You might know them as the team behind catalogues or junk mail (they’re New Zealand’s only unaddressed mail specialist), but Reachmedia are one of the dark horses of shopper marketing. Underpinning letterbox marketing with sophisticated data and technology, they’re helping retailers drive sales and visits, drill down into shopper behaviour and refine shopper marketing activity. It’s an attractive model that pulls in the likes of The Warehouse, Animates, Progressive Enterprises, Domino’s and James Pascoe Ltd.
A word from the clients
“Our brands have seen the NZ market continue to react positively to unaddressed mail from the retail sector. Our success has come from a clear strategy in targeting specific demographics which we have identified through an indepth market analysis project lead by Reachmedia.” —Kathryn Frankland, marketing manager, James Pascoe Ltd.
“With the convergence of our fantastic loyalty database and Reachmedia’s data mapping services we’ve been able to develop bespoke, well-profiled delivery areas for our mailers, and to use these insights to identify opportunities to analyse our store network.” — Jaqui Baigent, national manager – brand & partnerships, Animates.
“Domino’s has a significant amount of data that shows the continued steady sales we get from the offers within our local store marketing. We have the ability to support at a local store level or at a nationwide level and can be very targeted in our delivery areas at any one time. It’s a strong path to purchase method for us.” — Scott Bush, New Zealand general manager, Domino’s.
Extending the shopper experience
For general manager of sales and marketing Christopher Gin it all starts with the catalogue.
“We know letterbox marketing isn’t sexy,” he says, “but senior marketers know it works and how big a role it plays in shopper marketing. With conversion and engagement happening in-store and online, extending the shopper experience into the home makes sense – and when done right, mailers are an efficient way of doing that.” For Reachmedia, ‘done right’ means supporting mailers with powerful data.
Market intelligence manager Tim Macmillan explains. “Our data capability is what the majority of clients buy into. We use a range of data sources, from Nielsen Media Research, NZ Census, and Segmentation Models (tools such as Mosaic and Helix Personas), to electronic transaction data via Marketview and Datamine. This all helps our clients profile, locate and reach their target audiences.”
Different Strokes
The briefs Reachmedia receive vary. Retailers in growth mode want to identify areas for new stores and customer acquisition based on variables such as household income, audience segmentation and population growth. Well-established retailers want to customise store catchment areas based on their own loyalty data, which may entail average basket values, buying habits etc. And in regard to media investment, all marketers want to ‘minimise wastage’ and to know when ‘diminishing returns kick in’.
“We can define their ROI from our channel,” says Macmillan, “identifying and ranking contribution towards sales at either a household or regional level.”
Informing in-store activity
Reachmedia also uses smart technology to digitise catalogues.
“Like any other media owner we take clients’ content onto additional platforms to create more touch points,” adds Gin. “The difference is we clip offers and products making our digital catalogues fully dynamic.”
Head of digital, Hamish Congalton explains this delivers a more contextual browsing experience.
“We can take a shot of a room with cushions, lamps etc all clipped out for shoppers to engage with in a real-life setting. It’s a far more motivating shopper experience than scrolling products in a list or grid format.”
On the client side, digital catalogues provide valuable analytics.
“We can identify how many interactions a product had, and when, plus which products on what pages are driving engagement versus driving sales and physical store visits,” says Congalton. “Then brands can prioritise in-store products, offers and activities accordingly.”
He goes on to say some New Zealand retailers are struggling to match in-store conversion rates via their ecommerce platforms.
“That’s partly because New Zealanders are poor at shopping locally online,” he says. “Kiwis love a deal and there’s no opportunity to negotiate on a website. So shoppers tend to research online and then click on their local store details so they can seal the deal in person.”
“Our clients are with us for the results,” adds Gin. “And it’s the research and hard data we apply to all our assets that power those results. That’s what allows us to extend the shopping experience into relevant homes, and to inform and improve our clients’ shopper marketing activity.”
- This story was published as part of a content partnership between NZ Marketing and Reachmedia.
- To find out more about Reachmedia contact Christopher Gin on [email protected] or (09) 255 3562, or visit reachmedia.co.nz
