By Shelley Sweeney

The financial crisis has been a wake-up call for many companies to cut costs, eliminate waste and improve return on investment. Among them: Belgian-based D’Ieteren, which distributes Volkswagen, Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Porsche and other vehicles; holds a majority share of Avis Europe; and is the world leader in repair and replacement of vehicle glass.

The company’s Volkswagen Division was spending more than $4 million annually to market 22 Volkswagen models in Belgium. That funded production of 2 million high-quality print catalogs as well as broadcast television, radio, print and Internet advertising to deliver an estimated 1.5% response rate, as measured by visits to the showroom.

Management believed it could do better. One reason: customers typically begin considering new vehicles six months in advance of their purchase, but D’Ieteren’s approach usually engaged customers much later in the process, when they wandered into a Volkswagen showroom. So the D’Ieteren Volkswagen team turned to its agency, Strategie, to devise ways to intercept customers earlier with communications that would improve the acquisition rate while reducing expenses.

Strategie sought to not only craft a new, more effective campaign, but to prove its effectiveness compared to the traditional program. It already had a business relationship with a group that could help it do just that: the Xerox 1:1 Lab.

1:1 = High Gear
The Xerox 1:1 Lab tests traditional direct marketing campaigns against a personalized version of the same campaign to demonstrate the power of relevant, data-driven direct marketing. After determining that D’Ieteren’s program met its criteria and getting the firm’s buy-in, the lab put together its project team: Strategie, graphic arts provider JCB Offset and data/customer relationship management provider Citobi. Their plan: reach prospects four to six months before a potential purchase decision, delivering a highly personalized brochure focused on the three vehicles most likely to interest them.

To qualify prospects that far in advance and learn their vehicle preferences, the team used two sources. First, visitors to the D’Ieteren website were invited to visit the Volkswagen pages and fill out an e-survey about their purchase intentions. Second, they culled prospects from Citobi’s database, which included a CRM system covering current Volkswagen customers and prospects, and subscribers who participate in sweepstakes or get coupons for responding to a survey.

From the resulting qualified list, 5,000 prospects were selected at random to participate in the pilot. The rest received D’Ieteren’s traditional marketing.

The Rewards of Relevance
In addition to focusing on the three vehicles judged to be most relevant to each recipient, the personalized brochure described how the vehicles met the recipient’s buying criteria and included customized financial proposals for each model. The call to action: visit the nearest dealer for a test drive and bring the brochure to receive a warranty extension on any purchase.

The production was executed using XMPie Personal Effect for personalization and the Xerox® iGen4® Press at JCB Offset for printing.

The results were stunning. Between 15 and 20% of recipients visited a showroom with their personalized brochures, representing an increase of 1,067% from the traditional approach. Twelve percent (600) of recipients took a test drive, and remarkably, half of them (300) purchased vehicles — a huge improvement over the traditional one in eight conversion rate.

Having proven a pathway for boosting its marketing ROI, D’Ieteren is now considering ways to roll out the program more broadly to help its motor vehicle divisions drive greater profit.

Shelley Sweeney is VP/General Manager, Service Bureau and Direct Marketing Sector, Graphic Arts Industry, Xerox Corporation,