Lecture by Dr. Stefan Schulte and Martin Brahm as part of: iBusiness Virtual Congress Fair on 12.10.2021
Have fun … and don’t forget to turn on the sound 😉
“What is our return on marketing investment?”
“Do digital or analog forms of advertising provide the higher revenue boost?”
All marketers know these important questions. But answers are hard to come by: many factors interact and there is usually a lack of data for a reliable analysis. This applies, for example, to the classic in the retail trade: the brochure. But there is a way to get to the bottom of the success factors. We took a look at digital and printed brochures in comparison. The result is already surprising, but even more exciting is the method.
How did we proceed?
Digital marketing usually also generates data for campaign evaluation at the same time. This is different for offline measures. The brochure of, say, a nationwide retail chain in the mailbox does not send a response as soon as it is read. Nevertheless, it is possible to determine the advertising impact of the brochure – using Schober Geofencing.
This method uses smartphones as a database, on which users allow certain apps to access their location. The Device then sends motion points with timestamps to the App Publisher. Schober buys this data (the database currently contains over 52 million unique mobile IDs) and matches it against the Schober data universe in accordance with data protection regulations. Now, based on these IDs, we can narrow down to the desired locations and times using geographically accurate polygons.
Catchment area
In this way, the initially “data-less” offline measures can be provided with data for measuring the efficiency of these measures. What you couldn’t see before now becomes transparent. This results in revolutionary use cases:
Store visitors
So much for the method, but what has the greater advertising impact? The analysis based on the matched data shows that there is no universal answer, because the result depends on socio-demographic structure, competitive environment, store locations and other aspects. From several projects, however, which we have carried out nationwide for different retailers and specialty chains
have performed, one can derive the following rules:
The surprise? The brochure is and remains a strongly activating element in advertising. Digital advertising formats can complement very well, but they are unlikely to replace the brochure in the foreseeable future. What’s more, anyone looking for purchasing power is printing.
Measuring campaign and advertising success has been a particular challenge for offline campaigns. But with Schober Geofencing and the right analysis steps, advertising measures in their entirety – online and offline – can be precisely recorded, evaluated and optimized for maximum sales boost.
What are your experiences? Have you faced similar challenges? Do you use geospatial data in your marketing?
Our geomarketing specialist Sven Waldenmaier is looking forward to learning more and entering into a dialog with you. Feel free to contact him directly HERE.
Hotspots for the new store concept: Where have customers migrated to and how do companies retain newly acquired customers?
by Sven Waldenmaier, Geo Specialist and Teamlead Sales at Schober
There is no doubt that the Corona pandemic had a strong impact on the store business and customer loyalty. For a long time, stores were closed altogether, so consumers sought alternative ways to shop. But which developments will remain, which will disappear? A large drugstore chain approached us with this question. The aim: to review the store network and realign it if necessary. Because sales can only bubble up where there are customers. So where are the customers?
The starting point of our analyses were two central questions. First, how can areas be quantitatively assessed using data to identify hotspots? Secondly, it was also about a qualitative classification of customers. After all, it is of little use if you operate a store at a frequented location but there is little demand for the drugstore’s offering there. A gas station in the pedestrian zone makes no sense, that is immediately clear. For less obvious cases, however, business decision-makers need more in-depth information – on the purchasing power of pedestrian flows, for example. This is because, in extreme cases, the costs for the store can be higher than the sales that can be generated. The Apple Group may take that on itself with its brand stores, because it’s all about awareness here. Our drugstore chain, however, pursues a different business model, with the store as the central distribution channel.
We therefore started with a nationwide analysis of pedestrian flows in around 200 areas with a high density of stores – i.e. pedestrian zones, city center locations and shopping centers. The Schober Information Group has more than 55 million “Unique Mobile IDs”. On the basis of these anonymized identifiers, which comply with data protection regulations, pedestrian flows in defined areas can be read and interpreted. The procedure in detail:
Step three is crucial for supplementing the initially purely quantitative view with qualitative characteristics and thus gaining truly sales-promoting insights. Based on affinities, pedestrian flows and store visitors can be more precisely qualified and conclusions drawn about interests. Anyone who goes to a gym three times a week has a higher affinity for sportswear and personal care (at least I hope so) than other passersby. On the other hand, people who stroll through the pedestrian zone of a large city every day (even on Sundays) are more likely to be looking for entertainment than specifically for purchases. Those who primarily frequent discount stores are more price sensitive than the subscriber to a high-end luxury spa downtown. Which competitors have visitors to my drugstore visited before and what do they buy then? Now, the data is collected anonymously, but crucial insights can be drawn from the aggregate.
Even more insights are gained by using third-party data – such as the Schober data universe – for the analysis. Our drugstore chain specifically used this sociodemographic data to additionally determine purchasing power, family structure, living conditions and many other attributes of the pedestrian flows in the store environment and the store visitors. In this way, it is possible to see how the residents of a villa suburb with high purchasing power prefer to store or where families from the “Speckgürtel” of Hamburg, Dresden or Cottbus go shopping. The examples show: Geomarketing makes the analog customer journey – places, routes, purchases – of customers transparent and thus controllable.
After all, only those who know where their target customers spend their time, where they go shopping, and what other interests they have can create target group and visitor analyses with a high degree of precision. This is the prerequisite for profiling the target groups according to personas and, as a result, for a sales-boosting approach: at which location should billboards draw attention to the store offer, where should brochures be distributed, who should be lured into the outlet with offers? In addition, locations can be accurately assessed and hotspots identified. If you profile your target groups, you can respond more precisely to their demand and make offers where it is highly likely that sales can be turned around. And in the same way, these insights can also be used to make targeted online offers that supplement the branch network as the main sales channel at key points.
So back to the drugstore chain and the consequences of the pandemic: How badly has the store environment suffered? How much did the frequency of store visitors decline and how quickly did it recover after the lockdowns? What is the role of incidence values, location, environment? We had investigated this and, in the case of drugstores, found increasing store visits. Of course, because drugstores, as suppliers of daily necessities, remained open during the lockdown – in contrast to perfumeries and sports stores, which had to switch completely to online.
Procedure geofencing analysis
The migration of customers away from specialist retailers is therefore actually an influx for drugstores – new customers were gained in the high-priced fragrance segment, among others, and sporting goods were also in high demand. Will new customers remain loyal to drugstores after the lockdown? The analyses from geomarketing show that a remarkable 17% of customers who frequented different chain stores before the lockdown remain exclusively with drugstores after the lockdown. The optimal response to this change depends on the perspective: Specialty retailers such as perfumeries and sporting goods stores attract – according to the analysis of passers-by and visitor flows – above all a clientele with purchasing power in the 40 to 59 age group, who also otherwise move around spas and beauty salons, exclusive fashion boutiques and delicatessens. To win back these customers, retailers would have to expand their stores in the identified hotspots. Drugstores, on the other hand, should supplement their traditional high-turnover locations in the vicinity of cinemas, fitness studios or stores for baby supplies with new locations in lifestyle hotspots with an extended product range. In addition to the choice of location, joint marketing activities with suitable corporate partners from the areas identified by geomarketing are also promising – cross-selling and co-marketing can sustainably bind the new customers.
The biggest competitor, however, remains purchasing on the Internet. That’s why all chain stores should follow three maxims: Invest in hotspots and the right assortment, complete your branch offering with a web store and, above all, think branch and online store together. After all, retailers only generate revenue if they are present in the exact place where their customers are.
Let’s talk about your individual challenges!
I look forward to learning more and engaging in dialogue with you.
Feel free to contact me directly HERE.
Your Sven Waldenmaier
This article appeared on 21.06.2021 in Marketingbörse magazine, among others.
Are brand loyalty and customer retention yesterday’s news? In any case, the technical upheavals of recent years have turned some certainties upside down. CMOs and CSOs in the midmarket are challenged to adapt to the new conditions in both B2C and B2B business. In view of the thematic abundance – AI, ML, DSGVO, Last Cookie, Zero Data – decision makers in marketing and sales are strongly challenged. But, and this is our good news: The challenges are manageable. Brand loyalty and customer retention are still important and feasible. That’s what we want to show you on the next few pages and take you into a new world.
This white paper begins by looking at the three key challenges facing marketing and sales executives. The second part summarizes the consequences of the transformation for CMOs and CSOs, and then presents a concrete solution concept for the upcoming tasks in the following part with udo. The last part contains concrete use cases to provide practical knowledge and possible applications.
convey. In view of the large number of challenges, we are only showing a selection; we will be happy to provide you with further material and background on request.
Stuttgart, 28.09. 2020 – The Schober Information Group Deutschland GmbH has once again convinced: The underwear and lifestyle label bruno banani has chosen udo (universal data orchestration) platform introduced, a next-generation CDP “PLUS”. udo has been live since September 2020. With the new platform for data-driven marketing, bruno banani is taking off and taking customers on a journey – for example, to the virtual “new land” of the #FSOMBB campaign. A CRM database first brings together all available data sources. Then, analytics, AI, and visualization determine the crucial insights from the customer journeys so that bruno banani can address target groups in a cross-channel, personalized, and successful manner. The control center is a management cockpit with a marketing plan, campaign management, KPIs and controlling. The project was realized by the Schober Information Group together with the consulting firm Sherlock & Watson Marketing and Data Investigations as implementation partner.
“Retail is changing, and so is the media,” says Jan Jassner, Managing Director of bruno banani, to outline the initial situation of the project: “So what does digitalization mean for bruno banani? In addition to specialist retailers, there are more and more sales channels with direct customer contact. That’s why we need our own and direct customer access for growth. At the same time, the channels for addressing customers are differentiating and multiplying.” So it’s clear: bruno banani needs to know more about its customers in order to master structural change. The key is customer data. And so bruno banani decides to systematically develop data as an asset.
Data from webshop, newsletter and other data sources were available, but a consolidated overall view and evaluation tools were missing. In the discussion with consulting firm Sherlock & Watson, however, it quickly became clear – according to Jan Jassner – that the first step was to clarify the status quo, goals and structures before looking for a suitable technology. Finally, after intensive market evaluation, the decision is made in favor of udo, because “the question for the future is: How does bruno banani gain knowledge about customers from data? If you don’t know your customers, you can’t fulfill their wishes,” says Jan Jassner. And udo is convincing because it offers high flexibility in data mapping, excellent evaluation options, visualization, data excellence, DSGVO compliance and the option of a financial and management dashboard.
Image source: bruno banani underwear GmbH
In March, a team from Sherlock & Watson and Schober will start Phase II of the implementation: In several workshops, interfaces will be defined, data models designed and a wide variety of data sources linked. A CRM database with all customer, product and transaction data is created. Whether web store, outlet or retailer, the goal is a 360-degree view. Phase III follows, in which Schober data is used to ensure data quality and lay the foundation for analytics, persona building and integrated artificial intelligence. In the final phase, the team develops data-driven campaigns that correlate customers, measures, and results. This allows udo and its AI to learn from the experience and determine which customer is best approached when, how and on which channel. The deeper understanding of the customer journey provides target group-specific triggers and automatically and efficiently controls the corresponding campaigns. The customers are happy: Welcome to the Free State of Mind bruno banani – not for everybody!
“We’ve been revolutionizing lingerie drawers since 1993, and now we’re also revolutionizing our marketing and all customer communications. bruno banani is ideally positioned with udo to systematically tap into data as an asset,” says Jan Jassner, Managing Director bruno banani GmbH. “The team at Schober and Sherlock & Watson has opened up incredible horizons for us. bruno banani now has great opportunities in marketing. Working with both project partners is a tremendous asset. I am looking forward to the upcoming campaigns for #FSOMBB,” says Jan Jassner, Managing Director bruno banani GmbH.
“bruno banani is setting new standards in data-driven marketing. udo finally makes the 360-degree customer view real, analyzes the customer journey in real time and individualizes customer interaction across channels,” says Martin Brahm, Chief Sales Officer of Schober Information Group Deutschland GmbH.
The international cult brand for underwear and swimwear, based in Chemnitz, Germany, has been revolutionizing lingerie drawers all over the world since 1993. Founded by the business economist Wolfgang Jassner, the company wrote marketing and sales history within a very short time: campaigns such as the luge named Bruno Banani at the Olympic Games or the test of bruno banani underwear in space on the MIR space station brought the family business international attention. Meanwhile, bruno banani exports to 17 countries worldwide and has granted various product licenses. The products are available through the online store, outlet stores, and select specialty retail stores.
Acquiring new customers is more time-consuming and therefore more costly than maintaining existing customers.
This is especially true in markets with long product lifecycles and low emotional differentiation among competitors.
Electricity, gas and water do not electrify in the same way as fashionable consumer goods or hip lifestyle products.
Therefore, in these industries, the customer lifecycle is the key lever for revenue and customer retention.
While for new customers it’s all about gaining and maintaining attention, for existing customers the focus is on building on the existing relationship and increasing loyalty. The energy industry shows this very vividly: The willingness to switch electricity, gas and water is constantly increasing and is further fueled by sales and comparison portals (more on this in our white paper: “Marketing and sales in liberalized energy markets“). Of course, if you lose existing customers, you need at least the same number of new customers to maintain the status quo alone. Assuming that new customers cost around five times more than retaining an existing customer, priority one is clear: nurture existing customers – and develop new customers into existing customers.
Sales professionals and marketers in industries such as energy, as well as telecom or insurance, need more than others to gain deep customer insights and actively engage with their customers’ needs in order to make enticing offers. To do this, they need the right technical foundation and data, because the key to long-term customer loyalty is ongoing data-driven evaluation of customer needs at every stage of the customer lifecycle. Only those who know the life cycle of their customers can expand the customer relationship with valuable offers and increase loyalty. This is where udo helps.
Because udo von Schober offers detailed analyses of customer data, for example as a customer value analysis. Existing business partners and customers are systematized according to their previous contribution to sales. The respective customer value then shows which existing customers are particularly attractive in terms of sales and how their shopping cart can be increased. In the case of utilities, for example, the e-charging station can be an attractive addition to the electricity contract. In addition to analyzing the inventory, this also makes it possible to forecast the future potential for sales.
Practical tip: Unsure about your own data quality? The Schober Quality Check helps and provides you with a non-binding in-depth analysis of your data. We match your inventory with the Schober data universe (4.6 million B2B data, 58 million B2C data and over 80 million mobile IDs), determine the degree of up-to-dateness and concretely point out possible need for action.
Image source: ThisIsEngineering, Pexels
Customers only buy products or services if they promise benefits and added value. The same is true for customer interaction. If you want to retain customers and develop them into loyal existing customers, you also have to make customer interactions personally useful and of value. Purchase history, age and housing conditions offer initial clues for action. Truly personalized interaction, however, requires more: Can a new electricity customer be targeted with an annual ticket for the municipal swimming pools? To estimate this, one needs additional data. Those who have the necessary insights can also send marketing and sales to the right communication channels in a targeted manner with value-added interaction.
Deciding on the optimal product and communication strategy, the loyalty programs or the appropriate channels succeeds by first segmenting customers. Segments as bundles of characteristics can additionally be condensed into personas. Similar to a short biography, personas describe relevant customer characteristics in detail. These help to respond to customer wishes with maximum precision and to implement target group-appropriate measures.
But patterns can also be seen where terminations are expected soon. The “soon-to-be-terminated” persona can be won back – if it is recognized – before the termination even occurs. The attractive product combination of electricity, public transport and Internet or the new eco-electricity offer do wonders for customers. The company saves the cost of acquiring new customers.
Marketing and sales can actively influence the switching needs of end customers in a targeted manner by using existing customer information. But some fluctuation is inevitable – fortunately, even among competitors.
If you’re thinking “Sure, that’s great, we’ve tried that, but customer lifecycle management is very challenging,” you’re right. Yes, it is challenging. But at Schober, we’ve been shaping the future of sales and marketing for over 70 years. And so a cloud-based out-of-the-box platform for managing customer data (Customer Data Platform – CDP) has emerged from the method presented. We call the solution udo and think you should get to know udo. We’ll be happy to show you how easy udo makes customer lifecycle management.
Good luck and long live your sales!
Your Schober Team