Citroën

Company: IdentexCustomer: CitroënSubmitted by: MCC InternationalDate: August 2002It is a big enough task to outsource a database containing 1.

2million records. Add a requirement to change suppliers plus a tight time limit and you are exactly where Citroën UK were over a year ago.Citroën’s marketing database had been outsourced for a number of years and when, early in 2000, the current contract came to an end they decided to ask selected companies to tender for the new contract. One of those companies and the winner of the tender was Identex, a UK-based customer management and marketing solutions specialist.The brief was to design, direct and manage Citroën’s UK prospect and customer database.

Identex had a challenge to smoothly transfer all Citroën’s data to a new database and to resume its management without disrupting any Citroën customers or communications.Database Marketing Manager for Citroën UK, Neil Starling explains: “It was important that we selected a marketing solutions provider with a database marketing heritage.” Identex’ managed database services business, which oversees customer management solutions for more than 30 UK blue chip clients, had to become an extension of Citroën’s database marketing department.Starling continues, “Identex fitted our requirements, not only through its understanding of data integrity and management but also its strong service philosophy.”The Identex system was used for the launch of the Citroën Xsara Picasso, and most recently for the Citroën C3 ‘supermini’. The success of the well designed and executed C3 campaign was reflected in the overall response rate of 4.22%, with one cell at 14.

6%. The campaign has so far resulted in over 2,500 test drives and over 500 purchases.Citroën are continuing to work with Identex on future developments. The company is looking at marketing automation and e-marketing based on marketing analytics, segmentation methods and profiling with the support of Identex’ data strategists. This will include a redesign of the customer contact programme, with modified customer questionnaires, which will be used to hold a continuous dialogue with customers. There are also several new projects reviewing the various feeds into the database and the extracts which are created, including a new finance feed.

“It’s all about a cohesive approach to database management and direct marketing,” added Neil Starling. “The hosted solution provides us with the best of both worlds, the means to further improve our marketing productivity and efficiency while maintaining our focus on our core business – selling quality cars.”