online channels will be more responsive and will make more purchases online. Drawing a
channel chain (Figure 2.10) for different customers is useful to help understand this. It is
also useful to have a flag within the database which indicates the customers’ channel
preference and, by implication, the best channel to target them by. Customers that prefer
online channels can be targeted mainly by online communications such as e-mail, while
customers that prefer traditional channels can be targeted by traditional communications
such as direct mail or phone.5 Tone and style preference
In a similar manner to channel preference, customers will respond differently to differ-
ent types of message. Some may like a more rational appeal, in which case a detailed
e-mail explaining the benefits of the offer may work best. Others will prefer an emo-
tional appeal based on images and with warmer, less formal copy. Sophisticated
companies will test for this in customers or infer it using profile characteristics and
response behaviour and then develop different creative treatments accordingly.
Companies that use polls can potentially use this to infer style preferences. To sum-
marise this section, read the Mini Case Study 4.2 which illustrates the combination of
these different forms of communication.CHAPTER 4· INTERNET MARKETING STRATEGY
Euroffice (www.euroffice.co.uk) targets small and mid-sized companies. According to George Karibian,
CEO, ‘getting the message across effectively required segmentation’ to engage different people in differ-
ent ways. The office sector is fiercely competitive, with relatively little loyalty since company purchasers
will often simply buy on price. However, targeted incentives can be used to reward or encourage buyers’
loyalty. Rather than manually developing campaigns for each segment which is time-consuming,
Euroffice mainly uses an automated event-based targeting approach based on the system identifying the
stage at which a consumer is in the lifecycle, i.e. how many products they have purchased and the types
of product within their purchase history. Karibian calls this a ‘touch marketing funnel’ approach, i.e. the
touch strategy is determined by customer segmentation and response. Three main groups of customers
are identified in the lifecycle and these are broken down further according to purchase category. Also lay-
ered on this segmentation is breakdown into buyer type – are they a small home-user, an operations
manager at a mid-size company or a purchasing manager at a larger company? Each will respond to dif-
ferent promotions.
The first group, at the top of the funnel and the largest, are ‘Group 1. Trial customers’ who have made
one or two purchases. For the first group, Euroffice believes that creating impulse buying through price
promotions is most important. These will be based on categories purchased in the past. The second
group, ‘Group 2. The nursery’, have made three to eight purchases. A particular issue, as with many e-
retailers is encouraging customers from the third to fourth purchase – there is a more significant drop-out
at this point which the company uses marketing to control. Karibian says: ‘When they get to group two,
it’s about creating frequency of purchase to ensure they don’t forget you’. Euroffice sends a printed cata-
logue to Group 2 separately from their merchandise as a reminder about the company. The final group,
‘Group 3. Key accounts or‘Crown Jewels’, have made nine or more orders. They also tend to have a
higher basket value. These people are ‘the Crown Jewels’ and will spend an average of £135 per order
compared to an average of £55 for trial customers. They have a 90% probability of re-ordering within a
six-month period. For this group, tools have been developed on the site to make it easier for them to
shop. The intention is that these customers find these tools help them in making their orders and they
become reliant on them, so achieving ‘soft lock-in’.Mini Case Study 4.2
Euroffice segment office supplies purchasers using
‘touch marketing funnel’ approach