Marketsmith Case Studies

DRTV Marketing: Marketsmith doubled revenue and decreased expenses by $13 million in year one for DRTV home appliance giant

Problem Solution Outcome
DRTV home appliance giant with constantly increasing suite of product offerings wanted to increase direct to consumer sales and channels, streamline expenses, and improve overall return on investment. Marketsmith brought a new perspective to both marketing strategy and analysis to the long form only business. We built a direct to consumer business, creating a marketing database for email marketing and persona development; we introduced short form paid search, new website, Hispanic marketing and Canada; we incorporated market research to produce more effective infomercials; and we created new analytics reports, providing actionable analysis to guide strategy. In our first six months, we decreased operational expenses by $13 million.

In our first year, we expanded reach for seven products and improved the media efficiency ratio (MER) for each product by an average of 70% by coordinating and providing hands-on direction to our different media buying agencies.

Revenue more than doubled.

Forensic Marketing Audit: In six months, Marketsmith’s strategic marketing and operational hands on management eliminated a $4 million loss for high end specialty food retailer

Problem Solution Outcome
High end specialty food retailer was losing millions of dollars in its direct business, which included both consumer and corporate customers. Marketsmith stabilized existing infrastructure and developed a new marketing strategy based on a merchandise and customer/purchase analysis which included multiple consumer touchpoints. We managed the execution of every step of the strategy including product development, merchandising, offer configuration, creative presentation, CRM, direct marketing through mail and call center, website and email marketing, and performance measurement and tracking. Within six months, we turned a $4 million loss in 2008 to breakeven in 2009. And we put in place a stable marketing infrastructure and scalable plan for growth, which now support the company’s marketing operations.

Retail Marketing: Marketsmith took Manufacturer/Retailer Direct-to-Consumer. Every mailing in seven years has created double digit lift in store sales.

Problem Solution Outcome
High end travel and accessories manufacturer and retailer wanted to enter the direct to consumer mail and email marketing channels. Marketsmith created an entry strategy into direct marketing, increasing customer touchpoints, building customer loyalty, expanding customer reach, and driving store traffic. For the seven years we have worked with this retailer, every direct marketing campaign we have executed has shown a lift in store sales. The most recent mailing drove store traffic and showed an overall 19% lift in revenue from those who received the mailing versus those who did not. The individual segment increases ranged from 9% to 64%, with older segments showing a higher increase than more recent buyers.

Web/E-commerce Marketing: Using Facebook as Store Driver, Marketsmith helped luxury personal accessories retailer increase sales by 50% over email responders.

Problem Solution Outcome
Luxury retailer with young skewing customer base set up a Facebook Brand/Organization page, but wanted to know both how interested customers were in becoming fans and how effective the page was as a store driver. We set up a two tier test using an email campaign to send customers to the Facebook page. Offers were then promoted on the Facebook page at the same time that customers were receiving emails. We adapted the traditional matchback process to measure actual performance through this new channel. Of the customers who received the email invitation to Facebook, 32% signed up as fans. In the three month period, the Facebook names performed at a 50% higher rate than the email alone names.

Analytics: Marketsmith increased sales/book by over 30% and turned loss into 12.5% ROI through applying business rules grounded in forensic analysis for multi title, multichannel retailer.

Problem Solution Outcome
Multi title multichannel green health and wellness retailer was bleeding money on its acquisition programs with no sight of actual program performance. Using Marketsmith’s in depth analytical process, we performed an in depth, line by line historical analysis of sources to contribution level and reviewed all selection criteria and exchange practices. We built and consolidated data from 21 data streams into a marketing database. We then applied our lifetime value analysis derived from the database to creating a circulation budget and plan that optimized the results by source, segment and overall. The company is now showing positive contribution on every mailing. Best practice business rules now guide customer segmentation and acquisition process. The most recent results show a 35% increase in sales per book and 33% increase in the number of orders versus last year, plus taking the catalog from a loss to a positive return of 12.5% on revenue.

DRTV Analytics: Marketsmith’s proprietary media analysis framework resulted in 28% MER improvement for DRTV client.

Problem Solution Outcome
A DRTV client was looking to increase overall media spend as efficiently as possible. Marketsmith applied its proprietary analytical framework to identify the media outlets and dayparts that would be most effective for the client. Over the course of one flight, our proposed buys improved overall MER by 28% to 30%. Subsequent media planning sustained the improvement.

Data Management: Consolidating data from over 3,000 source files from 250+ direct marketing campaigns, Marketsmith provided blueprint for customer and seasonality segmentation for a Fortune 500 Company.

Problem Solution Outcome
Multimillion dollar luxury apparel and accessories retailer had no sight of customers’ path to purchase or actual purchase behavior because data resided in thousands of unconnected files. Marketsmith collapsed and consolidated data from 3,000 files to present comprehensive picture of over 250 direct marketing campaigns for multiple brand groups across six defined marketing channels, identifying the practices that worked and those that did not work. We identified which customer groups had the highest purchase performance and what seasons were most effective for which product groups and customer types. We pinpointed areas of marketing weakness, where the company could improve, and provided actionable recommendations.

CRM/Loyalty Programs: Marketsmith created Database Marketing program for high end travel accessories manufacturer/retailer improving response rates and data capture.

Problem Solution Outcome
High end travel and accessories manufacturer and retailer wanted to understand its customers path to purchase and purchase behavior over time. Marketsmith designed and built a database consolidating data retail operations, warranty cards, repair, and direct. We identified customers’ purchase behavior over multiple channels, tracking all interactions with the Brand.
And we improved customer data capture to grow direct mail and email lists.		 By targeting customers through the database and creating tailored messaging, we increased revenues from low performing categories by 10% versus customers who did not receive mailer.
We improved data capture rate for all channels expanding the number of total names captured by 37% in the past two years and total emails by 10%.

DRTV International Marketing: Through line-by-line analysis Marketsmith tripled media efficiency and improved revenue by eliminating overspending in international market.

Problem Solution Outcome
DRTV marketer looking to expand into international markets faced prohibitively high customer acquisition costs. Marketsmith performed in depth, line by line analysis on media spend to determine spending patterns and cost structure versus performance by station, day, and time. We uncovered that overspend in one media outlet skewed results and by reallocating spend, media efficiency nearly tripled, cutting the cost per lead by almost two thirds and increasing revenue to a level 50% higher than necessary to justify the spend.