Marketing Communications

454 CHAPTER 13 DIRECT MARKETING

with the brand: ‘Do you know a tasty recipe?’, ‘Could you

come up with a catchy name for our new biscuit?’, ‘Lotus is

interested in your opinion!’ Lotus stimulates interactions

not only between the company and its customers, but also

among its customers. By being so close to its customers,

Lotus Bakeries is able to create additional brand value.

Results of the new (e-)CRM approach

Could Lotus Bakeries meet its objectives with the new direct

marketing and CRM approach? Let us take a look at each of

the objectives separately.

1. Link the brand with the communications campaign. Due
   to the relevant content of the CRM programme, the link
   between the brand and its campaign has become stronger.
   This is clearly illustrated by the results of a study invest-
   igating to what extent consumers recall having received
   a mailing from Lotus Bakeries and to what extent con-
   sumers recall the content of the mailing. Specifically, more
   than 90% of the consumers recall having received a Lotus
   mailing and more than 80% (this number quadrupled
   since the null measure) know what the mailing was about.
   2. Stimulate cross-selling. The recurring coupons at each
   contact – whether by means of the classic direct mailing
   or by e-mail – focus each time on another product and
   helps the consumer to become acquainted with the full
   Lotus Bakeries’ assortment. In two years, the average
   redemption rate has almost doubled. However, cross-
   selling is only possible if as many families as possible use
   the coupons. With the new direct marketing approach,
   Lotus Bakeries has managed to get five times more
   families to redeem a trial coupon.
   3. Identify and involve important customers in the CRM plat-
   form. The company has succeeded in a very short time
   in registering more than 100 000 consumers in the
   new database. For all these consumers, Lotus Bakeries
   now has the e-mail as well as the postal addresses.
   4. Qualify Lotus consumers with a strong brand relationship.
   Lotus Bakeries offers a qualification questionnaire to
   the customers in its database. As the company offers
   neither an incentive nor a punishment to fill out the
   questionnaire, it can be assumed that only consumers
   with a strong brand relationship are willing to invest
   time in this. Subsequently, more than 40% of the active

Photo 13.2 The LotusFriends CRM website

Source: Lotus Bakeries.

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