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that drove large numbers of consumers swap files was increasing all the time, so the format have had mixed success, with some
to the website. Ten years ago very few volume of new names available decreased marketers able to mail more with the cost
multichannel marketers were doing match- proportionally. The Abacus transactional savings but others finding the C4 format
back analysis, but now it is seen as integral database cooperative proposition offered better suited to display more product and
to every campaign. an alternative, and it wasn’t long before stand out within a crowded mailbox.
Even so, tracking and analysing results Experian launched a similar offering. As in any other market, best practice
from catalogue, web, email and store By 2003, Transactis had set up a co-op and received wisdom in the world of
marketing pose a constant headache to the database with a twist: to sell catalogue cross-channel commerce have changed
modern marketer. Add inserts, press ads and data to noncompeting markets such as dramatically. They will likely continue to do
direct mail to the equation, and the real value financial companies and charities. The so in the next 10 years, as we encounter
of each message becomes harder to define. co-op database proposition has evolved a raft of new issues to contend with. The
Match-back analysis offers a blunt view but further, adapting to the needs of the market environmental issues we currently face, for
can rarely isolate the subtleties of campaigns and catering to the business-to-business, instance, barely registered in 1998 and are
in combination. publishing and continuity sectors as well as a nettle waiting to be grasped.
Back in 1998, catalogues were mailing to business-to-consumer cataloguers. When Abacus started trading in 1998 the
to names from a greater variety of sources, Royal Mail’s August 2006 introduction British economy was emerging from some
including lifestyle, publishing and charity of Pricing in Proportion, in which postage tough times. Ten years on, the industry is
data, than they do today. Even then, though, is determined by the physical size and facing more perilous times as economic
many were finding that mail order data thickness of a mail piece as well as by its factors worsen. But these challenges may
were the only source offering acceptable weight, was another direct mail milestone produce opportunities for the innovative
performance. of the past decade. Whereas the majority catalogue business; with the crunch affecting
The market for list swaps flourished, yet of catalogues were C4 size 10 years ago, the ability of lower-income earners to get
cataloguers often found that the overlap there is now a proliferation of large-letter access to credit, could we see a resurgence
between their own customer file and the C5 formats. The price breaks for large-letter of the credit offer in catalogues?
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