Beyond suppression: Mark Roy tells how best to manage your data
Direct Marketing International - March 2009
Would you like the good news first or the bad? Well, brace yourselves and try this bad news on for size:
- According to a recent QAS survey, only 42 per cent of organisations employ any form of data quality strategy
- The average consumer database degrades by 14 per cent each year (ratchet that up to 35 per cent for B2B)
- 53 per cent of consumers have been inundated with DM addressed to someone who no longer lives at their house, or is deceased, in the past six months (Formscan)
- The UK's Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) reports that 66 per cent of punters are annoyed by the amount of direct mail pouring through their letterboxes.
Something's certainly rotten in the State of Data.
But here is some good news to gladden the heart of even the most credit-crunched marketer:
- DM remains the most responsive advertising medium, generating £14 for every £1 spent (DMIS)
- 51 per cent of adults still like receiving product samples (IPA)
- DM campaigns that have a strong integration with other brand activity consistently deliver response rates of 60 per cent above the norm (Royal Mail/Quadrangle)
- Retaining an existing customer costs only one-fifth to one-eighth as much as acquiring a new one - a particularly pertinent statistic given that, typically, up to 65 per cent of a company's income comes from its current client base.
I'm the first to admit, it's a data minefield out there. And with a new EU ePrivacy Directive looming on the horizon (if the current draft is ratified later this year, it will be compulsory for all companies to notify customers of data breaches), the where, when and how of personal data collection, storage and usage by companies is set to get even more complicated, both within the Eurozone and beyond.
I don't believe the recession or changing international data protection landscape pose insurmountable obstacles for responsible marketers. Even with budgets tightening and consumer confidence wobbling, it is possible to maximise brand loyalty and ROI without falling foul of data protection regulators (not to mention Scrooge-like CEO's like me!).
The big question is: How?
These days, the engine room of every multi-channel marketing campaign should be dependable client and prospect data - the cleaner, more up-to-date and secure the better. This might seem self-evident, but as the aforementioned surveys attest, too many marketers have been doing rather dodgy things with personal information. Plus the longstanding predilection of certain mailers for carpet bombing entire regions - countries, even - with offers that, nine-times-out-of-ten, look about as creative and appealing as a dose of anthrax, is damaging not only their own brands, but the reputation of the entire DM industry at a time when many of us are striving to be more targeted as well as fiscally and environmentally responsible.
So let me impart some words of advice to all DM size queens and kings out there: Big isn't always better. And sorry to say, but with electoral roll access and opt-in/out scenarios high on the regulatory agenda in many countries, your reign over the age of cheap, easily accessible data is drawing to a close.
And about bloody time, too.
But much as I'd love to wave my magic wand across the entire planet to ensure standardised, cross-border name and address formats; access to pan-national suppression files; and uniform data protection and distance selling regulations in every country, such a utopian vision is precisely that - a dream. The reality currently facing international marketers is infinitely more demanding and complex, however. So here are some suggestions for achieving data management 'best practice':
(i) Standardise your data
Standardising name and address formats as appropriate to each territory in which your organisation operates is an essential data housekeeping first step. Any bureau will tell you file formatting is the most time-consuming aspect of its job. Too many databases are blighted by badly formed and unmarketable address records.
(ii) Assess how best to house your data
For some, the answer to the data handling challenge lies in sophisticated CRM systems via which both transactional and marketing information can be accessed in a single customer view. This is the 'Holy Grail' of data management but the substantial costs and time associated with developing and maintaining these systems means that true CRM 'nirvana' is only achieved by a few. For the rest of us I suggest looking at both in-house and bureau-hosted options by which you can most cost-effectively 'warehouse' client name and address records. You can then look to apply electronic 'flags' to better interrogate your datasets (eg. by marketing campaign, region, demographic or transaction type/value/frequency). You'll quickly become addicted to the customer insight this will afford you.
(iii) Be secure
High-profile data losses by a gaggle of England's biggest banks and building societies as well as the UK Government's propensity to leak personal information have all grabbed headlines in the past 12 months. Little wonder, perhaps, that 64 per cent of EU citizens are concerned about whether their data is being appropriately handled. What's more, with identity fraud-related crime skyrocketing by a whopping 66 per cent in 2008, ensuring that all datasets are protected, encrypted and secure can only but enhance your brand's reputation and lifetime value to clients.
(iv) Know your data handling responsibilities
As The REaD Group's head of compliance, Penny Cox, discussed in detail in the December 2008 issue of DMI, ignorance of the wider regulatory environment isn't a recipe for bliss. Privacy and data protection laws are changing rapidly in many countries in response to what Penny has rightly dubbed a 'United Nations of Thievery' - ie. fraudsters wanting nothing more than to relieve all of us of valuable personal information. Know your responsibilities. Otherwise the fines and brand damage which will ensue can be catastrophic.
(v) Use suppression files
Regularly applying commercially available suppression files to clean your B2C and B2B lists of deceaseds and gone-aways (ie. people who have moved house or job), as well as mail, telephone, fax- and e-preference service registrants is no longer an optional extra but is now - in the UK, at least - mandatory for all data owners, thanks to the UK Consumer Protection From Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPUT). A wide variety of suppression files are available either by direct licence from file owners or via bureaux and include (by territory):
Australia
- Do-Not-Mail and Do-Not-Call files (maintained by the Australian Direct Marketing Association)
- Postal Address File (Australia Post)
Austria
- Mail Preference Service (MPS) operated by WKO
- Deceased and NCOA (Robinson Lists)
Belgium
- MPS
- GAS and NCOA lists (Mutapost)
Canada
- MPS
- Deceased Lists
- GAS and NCOA lists (NCOALink)
Denmark
- MPS, GAS and NCOA (Mutapost Combination)
- Deceased (Robinson List)
Finland
- MPS
- NCOA (Postinumerohaku)
- Deceased (Finnish Deceased File)
France
- MPS (La Liste Robinson)
- GAS and NCOA (National Change of Address Database)
Germany
- MPS (Robinson List)
- Movers, Deceased and GAS (Umzüge Service National de l'àdresse)
Republic of Ireland
- MPS (IDMA with Anpost)
- GAS and Deceased
Netherlands
- MPS
- GAS and NCOA (Mutapost)
- Deceased (Infofilter)
New Zealand
- Name Removal Register (incorporating the Deaths Index - maintained by The Marketing Association of New Zealand)
Norway
- MPS
- Deceased
- GAS and NCOA (Posten Norway)
Poland
- MPS (Robinson List)
Portugal
- MPS (AMD - the Portuguese DMA)
Spain
- MPS (Robinson List)
- GAS and Deceased (Schober)
Sweden
- MPS (Nix Adresserat)
- NCOA
- Deceased
Switzerland
- MPS (Robinson List)
- NCOA and Deceased (Umzüge Service National de l'àdresse)
UK
- MPS
- GAS
- GAS Reactive
- Business Suppression File
- Xpression
- The Bereavement Register
USA
- MPS
- Deceased
- NCOA (NCOALink)
If in doubt about the specifics of any particular file or its application, seek out a leading bureau in each country for advice. This country-by-country approach is initially time consuming but will save you money in the long run. With misaddressed mail costing businesses upwards of £50 million annually in the UK alone, this is one costly 'letterbox lament' that I'm certain we're all eager to avoid.
I believe we need a fundamental change in marketing's 'data culture'. One that embodies a more respectful relationship with consumers by not playing fast and loose with their personal information, mailing deceased people and/or boring prospects senseless with mismatched offers. In this way, marketers and brand managers will continue to prove their worth during tough times, and we will have, as a sector, helped usher in an exciting and more equitable era in the ongoing tussle between the forces of supply and demand - to the benefit of industry, consumers and the environment alike.
So welcome to data management's Mission Imperative, as opposed to Mission Impossible.
Mark Roy is CEO of UK-based data management company, The REaD Group plc