Marketing Communications

452 CHAPTER 13 DIRECT MARKETING

Changes to the CRM programme

As Figure 13.9 shows, Belgium is still the most important

market for Lotus Bakeries. The company is well known and

has built a strong reputation in Belgium over the past few

decades. Nevertheless, company–customer relations began

to sour during recent years, mainly due to pressure from

private labels. Building a stronger bond with the customers

became crucially important. Further, as the company had

gradually diversified, several customers – even in Belgium –

were unaware of the fact that the company has much more

to offer besides caramelised biscuits and waffles. Lotus

Bakeries recognised that this was actually a good opportunity

for cross-selling. Thus, in order to remain strong in its home

country, the question was: How can the company build a

stronger relation with its Belgian customers and at the same

time stimulate these customers’ interest in the company’s

full product portfolio?

Besides an above-the-line image campaign which ran in

most countries served by Lotus Bakeries, the company

decided to launch a new direct marketing programme. In 2007,

the direct marketing programme of Lotus Bakeries con-

sisted of sending direct mailings to 300 000 consumers,

and this not more than four times a year. The direct mailing

contained coupons for Lotus Bakeries’ products to activate

the brand. However, an analysis of the redemption numbers

and the results of a telephone survey amongst Lotus’s

customers revealed that customers did not have a strong

bond with the brand. The presence of strong competitors,

both other A-brands and private labels, made clear to Lotus

Bakeries that the company needed to strengthen its relation-

ship with its customers. To this end, it created a new CRM

platform. The objectives of this new platform were:

1. To link the brand with the communications campaign.


2. To stimulate cross-selling.


3. To identify and to involve important customers in the
   CRM platform.


4. To qualify Lotus consumers with a strong brand relationship.

In order to meet these objectives, several tactical short-

and long-term changes to the CRM platform were effectuated.

The slogan ‘Lotus – daar zit liefde in’ (‘Lotus – there is love in

it’) was internally translated to a platform carrying a name

that reflected the brand essence and the shift from a product

to a consumer focus: the Lotus Family. The transformation

process consisted of the following steps:

Figure 13.10 Lotus Bakeries’ organisational structure

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