If you haven't heard of the designer Cath Kidston, famous for her vintage-inspired prints, then the launch of a Cath Kidston mobile phone will mean nothing to you. Even the eagerly awaited Prada phone or the new Dolce & Gabbana handset may be of little or no interest. But for a growing band of trend-conscious mobile phone users, such products are seen as a must-have fashion accessory.
"Last year, it was all about patterns and colours and this year the real focus is on branded handsets in conjunction with fashion labels," says Katherine Reeves, account director at the agency WDMP.
The fashion phone is a lucrative phenomenon, as The Carphone Warehouse knows all too well. In 2005, it became the sole distributor of the Motorola V3 Pink mobile phone - one of the first mobile phones to target fashion-conscious customers, predominantly women between the age of 20 and 35 - and sold more than half a million handsets in just a few months.
"It drove volume in quite a dramatic way which we certainly hadn't anticipated," explains Gary Ryan, head of direct marketing at The Carphone Warehouse. "It was clear that customers were purchasing not just for the functionality of the phone but as a fashion statement."
The Carphone Warehouse had captured a new and important customer segment it was understandably keen to hang on to. The challenge was how. Traditionally, handsets had been sold based on their features and the nature of the deal. But this audience had different attitudes and motivations, which required a new approach.
As with most fashion items, the Motorola Pink V3 only had a limited shelf life. The Carphone Warehouse recognised that, in order to retain these customers, it would need to offer them the next must-have mobile within 12 months of their original purchase. Unfortunately there was no obvious successor to the Pink V3 but, working with its agency WDMP, The Carphone Warehouse came up with the next best thing.
The "Fashion Picker" mailing positioned a range of five new handsets as essential fashion accessories by enabling customers to select their next handset based on their own individual style. Vogue magazine illustrator Monsieur Z was commissioned to draw the various looks in a fashion designer style, and each illustration was cut at the neck and knee to allow customers to mix and match their desired look with each handset.
"This campaign changed the way we look at targeting our customers. We had to understand what makes them tick and it wasn't the usual motivators such as the deal, the price or the package but what the phone looks like. It's more of an emotional purchase, and the mailing had to tap into this," says Reeves.
This mailing was sent to more than 100,000 female customers in September last year, encouraging them to upgrade their phone. It has since been rolled out on a quarterly basis. "We get phenomenal results from it," says Reeves, adding that Fashion Picker is now part of The Carphone Warehouse's ongoing pre-pay-to-contract strategy. The September mailing generated a 233 per cent increase in sales compared to the best-performing previous activity, and continues to be The Carphone Warehouse's most successful upgrade campaign.
WDMP has been working with The Carphone Warehouse for four and a half years - starting on the TalkTalk account and then adding the mobile business more than two years ago. The agency's activity includes warm and cold acquisition pieces, which are increasingly targeted at different segments - such as the over-60s and mums-to-be.
In this context, the Fashion Picker mailing was the catalyst in bringing about a change in the way The Carphone Warehouse promotes and sells its mobile phones. Reeves explains: "It has helped identify that a mobile phone means different things to different people. To some it's a statement, others a business tool, a music listening device, a camera, a way of sharing experiences, a time saver, an organiser. And of course to many, it's just a telephone. Understanding what it is to which customers is now crucial to the success of our future marketing activity."
While some companies are shifting marketing spend away from direct mail and into email and online, The Carphone Warehouse is fully committed to this channel. "If anything we are doing more direct mail now than ever before. As long as we are talking to customers at the right time and in the right way, it works really well," says Ryan.
The company does little customer acquisition through direct mail "because we don't have enough information to get the targeting and segmentation correct", says Ryan. But for retention activity he adds that direct mail not only outperforms other channels such as email, but accuracy levels are higher. "From our point of view, we have a lot more postal address data and therefore can afford to be more selective in how we use it."
At the moment, Ryan's attention is focused on the imminent launch of the Prada phone. The phone boasts a pure, unadulterated black exterior, and is ultra-thin at just 12mm. With the Prada logo emblazoned on the front, it should be just the thing for The Carphone Warehouse's growing band of fashionistas.
CLEVER STUFF
Much of this success of the Fashion Picker mailing is down to the targeting. The Carphone Warehouse uses an Acxiom segmentation solution called Personicx, which attaches a Personicx code to every customer at the point of purchase. This enables the company to segment its database according to different criteria such as age, the type of handset purchased, when it was purchased and value.
This segmentation is then overlaid with additional data sets - such as the customers' product portfolio and additional geodemographic information - before the final selection is made.
"We could have blanketed customers, but there would be too much wastage," comments The Carphone Warehouse's Ryan. "By combining insight on our own database with previous findings, we can establish what type of customer is likely to be interested in a fashion mobile phone."
Crucially for the Fashion Picker mailing, campaign results are fed back into the Personicx system. "We take a selection of Personicx codes and then report back on those that took the offer up. That way we can establish which are the most responsive codes in that particular segment, and this knowledge drives future campaigns," says Reeves, adding that it is a constant process of refining and improving the targeting.
WDMP doesn't have a fixed volume of contacts to target each quarter but mails whatever number meets its selection criteria - typically between 100,000 and 150,000 in the case of the Fashion Picker pack. "We don't top it up just for the sake of it," says Reeves. "We're very keen not to bombard. The move to digital print lends itself to smaller volumes."
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