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Ronel Schoeman, Databases for retail uplift
Richard Roche, The times are a changing
Jeremy Saul, Holistic
Richard McCann, Friday's of Piccadilly
David Harrison, WSPS
Russell Loarridge, Firstwave Technologies
Alan Joen, Touchstone
John Whittingdale MP

Your view

By Richard Roche, Head of Retail and Media Markets, Royal Mail

The times are a changing...

It seems incredible, given the amount of time and money invested in DM activity that so many businesses fail to accurately target customer addresses. DM continues to outperform other marketing service disciplines in the UK (the sector increased by six per cent in 2002 to £11.85 billion, according to the DMA ). However, research shows around 69% of all direct mailings have one or more errors (i.e. incorrectly addressed or company has moved office).

Taken in isolation, this might seem an oversight. However, this contributes to a staggering 172 million items of mail that were sent to businesses that had moved or ceased to trade, costing UK businesses in excess of £163 million in 2002. What's more, Royal Mail spends £75m trying to redeliver them. Essentially, what the industry needs from data is quality, not quantity. All providers of suppression products play on the fact they have in excess of so many million records, whereas it is accurate data in key areas that many businesses require.

One new step in this direction is the Royal Mail Business Changes File, developed in association with D&B. It enables businesses not only to keep track of present customers, but to identify new leads of businesses that have just started or have just moved by offering between 25 - 30,000 monthly updates. This is a key time when they are most likely to buy new products and services.

It is a unique data management product as it provides a constantly updated source of information. The importance of providing a continually updated service, as opposed to a pure 'suppression' service, is that customer lists are cleaner and more productive, meaning less wastage, and ultimately, increased business opportunities.

Because of the complexity of business data and the difficulty in tracking change, many companies see this as a costly and time-wasting exercise.

The price they pay for this attitude is far worse. It is estimated that if companies do not keep up to date with business changes, 37% of their customer records will be out of date within a year. So what can companies do to help themselves? Well, as simple as it seems, it is imperative they get the basic company's address correct first. From there they can tackle the more advanced issues of tracking job titles and individuals.

To initiate this, companies should analyse the frequency of communications between their business and the client's business at all levels. Next, analyse the number of communications the business makes with a company and the individuals within that company to ensure a targeted message. The objective should be to develop a close relationship with the client business so that they will see the benefits of letting the company know when changes occur so that they recognise the importance of telling them when they move. This can be via special 'incentive' offers or deals that make them feel they will miss out if they do not inform them when they move address.

Checking customer records is very important because without this basic information, no data product will work effectively. Raw data has become one of the most precious commodities and companies need to ensure they recognise its importance as it forms the core of its database. Like a house built on firm ground, this can be developed and expanded by a variety of data applications to build a more comprehensive database.

It's also important to have a clear idea of the cost implications. As marketing budgets have decreased, so have people's tendency to be more careful about what they are using their money for. And with some files charging per hit, businesses with a tight budget often shy away from these data quality solutions. Its therefore increasingly necessary to ensure the core customer database is corrected as soons as inconsistencies occur. It also works out a lot cheaper in the long run.

As more businesses come to see the value of data, services like the Business Changes File, will become more common and will form the basis of much more complex yet reliable company data. I do hope this turns into a reality so that in future all forms of communication will be targeted and impactful and the issue of junk mail will be a distant memory for us all.