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Issue link: https://quickprinting.epubxp.com/i/287790
A bad database can be a problem. I imme- diately discard anything addressed to Box S. Hall because the sending company didn't care enough to clean up the list it bought. Bad data can cause more than minor irritation. Accord- ing to the Chicago Tribune, in what likely was "targeted marketing gone awry,", the father of a girl killed in a wreck got an OfficeMax flier addressed: "Mike Seay, Daughter Killed In Car Crash or Current Occupant." Good data, however, is invaluable to a good one-to-one marketing campaign. Like most folks, I have a keychain loaded with little affinity cards from Kroger and any number of other businesses such as PetSmart or CVS. I get occasional semi-targeted marketing pieces from some of them but Kroger beats them all. Over the years they have tracked every single item we have ever purchased, and they send out a raft of printed product specific coupons for things we will actually be interested in buying—with a couple of free coupons for our favorite items. PSP or MSP? I'm going to go out on a limb and speculate that most print service providers (PSPs) are not proficient at true one-to-one marketing. I'm not alone here. According to long-time sales consultant and Quick Printing contributor Dave Fellman, "I'm seeing lots of personalization, but really none of the sort of 'customized-brochure- in-response-to-an-inquiry' stuff that people were talking about a few years ago." QP columnist and consultant John Giles also noted: "I agree with Dave. Like Dave, I'm not seeing many printers selling the service where you personalize the marketing material for that person based on information you have. I have seen some personalization based on customer segmentation that considers gender, age, etc., but it is still to a broad audience. I think the issue as to why our market segment hasn't been selling it is because of a lack of expertise in data- base management and an order taking mental- ity rather than a solution based approached." In other words, one-to-one marketing means becoming a marketing service provider (MSP). To gain some insight from the vendor side, I contacted Konica Minolta, Xerox, and XMPie for their take on the issue. Get Into the game "We are seeing significant interest in one- to-one marketing solutions especially in the print-for-pay sub-segment," reported Gavin Jordan-Smith, VP of Solutions and Production Planning at Konica Minolta Business Solu- tions, "We sell solutions currently with our technology products that make it easy for our customers to enter this service offering at differ- ent levels—from basic variable data printing to extensive cross-media offerings integrated with print automation. Based on recent customer data, 37 percent of our customers acquire a one- to-one solution package through us." Shelley Sweeney, VP/GM Service Bureau/ Direct Mail Sectors at Xerox agreed. "All graphic arts providers, including quick printers, are showing interest in one-to-one marketing," Sweeney says. "It allows marketers to better identify their target audience. With the use of data, marketers can better identify what offers, A p r i l 2 0 1 4 / Q U I C K P R I N T I N G 15 w w w. M y P R I N T R e s o u r c e . c o m Image provided by XMPie / Xerox. The first step to designing a one-to-one marketing program is having accurate data. For some, managing and utilizing data is a daunting prospect. QP_14-17_0414 OneOneMarketing.indd 15 3/18/14 3:47 PM