differentiation—these are table stakes in that marketers will demand graphical representations that meet their specifications. While a considerable amount of data exists from both internal and external sources, savvy service providers are developing the skills to acquire lists. They are also finding ways to identify lists to augment their existing data and improve the targeting. They recognize the opportunity in a world where the majority of marketers believe that their data quality is average or below.
The new wave of services is hinged on the knowledge and organization of a database as well as content that can easily be served simultaneously through a variety of media channels. Service providers must focus their energies on learning about how to offer integrated services that are based on digital content, databases, and a variety of measureable media deployment options.
People and Processes
People and processes give organizations the ability to act. More specifically, they enable businesses to execute, react, and adjust. To successfully implement data-driven processes, service providers need to manage the technologies and provide decision-making tools.
Established in 1930, Universal Millennium, Inc. draws on a rich tradition of consultative customer service and technology-driven solutions to help clients deliver innovative, cost-effective, and mission-critical communications. The company has consolidated some of the most prestigious names in the printing industry, including Intercity Press, United Lithograph, Millennium Graphics, Daniels Printing, and Acme Printing Company. Universal employs more than 300 people in three locations and generates $100 million in sales. The company’s focus is on three distinct markets, namely financial, education, and direct mail. Universal has created a platform called U Drive to support marketing campaigns from thought to distribution.
The Universal solution is an easy-to-use software application that unites customer databases and creative content for commercial print, e-mail, mobile, and the Web using a single-source software application. The company coordinates the process for customers to effectively deliver data-driven messaging.
Universal CTO/CMO John Sisson stated, “Successful implementation of data-driven solutions requires a combination of the right software, processes, and expertise. Universal works with clients to achieve their goals of getting the right message to the right person, at the right time, in the right format. We understand the economics of distributing communications and the importance of choosing the appropriate medium to achieve marketing ROI for our customers.”
Processes include building "measurement" into a campaign. Each new campaign must be tracked properly with feedback mechanisms in place so trends can be identified and changes can be made in real-time. Service providers must invest in the training of current employees and the addition of new employees with expanded skills in data analytics, content management, cross-media deployment, and sales/account management of services that support the new cross-media value chain. These core competencies need to be developed in-house or obtained through the use of strategic partners that can fill the voids.
The Bottom Line
Today’s print and marketing service providers need to be “relevant” to marketing executives. Today’s marketing executives want to deliver the right message via the right channel at the right time. For print service providers, differentiation means helping customers optimize campaigns—and this starts with and ends with data. It’s time to help marketing executives leverage data effectively. Marketers are dissatisfied with the quality of data and the ability to manage it, and this creates new opportunities for data-savvy service providers.
|
|
|
|
|
| OutputLinks Communications Group Sites |
|
|
|
|
|
|