Retailers’ Implementation of the SBF Model

Pt 1

Strategy

In retail, existing customers accept email and direct mail marketing because of brand recognition. But targeting new customers often requires a slower approach, including a combination of radio ads, billboards and community event sponsorship. Direct mail coupon offers are one great way to encourage potential retail customers to try a client’s products and services with low risk.

Good database management is essential for retail clients. At SBF we can measure new customer coupon-use to determine the cost/benefit of each project. Tracking new customer sales and the net profit of those sales helps them set goals and establish a way to measure success.

In retail, marketing business to business can be especially strategic not only because of the reach but because of the captive audience who already trusts the business they have a relationship with.

Pt 2

Implement

One of our retail optical clients chose to call on medium and large local businesses to offer discount programs to their employees as a benefit of employment.

SBF created a web application for them to enter the partnering business’s logo, insurance data, and employee contact information. Once a week SBF downloads the order files and emails each sales representative a proof of what the final output will look like for each client.

Reps are able to approve orders online and our web app then downloads data, prints documents with addresses, and mails product brochures in a seamless process each week.

Pt 3

Looking Ahead

When marketing through local businesses one of our clients found that when the business’s logo showed through the window of the envelope effectiveness increased by about 35%. We also found that response rates increased when they included a product/service cost menu.

In retail, a marketing information system is essential. Each campaign needs to have an identification code and a record of the type of product, discount, and period during which the discount is valid. Sales using that ID code can include the type of customer, products they purchased, increase in sales of those products during that period, and the profit that was generated. Using that data we can then calculate the financial cost/benefit of the campaign and evaluate customer behavior so that future campaign results can be designed to yield expected results.