Relationship Marketing & Marketin 97: Preview - Marketing 97 round-up/Relationship marketing comes under the spotlight at Marketing 97. The exhibition and conference, staged by Haymarket Publishing and Miller Freeman, is at Olympia from November 25

New media

The colonisation of homes as well as businesses with PCs has added the

Internet, CD-ROMs and diskettes to the media employed in relationship

marketing. From this has sprung a new industry.

An example of the new-media design work of Bereze Associates is to be

found at www.marketing97.com - the exhibition’s own Web site. The

company claims to integrate ’the richness of a CD-ROM in terms of

graphics, movies and sounds together with the immediacy of the Web’.

Brand New Media says that in preparation for the next technological

trend it is extending its expertise to digital TV.

Response communications agency Richardson Pailin & Fallows joins its

sister company, Net7, to demonstrate how to get started with a Web site

or to revamp an existing one for response.

Its software and implementation support for the BT Trading Places

service for electronic purchasing is explained by the TDS Group. More

software for creating and managing database-driven commerce over the

Internet is demonstrated by iCAT UK.

Clients for Shift F7’s Net design service include Intel, Sun Life of

Canada and Star Internet. Net Names lays claim to being the world’s

premier Internet domain name registry.

From ProActive Productions come multimedia tools, Web sites and computer

graphics. Web site and multimedia design services are offered by The

Design Works.

Direct marketing agencies

An array of direct marketing practitioners is to be found in the Agency

Gallery. Presenting their credentials are Brann Direct Marketing, EWA,

GGT Direct, Lowe Direct and Richardson Pailin & Fallows.

Another leading agency, Judith Donovan Associates, has its own stand in

the hall to flaunt its newly reminted JDA brand. The formation of

strategic alliances, partnering and data engineering are the

specialisations of Relationship Marketing International.

Databases and data handling

Prominent at the show are many concerned with the building and

management of marketing databases, augmenting them from appropriate

lists and campaign responses, and the profiling of customers and

prospects.

AP Information Services has a range of directories and mailing lists on

a database which is said to guarantee 99.5% accuracy. List rental and a

range of database services are available from CDMS Marketing Services,

plus mailing house activities.

The selection from TDS Group includes its business-to-business targeting

and analysis tool, and a telephone-validated database of 2.2 million UK

businesses. Analysis, geodemographics and database management are

offered by EuroDirect, a new product being Windows access to the

Electoral Roll.

As well as its range of lifestyle databases, ICD Marketing Services is

showing statistical software enabling clients to manipulate lifestyle

survey results on their own PCs. Consumer and business lists compiled

from readers of Haymarket Publishing’s periodicals and directories are

obtainable from Haymarket Direct.

Strategic Research has bureau services for research and database

analysis, including its STARS system for tracking customer behaviour

against research results. Datacentre offers database management, data

capture and response handling.

Among support software for market research from Merlinco is its

MerlinPlus package for survey design, interviewing and analysis. Best

known for its company financial information services and business lists,

Dun & Bradstreet is also introducing its profiling and analysis

software.

Data enhancement and analysis are part of the bureau services from GD

Information Management. DM-related technologies can be read about in the

’New Perspectives’ title from GeoInformation International.

With offices across the world, International Customer Loyalty Programmes

offers all forms of communications expertise. Address management

software is available from Listmaster Database and QAS Systems. Bespoke

programming is just one of the services from the Mailcom. Database

management is also available from Mail Marketing Group.

Software for in-house survey research and data analysis is produced by

Mercator Computer Systems. Computer bureau NCH Database Marketing

provides consultancy, statistical analysis and software. Computer

mapping from Ordnance Survey includes AddressPoint, which locates and

defines residential, business and public postal addresses.

In addition to its tutorial role, White House Training & Distribution

has software for marketing planning, geodemographic analysis and

research.

Another tool is its interactive flipchart for recording ideas at

meetings.

A free trial of the CD-ROM version of its address cleaning software is

offered by The Computing Group. Technology from Urban Science

International includes automated predictive analysis for communication

strategies.

Telemarketing

Interactive Media Services (IMS) is an automated, inbound call handling

bureau and one of its clients is catalogue shop Index, which recently

announced its millionth customer call.

Two giant mailing and fulfilment houses, Mailcom and Mail Marketing

Group, have expanded their inbound teleservices and outbound

telemarketing.

Customer segmentation techniques in the management of inbound and

outbound activity are demonstrated by the UK’s largest telemarketing

bureau, Sitel. A division of Taylor Nelson AGB, TeleDynamics is

launching new statistical profiling techniques for telemarketing.

Telesales are the speciality of Ultimate Sales Professionals.

Marketing services

Headaches caused through the complexities of multi-language cross-border

campaigns are soothed away by Freedman International. The company makes

the point on its stand by offering visitors free head massages.

Arden Direct Marketing draws attention to its investment in high-speed

paper enclosing machinery, inkjet printing and labelling. Aspect

Marketing Services covers design, print, inserting, wrapping, mailing,

response, fulfilment, telemarketing, database management and DM project

management.

Sport and entertainment personalities can be signed up through the

Celebrity Group. Design agency First Impression ranges across corporate

literature, exhibitions, direct mail, multimedia and Web sites.

All aspects of direct marketing are encompassed in education and

training programmes from the Institute of Direct Marketing. Market

research agency Key Note demonstrates how more than 200 free executive

summaries across 26 market sectors can be found at its new Web site.

International research in technology and home entertainment sectors is

undertaken by Resource (Marketing Research).

Marketing Relationship Communications, part of Mailcom, provides

strategic consultancy in relationship marketing. Mailcom offers laser

printing, mailing and response handling.

Mail Marketing Group encompasses printing, response handling,

fulfilment, list broking and consultancy. Miller Freeman Direct

specialises in database marketing, distribution management and direct

mail. Case studies illustrating applications of its range of services

are provided by Royal Mail. Affinity Visa cards are issued by Beneficial

Bank.

Customer magazines

Customer magazines are at the heart of many relationship programmes and

agency publishers are at Marketing 97 in strength. They point to the

versatility of their products in sustaining loyalty, putting across

detailed corporate and brand messages, enriching marketing databases,

and providing opportunities for up-selling and cross-selling.

Most are members of the Association of Publishing Agencies, which is at

the show to persuade the nine out of ten major companies which still do

not have a customer magazine that they are missing out.

Ford Motors, Royal Sun Alliance and BUPA are among the clients of

publisher BLA, which offers its stand as a ’watering hole’ for footsore

visitors.

Atom Publishing has Norwich Union Healthcare, NatWest and Christian

Dior.

Pride of the portfolio of Mediamarket Publishing International is

British Midland’s relaunched Voyager magazine. Latest contract gained by

Summerhouse Publishing is the magazine of the London Symphony Orchestra,

joining such clients as Saab, GEC Alsthom, Shell UK and Scottish

Power.

The Publishing Team demonstrates its new Web site containing ’ten

fascinating facts’ about its operations across 22 magazines. Brass Tacks

Publishing is launching its Web site at the show and has a marketers’

assessment pack to analyse whether and how a customer magazine might be

of benefit.

As well as being a major agency publisher, specialising particularly in

IT periodicals for Microsoft and Apple, TPD Publishing is emphasising

its further services in interactive communications, sales promotion,

database management and loyalty consultation.

Redwood, Europe’s biggest agency publisher, boasts ’new generation

solutions’.

It is also introducing its new media division for Internet and

electronic publishing.

The Illustrated London News Group has research which concludes that too

many companies undertake short term ’me-too’ customer magazine projects

without sufficient thought about the need to build long-term

relationships.

Part of the Media Partners network, Axon Publishing can take on

pan-European customer magazines through partners in Holland, Belgium,

France, Sweden and Denmark. It is equally interested in UK titles.

Marketing events

Exhibitions and face-to-face events such as samplings and roadshows are

a further facet of interactivity. This brings in the stand and display

designers, builders and suppliers.

Academy Expo is demonstrating the different types of stands and displays

- custom-built, modular and ’bespoke modular’. Clip, in modular display

systems for 15 years, is launching a new graphics production

department.

Design and construction services are provided by Event Exhibition &

Design.

Seminars

As well as the full-day conferences at Marketing 97, a series of

’walk-in’ half-hour seminars are to be held daily.

Drawn from among exhibitors, presenters look at pan-European

relationship programmes, customer satisfaction and retention, whether

rewards are necessarily the right way to gain customer loyalty,

relationship management, use of loyalty cards and challenge with ’Why do

you want a relationship, anyway?’.

New media is a hot topic. Speakers deal with attracting regular visitors

to Web sites (most sites fail to attract even a second visit, it is

claimed), economic ways of employing the Internet, global customer

communications via the Web, case studies on the use of new media,

trading on the Internet, and how to register domain names.

There are sessions on research, including scrutiny of the market

research and survey software, and bridging the gap between research

results and internal customer data.

Techies examine software for planning, research and database

marketing.

Two of the several contract publishers at the exhibition demonstrate the

case for customer magazines. There is a behind-the-scenes look at how

celebrities are acquired for advertising, endorsements and personal

appearances.

In telemarketing, choosing the right type of response handling for DRTV

is scrutinised. There are also ideas for design and the use of modular

systems for event marketing.

HEADY BRU

An example of effective use of new media is the Irn-Bru Web site, a

winner at October’s Grocery Advertising FMCG awards.

Created by Brand New Media, the site, www.irn-bru.co.uk, attracts huge

numbers of visits through a variety of wacky interactive adventures,

with surprise rewards and downloadables.

Shopping on the Internet has been developed by Mail Marketing Group,

first for the Wallace and Gromit ’Aardmarket’ and recently for products

based on Enid Blyton characters. Buyers’ details are captured for use in

relationship programmes.

’Direct shopping is set to explode over the next few years,’ predicts

MMG marketing director Ian Hughes.

VISIT THE VILLAGE

The Data Village at Marketing 97 provides a hands-on demonstration of

how technology can transform raw data into usable marketing and

management information.

Visitors start at a ’store’ to collect data, using EPOS, barcode readers

and swipe cards, and then move through a data cleansing and analysis

process, before reaching segmentation and communication.

Finally, there is the development of strategies for customer acquisition

and retention, merchandising, new product development and the

measurement of media effectiveness.

The village has been created by Dunn Humby in association with MTI and

Oracle.

This article was first published on Marketing