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Making Your Cooperative Database Names Work Harder
Jim CooganCatalog Marketing Economics
Coop database names are responsive and affordable. So how can you make them work harder?
Coop database models yield big universes of names for most catalogers.
But everyone needs to expand their profitable prospecting universe of coop database names.
Once you established the core models that work consistently, how can you prospect deeper with coop names?
Here are some tactics to prospect deeper. For the lower rounds of models, simply suppress the
singles and mail only the multibuyers. Optimize the coop singles and suppress the marginal
singles and lift your response rates. Build both your legacy continuation models and the
Abacus One or Next Gen models and test mailing the overlapping names.
The coop databases provide names net of your house file. Ask them to also suppress the old multibuyers you plan on mailing and the models will dig deeper and you’ll save some cost.
Ask the coops to fulfill orders with the names ranked best to worst rather than nth selects from homogenous segments and you’ll be able to take the best names from lower rounds of proven models and fringe models.
Work with the statisticians to build and test better models.
Look to build several models if you sell several distinct types of merchandise rather than a single one-size-fits-all model.
If you are building models based on affinity tables of similar catalogs, review the affinity table so that you don’t have too many names from the large catalogs in your merchandise space. You also don’t want to be pulling names from catalogs whose customers don’t fit with you.
Segment each model into singles and multis so that you look at the performance of singles and multis separately. It may make sense to simply not mail singles given that coop names cost about half the cost of a rented vertical list name.
Know your breakeven economics to be able to make the case that it makes sense to suppress some coop names if you can find pockets of below par names through optimization or segmenting singles and multis.
Bring in balance names to capture hotline buyers in your merchandise category.
Negotiate new name reuses for your proven models.
Work closely with your account team at each database on structuring your costs.
Test the other factors that drive response. Are you giving your prospecting names a strong
promotional offer? Are you taking account of the seasonality of your
prospecting and loading up prospecting circulation in the strong seasons and limiting prospecting in the off season?
The biggest factors for prospecting other than the list itself are the promotional offer and seasonality.
You can improve the response rates of your coop models.
The basic techniques to improve the response of a model inlcude: Segmenting singles and multis Optimizing your model to find names to suppress.
(tip: optimization models generated by a coop don’t work very well on the models from the same coop. So use an optimization model from coop A to model the names from coops B and C.)
Consider simply cutting your circulation and taking just the best-of-the-best models reducing your circulation, your total marketing cost and your risk exposure with marginal circulation.
Last but not least.
Share your results with your coops. Make the coop your prospecting partner.
If the coop knows how their models have done historically and knows your breakeven, they can be tasked with coming up with ways to increase the profitable universe of prospecting names.
