	Why ads?

	Riding the Whirlwind
	Strategic Interactive Marketing for the Insurance Industry
Key Points:

The volume of printed matter sent to customers is increasing.

Electronic systems are available to improve the service delivery of printed matter.

5 .1 Post

5.1.1 The prophecies of 10 years ago that paper communications are doomed has proved premature, if not ill-founded. Consumers are increasingly being deluged with direct response mail as database marketing provides the means to target smaller and smaller segments. Increasingly letters and inserts are customised by reference to personal profiles. A role of many in-bound telesales units is to distribute literature to potential customers who are responding to media advertising.

.... The UK direct marketing business was worth £6bn in 1996 .... £600m of this is spent on compiling database information ...

5.1.2 Electronic systems are being used to improve service delivery:

it is possible to transmit any letter electronically for printing near the recipient's home. CompuServe offers this little- publicised service, along with a similar fax service, both being generated from an e-mail message.

Letter sent electronically

The UK Post Office is now able to print letters on company note paper at sorting centres near to the recipient.

in response to e-mail requests, Internet Infobot systems automatically send information back by e-mail but there is no reason why companies couldn't respond by post. For coloured brochures, post is currently the only suitable method of response.

Using both hard and soft data, customer communication is becoming extremely targeted.

5.1.3 In the future customer profiles will encompass:

both hard and soft data (e.g. products owned and personal likes and dislikes), and
current and historic data, even predictions about future actions.

5.1.4 Knowledge based systems will then combine this customer data with rules in a marketing database in order to drive all customer communications, including new business, servicing, and claims.

Knowledge based systems will record and co-ordinate all customer correspondence.

IF 50th BIRTHDAY DUE NEXT WEEK
AND SELF-EMPLOYED
THEN ENCLOSE PENSIONS BROCHURE

Knowledge systems will manage all communications including direct response.

Britannia BS is sending out personalised mail based on customer's likes and behaviour patterns.


Personalised Direct Mail at Britannia Building Society When Britannia's 1.9m customers registered for the loyalty bonus scheme they were asked to provide additional information, such as their tax band, occupation, financial relationships with other organisations, etc.. Six out of 10 did so. Using this information Britannia has segmented its customers into 9 groups. It then sent letters to each customer suggesting they could switch to a Britannia mortgage and offering a cash sum. Each letter was personalised to make a different suggestion as to how the customer could spend the money, for example, a deposit on a new car, or a holiday abroad. The response was so good that Britannia is to increase its direct marketing spend from £1.5m in 1996 to £5m this year. The same technique will be used in the branches to handle customers in a more personalised way.