How Staples Bridged Analytics with Campaign

Execution

Jim ForemanDirector, Circulation & Analytics, Staples, Inc.

Agenda

• Company background and structure

• Our Journey from Data to Profit:

Data Analytics Insight Campaigns Profit

• Bridging Analytics with Campaign Execution: Real Life Examples

• Getting Started in Your Business

• Q & A

My Goals

• Everyone stays awake

• Everyone believes attending this presentation was time well-spent

No Discernable SnoringSuccess Metric

You leave with at least one idea you can bring back and execute (or test) in your own business

Success Metric

About Staples

• Staples, Inc. invented the office superstore concept in 1986

• World's largest office products company

• Sales of $25 billion

• Nearly 90,000 associates worldwide

• Over 2,000 office superstores

• #2 E-commerce site trailing only Amazon.com

Staples Business Units

Staples

North American Delivery

US Retail International

Contract Staples.com Catalog

No Shortage of Data…

• $10B in Sales (US Retail + .com)

• 24 Million Active Customers (B/C)

• Over 70,000 Unique SKUs

• 220 Million Sales Transactions

• Nearly 1 Billion Transaction Line Items

…but still plenty of challenges!

• Budgets

• Lead Time

• Resources

• Complexity

• Campaign Volume

• Analytical Demand

• Insight Generation

Primary Goal

Turn this: Into this:

How Do We Get There?

Data

Behavioral Qualitative ExternalTransactional

Analytics

Exploratory Reactive Proactive

Insight

Descriptive Predictive

Campaigns

Outbound Inbound

$$ Profit $$

Data: Foundation for Success

DATA

Customer Data

• Firmographic

• Demographic

Transactional Data

• RFM / LTV

• Basket Analysis

• Net Profit

Contacts/Interactions

• Outbound (PromoHist)

• Inbound

Behavior & Response Data

• Web Behavior

• Coupons/Offers

• Surveys/Focus Groups External /

Environmental Data

• Gov’t / Industry

• 3rd Party

Gain Understanding with Analytics

Analytics

Exploratory Reactive

• Why?

• Cause/ effect

• Time-sensitive

• Understanding of underlying data critical

Proactive

• What? When?

• How many?

• Relationships

• Data visualization can be very helpful

• How?

• Future facing

• Less time-sensitive

• Game changing: highest value-add

Insight (According to Wikipedia)

• An actionable statement based on a deep understanding of your target customer’s attitudes, beliefs, and habits

• Connects at an emotional level with your customer

• Provokes a clear response (This brand understands me! That is exactly how I feel!)

• Has the power to change customer behavior

Applying Insight with Campaigns

• Why blind squirrels are seldom fat

• Why marketing is not like real life

• Why screen size matters

The Moral of the Story

• Consistently high campaign performance requires an ongoing stream of insight, and a way to quickly transform that insight into an appropriate campaign

Marketing Automation

Example 1: Reducing Attrition

How to get ahead of the attrition curve with appropriate marketing actions early enough to effectively reduce the overall rate of attrition?

Predictive Modeling based on Transactional Analysis and Customer Behavior Profiling

Issue

Solution

Example 2: Browsed/Abandoned

Lower online conversion rates within certain product categories

Qualitative research, multi-channel customer and basket analysis, near-real-time campaigns

Issue

Solution

Example 3: Trigger Campaigns

Lower margin and reduced attach rates on baskets containing certain technology items

Multi-channel attachment and basket analysis, recurring trigger campaigns

Issue

Solution

Path to Insight: Getting Started

• Identify critical metric(s)

• Decile Analysis

• Differential Customer Profiling

• Test Offers, Segments, Campaigns

• Incremental Analysis

• Refine and retest

Once You’re On the Path…

• Refresh Process Annually

• Walk before you run: the better you understand the past, the better you’ll be able to predict the future

• Think BIG – Marketing Automation software opens up many new doors

One Final Nugget…

The most critical element in improving the analytical effectiveness of your business:

You!