1:1 Marketing and Variable Data Printing

1:1 marketing is a marketing approach that provides the opportunity to customize communications based on the characteristics of a contact, a contact's association with an underlying profile or other ways the contact may have been tagged, either manually or through various methods of indirect business intelligence gathering and data mining.

Once an organization learns to understand differentiate the unique needs and behaviours of its customers, it can begin to deliver customized messages that are more relevant and meaningful to the customer and are, therefore, more likely to elicit the desired response. Direct and indirect marketing efforts can be appropriately tailored — allowing the message, offer, images and call-to-action to be targeted to the specific customer.

Imagine, for instance, a real estate solicitation package containing a photograph of the prospective seller's home showing the SOLD sign on the front lawn.

With 1:1 marketing, customers and prospects alike benefit from receiving information on products and services that address and meet their specific needs and interests; and companies prosper from improved customer satisfaction that leads to a more profitable and long-term business relationship.

A somewhat broader application of the 1:1 concept would be to utilize this intelligence to direct information to customer groups, carefully segmented according to a unique set of interests, behaviours or characteristics.

The concept of messaging to one customer at a time can be executed through variable data printing (VDP) technologies. There are currently a number of available technologies that can be used to create personalized printing depending on the overall objectives and requirements of a project. At first the concept might appear to be suitable for only a niche market of rich clients; however, current technology allows a cost-effective opportunity to produce personalized and customized products that yield superior customer response and increased customer loyalty.

1:1 marketing recognizes that the value of loyal customers who make repeat purchases far exceeds that of fickle customers who constantly switch suppliers in search of a bargain.

Furthermore, personalized printing can be used in combination with traditional offset printing to obtain an ideal balance between cost management and business development. For example, projects can be segmented to reflect various groups within the larger target audience--identifying individuals or groups that may be ideally reached with a more personalized message. Variable data printing technologies can then be used alongside traditional offset technologies to produce the appropriate mix of variable and mass-marketing materials to be used across the complete target audience.