BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - September 9, 2008) - In order to maximize top and bottom line revenue
growth, organizations must be capable of understanding, anticipating, and
reacting to customer behavior. As a result, top performing organizations
are turning to segmentation to identify key trends and commonalities among
customers across various marketing and sales channels. The increasing
competition for high value customers is causing many companies to improve
the intimacy and relevancy of marketing messages by incorporating
demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral variables in
customer segmentation. A recent study, "Customer Analytics: Segmentation
Beyond Demographics," conducted by Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
(
NYSE:
HHS), reveals that 74% of Best-in-Class companies track past
business history for improved segmentation and 56% track behavioral
attributes for use in segmentation. To obtain a complimentary copy of the
report, visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5146.
According to 48% of survey respondents, the top pressure causing companies
to segment and target customers is a desire the increase customer loyalty
and retention. The need to increase profitability (34%), either through
improved response rates on marketing campaigns or by minimizing customer
churn and maximizing customer retention, is the second highest concern for
survey respondents. Best-in-Class companies indicated that they currently
utilize customer feedback tools (65%), customer databases (64%),
segmentation and targeting tools (60%) and data hygiene tools and services
(40%) to better segment customers for marketing purposes. As a result,
Best-in-Class companies are able to positively affect key marketing metrics
over time.
"One of the top pressures for all organizations is the need to measure and
maximize return on marketing investments. Customer analytics play an
essential role delivering superior performance from marketing spend,"
explains Ian Michiels, Senior Research Analyst at Aberdeen. "Best-in-Class
companies demonstrate that the use of multiple attributes in customer
segmentation, including demographic, psychographic, behavioral, and
purchase history. This allows top performing organizations to achieve
superior annual revenue growth, market share, average order value growth,
and improved customer profitability. The Best-in-Class showed a higher
propensity to enable sales, marketing, finance, and dedicated analysis with
processes and technologies that centralize, scrub, and democratize customer
data," concluded Michiels.
The report demonstrates the value of collectively leveraging organizational
capabilities in process, performance measurement, knowledge management, and
technology to provide a foundation for marketing success. By combining
processes designed to identify high value customers for marketing purposes
(57%) with the ability to share customer analytics analysis among multiple
functions in the organization (71%), Best-in-Class companies are able to
maximize their sales and marketing efforts through segmentation.
The research educates readers about the value of customer analytics and
targeting techniques. The report also identifies Best-in-Class performance
as a result of segmentation compared to the Industry Average and Laggards
and the difference in capabilities and technology use among maturity
classes. A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part
by the following underwriters: Equifax, SAP, and Portrait Software.
Furthermore, this research is being disseminated to the market through the
support of various media outlets, such as the ECT News Network and ITO
America. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5146.
To access all of Aberdeen's complimentary research please visit
http://research.aberdeen.com.
About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market
intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more
than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely
positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating
demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment
analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets,
corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.
As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in
context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's
analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of
Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement -
Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role
Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit
Aberdeen
http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more
about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to
http://www.harte-hanks.com.
© 2008 AberdeenGroup, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
451 D Street, Suite 710
Boston, Massachusetts 02210-1928
Telephone: (617)854-5200
Fax: (617) 723-7897
www.aberdeen.com
Contact Information: Media Contact:
Ian Michiels
Aberdeen Harte-Hanks
(925) 264-1824
ian.michiels@aberdeen.com