A major publishing company engaged the RR Donnelley Response Marketing Services Team to help solve five main problems:
- Administratively, their subscription renewal process was cumbersome.
- Pre-printed inventory control, carrying costs and obsolescence expense were eroding profits and difficult to manage.
- The current vendor (and potential vendors) lacked flexibility regarding program changes and testing
- Database driven copy (versions) was not practical.
- Response rates were lower than desired.
Through analysis and data mining, the publisher and RR Donnelley focused on two main segments in its renewal efforts: Conversion Group and Renewal Group. The Conversion Group, sometimes described as "Times Renewed Equals Zero, TR=0" and consists of subscribers who purchased from the initial acquisition mailing now selected to receive their firs renewal mailing. The Renewal Group, described as "Times Renewed Greater Than Zero, TN>0" includes the balance of subscribers. To maximize their database, this publisher needed to leverage new technologies and replace traditional subscription renewal efforts used in the past. The RR Donnelley SmartCARESM data base and imaging technologies enabled single or multiple data streams to drive unique copy, offers and graphics according to the individual reader's background, interests and profitability, resulting in very targeted one-to-one marketing campaigns. The RR Donnelley Creative Services Team was engaged with this client to develop formats and insert brochures aligned with the data base and imaging technologies, to increased subscriber renewals rates.
RR Donnelley's robust database, creative and imaging solutions enabled this publisher to achieve reduced cycle times between having live names to being in-the-mail. The impact has been a significant net increase in subscriptions, increased average subscription term and cross selling of other products to their subscriber base, resulting in greater subscriber Life Time Value. The publisher simultaneously achieved cost reductions in preprinted inventories, obsolescence and stockouts, resulting in improved cash flow for their business.
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