2013 Silver Retail

Client Homebase

How did the campaign make a difference? Home improvement projects are irregular and unpredictable. This campaign seeks patterns in data to identify customer needs as close to spending opportunities as possible. The programme has moved average response rates from 9% to 46%, delivers 2% of total sales (£30.4m per year) and shifted ROI from 120% to 346%. Today over 50% of direct mail investment is focused on the programme.

What details of the strategy make this a winning entry? DIY retailing was an unpredictable market. For over a decade, Homebase's marketing strategy had been to promote everything and discount every other weekend, focused on improving the 120% ROI, not on the 91% of non-responders. The Trigger Programme turned this on its head. Analysing shopping behaviours showed that speaking to top customers, at the right time, with the right message, gave them almost unlimited headroom for spend. This inspired the plan to spot specific behaviours that indicated a future need, then act quickly to prompt further spend, growing what was dubbed 'Share of Project'. For instance, a customer buying a kitchen would need tiles, flooring, lighting and paint. After 18 months, there are now 10 triggers that track specific behaviours and leverage opportunities with timely, inspirational and relevant communications.

How did creativity bring the strategy to life? Over 750 hours analysing different product, purchase and non-purchase behaviours with the greatest opportunities found 10 trigger identifiers. Each communication is personalised around a product the customer has purchased. Dynamic templates make that purchase the feature image, highlight local store details and include offers competitive in that area. Previously, it had taken eight weeks to go from datapoint collection to comms delivery. So responding quickly enough to be relevant would prove to be one of the greatest challenges. Yet, without additional budget, new systems or additional resources, the data management and print processes got direct mail activity delivered within six days and email in two. New systems and channels enabled even quicker responses, in turn allowing trial of different behaviours, such a discount on paintbrushes following the purchase of tester paint. There were also vast amounts of customer data interactions across websites and online and offline transactions, plus social communities and partners such as Nectar

Results The programme now delivers over 2% of total sales and an average ROI of 346% (2.8 times that of the previous marketing strategy. It achieved an overall return increase to £30.4m at a time when spend fell by 20%. A massive win in a challenging economic climate.