Marketing budgets have shown increasingly optimistic signs of improvement…but these come with some new, tougher terms and
conditions, writes Richard Stephens.

What has happened in the last thirty months is a realisation that marketing, although now universally seen as essential to sales and branding success, needs to be refined in future application, avoiding inefficient or unnecessary expenditure.
In short, we all want more results from less investment and FDs are watching our every move!
So what new, more effective ways are there for a shrewd marketer to spend less money to make more?
Marketing services suppliers have been busy creating smarter, more refined tools to talk to customers.
These new tools aim at slicing schedules, reducing cost and removing wasted effort in finding and interacting with those customers most likely to buy the products and services being marketed.
The results are extremely interesting and centre upon one core mantra for future use of marketing effort – ‘make it relevant and keep it personal’.

Making it relevant
Amazingly most companies already have the essential ingredient of more effective marketing: good customer profiles – information about the customer, a person’s age, interests and status- all stored away somewhere in their databases.
Analysis and careful use of customer records allows us to select likely targets for any specific business proposition-with better accuracy and more relevance than ever before. Selective direct mail using “good” data sources for example can; given the right creative messaging and presentation; increase response from direct mail to 15-
25% compared to a more common 2 or 3%. By simply tuning the message and printing less collateral the interest amongst targets goes up while costs come down.

Keeping it personal
Improved customer data is compatible with modern printing techniques. The new digital print systems can now print ‘variable data’ – personalised individual elements that can customise the presentation to be more relevant, interesting and attractive to the recipient. This process involves a totally individual appearance, by language, regional images (maps, graphs or photos) and appropriate use of personal information, like name, place of work, profession, age etc.
These variable and personalised techniques, provided by digital print companies such as Ruscombe and Abbeygate are used more increasingly by luxury goods manufacturers or financial institutions to blend tuned proposition with individual personal profile increasing customer reception and interest and delivering responses of over 40%* when used correctly.

For its new client, called Abrocour – offering broadband wireless solutions to new homes – Creative Direction, the marketing consultancy, used “personalised advertising” in a trade journal to pick off 1000 top MDs and CEOs of house builder companies – to personally present a business proposition. The result was massive penetration into the top 50 homebuilder companies (which build over 80% of new homes in UK). Again marketing that is relevant, personal and effective.

Specialist Marketing Services
Specialist supplier companies provide a wide range of new marketing techniques and services that, if used in a co-ordinated fashion can provide fantastic ROI and maintain the sort of directional message effectiveness that only advertising used to do – but at a much higher price and with extraordinary wastage.
Some companies have applied “viral” campaigns, for example J2O, bravely and now famously used a “toilet training” game, designed by new media house Graphico, to highlight the aspects of its non-alcoholic beverage achieving an award-winning online interactive product launch that covered millions of ‘interested’ customers for a fraction of the cost of any TV commercial.
Marketers can select services like ambient or gorilla advertising – Inside Ambient; database and marketing research – TDMB; printing solutions either digital – Ruscombe, or more traditional litho services – Geoff Neal Litho.
Retail tools include powerful instore product demonstrations, product promotion covered by “field marketing” techniques – Cert and Channel Advantage; a pop-up or fully constructed exhibition or event with customised graphics – Volaire; specialist media PR - SPS Media; or even a 24X7 print and procurement portal to hammer down vendor costs – XRALLE from ROI Distribution. Coutts, a specialist retail solutions company, and one of the UK’s foremost specialists designing in-store environment displays, used a creative answer to Olay’s need for both looks and return from in-store displays – the result, improved impact and a curvaceous design very suitable for a female audience…
It is nice to see that money is once again being invested into the marketing arena – and also good to see that some services have gained attention from marketers looking to use their hard earned budgets more wisely and more profitably.

For further information, please contact:
Richard Stephens
DirectionGroup
Tel: 0118 989 8104
Mob: 07836 587096
Email: richards@directiongroup.co.uk
www.directiongroup.co.uk