CHICAGO — Kraft Gevalia Kaffe has seen a 10 percent lift in response from a direct marketing campaign begun in June based on findings gleaned from appending attitude segmentation to its customer database.
Gevalia, which sells premium coffee in a continuity format, wanted to improve communications at all points of the customer life cycle, Carl Anderson, segmentation manager at Gevalia, Tarrytown, NY, said at yesterday's National Center for Database Marketing Conference.
“We wanted to know our customers better so we could be more astute about how we talk to them,” he said. “Our own internal customer transaction data is very good at predicting behavior. It tells you what people will do, but we want to go a little further and have the customer insights so we know what to do next.”
The company turned to KnowledgeBase Marketing, Richardson, TX, and its Monitor MindBase segment coding. Built by Yankelovich through 30 years of studying the U.S. consumer, MindBase segments the population into eight core value segments. These segments — Up & Comers, Aspiring Achievers, Realists, New Traditionalists, Family Centered, Individualists, Renaissance Masters and Maintainers — are further divided into 32 more specific sub-segments so marketers can customize their messages and imagery even more.
Gevalia linked the segment profiles to its house file of several million people and identified three actionable audiences. They are its core group (Renaissance Masters and Maintainers) and two development areas — New Traditionalists, Family Centered and Individualists; and Up & Comers, Aspiring Achievers and Realists. Then it devised its messages.
For example, a straightforward mailing package was sent to the New Traditionalist area while a mailer with more detailed information went to the Up & Comers area. The core group got a control package.
Anderson said Gevalia, which also used the profiles with internal and other external data sources for acquisition programs, now looks to use the segmentation approach for referral programs, additional retention and reactivations and further creative refinement.
“There are also some data hygiene and new product development opportunities,” he said.
Mickey Alam Khan covers Internet marketing campaigns and e-commerce, agency news as well as circulation for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
