DM p12-17 Consumer Data Dec08.qxp 02/12/2008 11:11 Page 16
Consumer Data
The demand for lifestyle data is particularly strong shadowed by the emergence of transactional data,
in the financial sector, which is resuming its cam- which has the advantage of providing real-world
paigning activity after the hiatus caused by the bank- information about customer behaviour. Lifestyle may
ing crisis, but is having to be far more stringent in its throw up consumers who are interested in golf, but
lending criteria. Whereas a year ago, higher risk appli- won’t necessarily distinguish between active players
cants might simply have attracted a higher interest and those who just watch it on TV. People why buy
rate, now prospects have to fit a certain demographic equipment and go on golfing trips to the Algarve will
type or reach a certain score even to be considered. however turn up in transactional sources, while the
Lifestyle overlayed on geodemographic data can help couch potatoes will be absent.
identify the best prospects. But should marketers lean towards one type of data
Anything that helps a company build a strong pic- over another? That will depend absolutely on the
ture of its customer can only help with acquisition, company and the circumstances, argues Anna Foster,
but it can also give it the confidence to step outside director of data planning at Response One, and sup-
Using customer
its comfort zone. “For instance it may know that its pliers who say otherwise should be avoided. “There’s
data to reduce
prime audience is females aged 30-40, but we can sug- no ideal data source for all businesses, as different
churn or upsell gest testing younger females as well,” Carr says. “That data sets will perform differently for different busi-
and cross-sell, is
may not work quite so well but it still produces nesses and products. So to talk of a one-size fits all
a much bigger
results, so there is a huge untapped pool there. If we solution is nonsense,” she asserts. “Some companies
part of our mix
can work with a model then there’s an option to scale have prospect pools that work profitably for them,
up on that side as well. So we can think outside of a others are never able to make this type of solution
these days.
client’s current thinking to deliver more.” viable and are better off buying small volumes of
Colin Grieves, director of data
Carr stresses that data from Lifestyles Online is not niche data.”
strategy, Experian.
incentivised in any way, and that people who supply Lifestyle data, with the right selections applied, has
their details do not do so because they hope to win a proved to be an appropriate source for some of
prize. That means there is less information available Response One’s clients in the financial and motor sec-
than other sources, but it is of far higher quality and tors, whereas transactional data selections feature
more likely to convert. highly for charities and mail order clients. Well-
In recent years lifestyle has been somewhat over- matched niche data sources also perform brilliantly
16 Database Marketing December 2008
www.dmarket.co.uk
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