6 Desire for greater integration with other marketing activities. A synergy among
all the elements of the marketing mix was lost with the Catalyst programme
working independently of other marketing initiatives.
7 Need for greater measurability of the process (‘if you can’t measure it, you can’t
manage it’).This was also part of the desire to control the process.
8 A desire to obtain information about the purchasing behaviour of prospects in
a one-stage rather than a two-stage programme – making information as rele-
vant and recent as possible.
The stage was set for a new direct marketing initiative which would build
on the success of the Catalyst programme. It would need to overcome
some of its weaknesses, and meet specific objectives concerning increased
showroom traffic, the number of test drives, and most important of all,
increased ‘conquest’ sales.
Conquest ’91
Initial considerations
Despite the comments above, the Catalyst approach was seen to be
extremely valuable in terms of monitoring existing customers and main-
taining their loyalty to Rover. That element of direct marketing therefore
remained in place. The new prospecting programme – Conquest ‘91 – was,
as the name suggests, devised to win new customers, including those with
a different profile from those on the existing database, in what was becom-
ing an increasingly competitive and depressed business environment.
Having decided to approach existing customers and new prospects dif-
ferently, Rover could make its communications even more pertinent and
effective. However, the new campaign had to be up and running by
August in order to capitalise on this peak period of car sales. As illustrated
in Table 2.4.1, if the August sales peak was missed, the cost-effectiveness of
the programme would be reduced. With such a tight schedule it was
imperative to start ‘trawling’ for prospects as early as possible.
One of the driving principles behind the new initiative was to be able to
evaluate the effectiveness of individual activities and the campaign overall.
However, the self-imposed time pressures under which Rover was operat-
ing meant that trials and research could not be conducted coolly in
advance, but were carried out in parallel with the programme. Conquest
‘91 was, in reality, an ‘action-research’ model, particularly in its approach
to finding new customers. Results from each element of the programme
were fed back to further refine and improve effectiveness. For example, the
VIP pack was redesigned to reflect market research findings.
104 Relationship Marketing