ATLANTA — Cooperative database companies I-Behavior and Alliant Cooperative Data Solutions said today that they joined forces to create Co-op2 (Co-op Squared), a solution aimed to increase the profitability of customer prospects identified through I-Behavior.
The offering debuted here at DMA·05.
The I-Behavior co-op database was launched in 2000 and now has transaction data on 1,185 direct marketing participants.
“We know what someone has purchased, when they purchased it and how much they were supposed to pay for it but we don't know if they actually did pay for it or not,” said Anne Sullivan, vice president, marketing services at I-Behavior, Harrison, NY.
And with a recent influx of continuity programs and an increase in the number of catalogers that have credit-driven offers, teaming with Alliant made sense, she said.
Alliant launched TransactionBase, a cooperative database for the bill-me segment of the direct marketing industry, in July 2004 with five years of transaction and payment history from nine charter contributors. It now has 15 contributors and hopes to reach 20 by the end of 2005.
What Alliant brings to the table is the payment information that marketers cannot get by using credit scores, Sullivan said.
“What the Alliant data allows us to do is find out if that person has a good payment history,” she said. “A consumer may not pay their bills and may have a less than stellar credit rating but when it comes to things that they personally care about like their CDs or their clothing they'll pay for it because they want those items.”
That lets mailers go deeper into the I-Behavior database while minimizing back-end risk.
I-Behavior's participants need not be TransactionBase members to use Co-op2 but it has advantages.
“If a mailer in TransactionBase tested I-Behavior and response was good but the back end wasn't strong enough, our custom model that we build for them will find the people on the I-Behavior file that will respond and pay,” said JoAnne Monfradi Dunn, CEO of Alliant Cooperative Data Solutions, Brewster, NY.
Still, all other mailers get a PerformanceSelect model that scores the I-Behavior database by ranking payment and response probabilities within a geographic matrix. The tool applies behavioral data to a mailer's standard select criteria.
Alliant also offers PerformanceSelect models to the list industry at large.
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