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In This Section
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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.
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Education Marketers… Essential to TransPromo Success in Europe
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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.
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Education Marketers… Essential to TransPromo Success in Europe
By Barb Pellow, InfoTrends
Industry consulting firm InfoTrends recently released a multi-client study entitled Trans Meets Promo: A European Perspective. In conducting this research, InfoTrends surveyed over 2,400 Internet-connected consumers, as well as nearly 800 direct marketers and transaction document owners (the companies sending bills and statements to their customers) and conducted in-depth interviews with print service providers focused on transaction printing to better understand the market opportunity in Western Europe. The report focused on six Western European economies, namely Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
The term “TransPromo” describes the addition of messaging to the face of transaction documents, whether it is promotional, educational, or informational; printed or electronic; black & white or color.
InfoTrends’ research revealed that bills and statements have an unmatched “openability” when compared to other forms of communication, with 98 percent of respondents opening the bills and statements they receive in the mail. Once these transaction documents are opened, consumers spend an average of 3.5 minutes reviewing them. For direct marketers, this represents a customer touch point that cannot be ignored. By moving these messages onto the face of the document, companies can eliminate separate direct mailings. This enables substantial cost savings in postage and printing while also providing consumers with an environmentally friendly alternative.
The study revealed that the most significant barriers to implementation are education and awareness. Meanwhile, primary drivers include the affordability of digital color and tools available to optimize targeting.
Familiarity with TransPromo
While 57 percent of all survey respondents in Western Europe were familiar with the term “transpromotional,” transaction document owners were more familiar with it than direct marketers. In fact, almost half of direct marketers had never heard of the term. Close to 17 percent of total respondents claimed to be very familiar with this term, but 43 percent were unfamiliar with it. While an understanding of the concept is arguably more important than a familiarity with the term, research shows a disconnect between the marketers, transaction document owners, and the vendor community that has embraced TransPromo.
Our data shows that TransPromo was most familiar to respondents in France and the U.K., followed by Italy and Germany. Comparatively, the term “transpromotional” has not penetrated as deeply in Belgium and Sweden.
Figure 1: Familiarity with the Term “Transpromotional”
Cultural differences, the relative strength of trade associations, the amount of educational activities by vendors and industry experts, and the public opinion about putting promotional messages on transactional documents all influence adoption rates by country. The United Kingdom is generally regarded as the leading European nation in the adoption of TransPromo, but TransPromo documents in the United Kingdom do not necessarily feature the degree of personalization found in southern European countries such as Italy and Spain. With much of the published content around TransPromo being written in English, this may also lead to a larger base of British document owners hearing and reading about TransPromo than respondents in other countries. In France, vendors and educational organizations have done a good job in promoting TransPromo since it resonates well with their customer base.
Digital Color Printing – A Key Driver
Over 70 percent of respondents are using some level of digital color printing for their transactional print. France, Italy, and the United Kingdom showed the highest levels of digital color printing, with Germany reporting much lower penetration levels. The research further asked about the transactional print volume that is digitally printed today, and how that may change in the future. Roughly 30 percent of respondents' transaction print volume is digitally printed in full color today. Respondents expect to continue shifting transactional print volume to digital color in the future, and this percentage is expected to reach 44 percent by 2013.
Figure 2: Transactional Print Volume Digitally Printed in Full Color
A 14 percent growth in digital color print volume points to strong benefits for transaction document owners. The first is improved workflow efficiency. By removing a preprinted offset shell (and moving to a “white paper in” process), companies can reduce total production times. The other benefit is directly related to the increased perceived value of color. The transaction document is a valuable customer communication channel, and the use of color can help achieve additional operational and marketing objectives. For instance, billers have experienced double-digit reduction in call center volume as a result of highlighting payment amounts and other important information.
The motives behind the use of color on bills and statements were simple. According to our survey, the most popular reasons for using color included conveyance of increased value to the customer, improved response rates for promotional messaging, and the ability to highlight key customer information (e.g., past due amounts).
Figure 3: Reason for Using Color on Bills and Statements
As a biller, shifting a transaction document from black & white to color should not stop at a pricing discussion—there is a significant value-add associated with color. The incremental benefits of color are believed to far outweigh the costs.
Direct Marketers Take Aim
As direct marketers continue to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts (whether in print, online, or through mobile communications), they will turn to tools to help them more effectively target their messages. This research showed that less than 40 percent of direct marketers have tools in place to optimize the targeting of their direct mail campaigns. Of the 40 percent of marketing respondents in Western Europe who have tools in place to optimize targeting, 93.6 percent have seen an improvement in response due to targeting. Companies must invest in the proper tools to make their TransPromo efforts successful. Consumers are increasingly demanding relevant marketing messages—and tuning out nearly everything else. Targeting is the link that will make TransPromo successful—it minimizes the irritation factor because it increases relevance. The challenge lies in targeting customers with relevant information without infringing on their privacy.
Conclusion
Based on InfoTrends’ research, bills and statements have unmatched openability. Consumers spend 3.5 minutes reviewing the bills and statements they receive in the mail, and devote nearly three minutes to those received online. The transaction document is a valued customer touch point and represents a significant opportunity for TransPromo messaging. At the same time, marketers and document owners are challenged with providing relevant TransPromo communications that consumers will embrace. Both groups are familiar with TransPromo in Western Europe, and now is the time to build on that knowledge.
Significant shifts are expected to occur in a black & white to color migration as well as a printed to electronic transaction document delivery. An integrated print and electronic approach will be critical for these companies in the future. Concerning targeting tools, 93.6 percent of direct marketers with tools in place to optimize targeting of their campaigns saw an improvement. Listen to your customers, invest in the tools and resources to make TransPromo a reality, and enjoy the marketing and business operational benefits that TransPromo can bring to your organization!
The information in this document is based on content from InfoTrends’ comprehensive study entitled “Trans Meets Promo: A European Perspective.” For more information on the full report, please e-mail Jennie Lewis at Jennie_Lewis@infotrends.com.
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