Direct And Database Marketing Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Direct And Database Marketing - Case Study Example They are now starting to pursue the natural progression relationship marketing, where their marketing communication to a customer will be defined according to the nature of that customer. Secondly, they sell through an indirect channel, yet their efforts can be defined as direct marketing because it is done to customers with the goal of a direct response in return (Tapp 2004 p4). To reach the wide customer base currently served, Lawson uses indirect sales via 1600 independent sales representatives. As their sales channel is therefore highly granular as well as being independent, information flow back to Lawson is limited, in particular for analysis of customer data or tracking of marketing campaigns. The industry sector is also one that typically does not exploit the possibilities of database marketing, although in the light of the competitive situation, this may change (RRW 2008). The company saw that more effective marketing was required and hired executives with marketing skills to address the situation (Adcock et al 2001). These new members of the company realised that instead of treating all customers as the same, it was necessary to capture customer details in order to build a relationship with that customer and by personalising the treatment given, to maximise the possibilities of repeat business (Tapp 2004 p4). ... The company's data at the time was distributed in an ad hoc fashion between spreadsheets, smaller databases and mailing lists. Although it gave personal customer data and purchase data on what different customers had bought, it lacked the data on what communication or sales campaign history was and what responses the customer might have given. It was in this sense not a full marketing database (Goldwag 2003). A number of related software applications were implemented to address this situation, including applications to cleanse data, analyse it, store it in an SQL database and provide reports. The cleansing of the data is to prevent duplication of records as well as invalid addresses or customers who have requested that no contact be made. The analysis is currently done to assess the effectiveness of Lawson's life cycle marketing with particular emphasis on customer retention. This is a time-series method, which as a short-term measure is relatively fast and precise for the prediction of customer response and sales revenue (Tapp 2004 p59). The conclusions that Lawson has reached so far are that there is considerable turnover of customers and therefore lower customer loyalty, and that customer defection happens rapidly and therefore demands a rapid response from Lawson. This is the short-term answer until the marketing team refines a model that not only let them exploit the end customer's growing wish to have direct contact with the manufacturer of the good that they purchase, but also uses this direct marketing to add value to products such as rivets and screws that are often perceived as a commodity offering (Tapp 2004 p15). A figure for the return on investment on the efforts made so far is unavailable. Lawson's evaluation of the benefits