Targeted Marketing Using What You Know

Store membership cards collect a lot of information about you. Every single purchase you make, how you pay, and whether or not you use coupons. Patterns emerge over time. What brands you like to buy, what types of food you prefer. Do you buy a lot of fruits and vegetables? Or do you mostly purchase prepared food? A lot can be learned about you.

And surprisingly, grocery stores (and the like) don’t seem to be using the data to their advantage. As a “club” member, the store occasionally sends us promotional coupons. Or maybe the register will print out a coupon based on what we bought.

But here’s the thing: they are still doing it wrong. When I buy diapers for my little guy, I get a coupon for another brand, or the store brand. That doesn’t work with me. I buy a certain brand because it works for us. If they want me to come back and purchase more diapers, they need to give me a coupon good for that same brand. Yet they rarely do.

There are some products that I’m willing to try as a generic brand. Sometimes not. Maybe I’ve already tried the generic and it didn’t taste the same or work as well. It could be anything. In my purchase history, they could tell whether I’ve bought store brand items. If I never redeem store-brand coupons, they need to change the tactic. All of the data is there. It’s simply a matter of reviewing the information and targeting things to suit my shopping needs.

I rarely like companies to use my data, unless it’s to recommend a purchase based on what I’ve already done. Amazon is very good at that. It even allows me to say which items I’m not interested in, and they don’t bother me with that one again. Why can’t grocery stores do the same?

What data do you have that you can use to directly market to your customers? And I mean marketing useful products and services that will fit them — not just scattered shots that you hope will get the mark.

image: Newscom