While word-of-mouth marketing may still be the number one form of getting more business for independent dealers, there is still something to be said for direct mail marketing whether it be electronic or the old fashioned way, via mail. But retailers are finding that casting a wide net isn’t always the best way to catch a customer, so they are tuning to companies like Revenew Systems to help them target their messages more effectively.

“Direct mail is more effective when smaller groups are concentrated on with great regularity,” says Paul LaPlaca, director of sales for Revenew Systems. His company specializes in helping CE dealers create direct mail campaigns, providing both data and printing services. Currently, they work with a number of independent retailers, as well as the Home Theater Specialists of America (HTSA). They also work with some high-end vendors who do cross-promotional campaigns with dealers, such as B&W, Integra, and Calssé.

One of the company’s specialties is streamlining the design process, offering dealers a way to create their own mailers by selecting from a wide selection of professional looking templates. They also support e-mail campaigns as well as Web-based promotions. But perhaps the greatest value they can bring is the demographic data and analysis they can provide before a campaign is even designed.

“We work with a company who researches demographic classifications of consumers—Mosaic, which is an Experian-based company,” explains LaPlaca. The data they receive enables them to determine income and professional levels in a specific region. “They have divisions that provide data so we can understand, from a habitual perspective, where someone spends the bulk of their discretionary dollars and this allows us to make some assumptions,” he says.

Once that data is extrapolated, Revenew Systems is able to classify consumers of a specific region into three categories: aficionados, connoisseurs, and enthusiasts (the first group representing some of the wealthiest). From there the data is broken down even further into subcategories—Dream Weavers (well-off families) and America’s Wealthiest, to name two. All of this information can be presented in a report to the dealer, along with descriptions of the classifications.

In this report, each category and subcategory is cross-referenced with sections of a region, from five to 50 miles out with the dealer’s storefront at the centers. The dealer can see exactly where the wealthiest potential customers are located, either in a spreadsheet or a map of their region. The map is a particularly useful tool.  “We can literally drill down right to the zip code level to see which of those subcategory demographic segments reside in those specific zip codes,” says LaPlaca.

From there the dealer can create a series of campaigns, Web or print, targeted to the area of choice. Analyzing the data in this way can present a marketing advantage, and a way to save money. “What we’re trying to do is give [dealers] more efficiencies and give them a greater potential return on their marketing expenditures so that they don’t expend resources focusing on marketing to an audience that, no matter how well [the dealers] articulate their message, is made up of commodity shoppers.”

But LaPlaca is quick to warn against dealers focusing on only the very wealthy for campaigns, noting that it is possible to have a million dollar earner who does not have an interest in custom A/V, while a lower earner might. “One person’s discretionary dollars are just as critical as the [wealthiest] person’s, even if his or her total income is not as high,” he says. “But relative to their income they spend higher amounts, percentage wise.” From what LaPlaca has seen, while targeting smaller groups or regions is always more effective (as long as it is also repetitive), putting all of the eggs one basket may not always work.  •