“The emotion tends to be stronger at Father’s
Day,” Dittmann says. “We appeared to have an
opportunity to drive sales.” The analysis showed
that Hallmark could build on the momentum of
Mother’s Day and reallocate some advertising
spending from Easter to Father’s Day. It also
shifted dollars from television ads to direct
mail.
The analysis proved sound. For Father’s Day
2007, “we had double-digit increases without
hurting Easter,” Dittmann says.
Non-holiday promotions
Another insight gained by looking at marketing
and shopping patterns over the course of the
year was the fact that “third quarter momentum
drives holiday shopping participation,” Dittmann
says. “If we don’t invest and drive consumer
purchasing in July, August and September, we’re
less likely to get them to come in November and
December. There’s a direct link between the
two.”
That presented a challenge because summer lacks
a traditional card- or gift-purchasing event or
holiday. As a result, Hallmark is driving
traffic through everyday communications, such as
items for birthdays or anniversaries. It will
typically rely more on direct mail and e-mail
promotions, rather than television, during these
periods.
Similarly, if Dittmann and his team identify
traditionally strong holiday shoppers who
haven’t made a purchase during the third
quarter, they may need to offer them an
incentive to build momentum for the holiday
season.
Hallmark’s marketing team also wanted to
determine how to communicate with consumers who
aren’t regular shoppers. The Enterprise
Intelligence Platform helps determine how to
make the allocation that is likely to be most
profitable, Dittmann says.
The ability of the SAS solution to help
Dittmann’s team develop specific marketing
insights has produced uniformly high returns on
the investment, based on comparisons between
Crown Reward customers who’ve received
promotional pieces and those who haven’t, he
says. |
