The case
Johnson & Johnson.MSD is the UK consumer pharmaceuticals arm of Johnson & Johnson, specialising in over-the-counter treatments for everyday conditions such as athlete's foot, heartburn and dandruff.
The company had a limited database, and little direct marketing experience.
What data work there was had been carried out by database bureau Altwood Systems, its supplier of three years.
"We put together a fairly straightforward flat-file related database," says Altwood head of marketing Viv Mayers. "It was mainly made up of response data to direct marketing campaigns and responses to consumer questionnaires."
The relative lack of sophistication of the data set-up meant that any data work required by Johnson & Johnson.MSD had to be carried out by Altwood, from a database count or a mailing selection to analysis, which could be time-consuming.
While the company's direct marketing activity remained limited, this was not an issue. But during 2001 the company started to increase its activity in terms of database buying and introduced online marketing.
"Because of the increased activity, the client wanted to increase the efficiency and functionality of the database," says Mayers.
Diagnosis
There were two key issues. First was the budget, which, at £30,000, was limited. "We really needed to give them additional functionality and access to their data without going into a complete redevelopment of the database," she adds.
The second factor was that the company's existing data had been collected through many different questionnaires with slightly different wordings - so much of the data was made up of different responses to essentially the same question.
"We needed to standardise all that data, working closely with Johnson & Johnson.MSD to work out what all the answers meant and fit them into standard categories," says Mayers.
The final challenge was that the client wanted a system that would offer all its data for analysis, whether it was mailable or not, and to be able to exclude unmailable data so as to make selections for mailing.
Treatment
Altwood opted to change the database platform from flat-file to SQL server and developed a front-end tool for data access using Microsoft's OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) tool.
OLAP uses specialised databases called 'cubes' to offer a quick visual representation of large amounts of data, allowing the user to analyse, compare and report on the data to spot business trends, opportunities and problems. For example, it allowed users at Johnson & Johnson.MSD to map consumers buying its products at different retail outlets.
Altwood combed through the questions to clarify standard meanings, and then created a standard data format using its proprietary Central Data Dictionary (CDD) product.
"Once we sorted out the mapping rules, we could put questionnaire results into the CDD and the data formatting would be standardised," says Mayers.
A standard data mapping document allows all agencies and third parties collecting and sending in data on its behalf to follow the standard format.
Now data processing and maintenance is much more automated, and users within Johnson & Johnson.MSD can carry out their own analysis and data selection using an extranet and a simple browser.
CLEANING KIT: MAILSORT AND WALKSORT
What are Mailsort and Walksort?
A Royal Mail service offering substantial postage discounts on large mailings to licensed businesses that pre-sort their data before mail collection.
How does it work?
By processing your files against Mailsort and Walksort databases you compile data into geographic regions based on groups of postcodes defined as Direct Selections.
Mail is then sorted and labelled into Direct Selection bags. Those items that don't fall into these regions, and items that do not have full postcodes are sorted into adjacent selection areas and labelled as Residue.
Walksort goes a step further by sorting the mail down to approximately 80,000 individual postal walks, giving the user a greater discount from Royal Mail (see www.datadirectltd.co.uk/mailsort).
An example and any results?
We have just completed a consumer survey questionnaire mailing of just over one million letters. Using our own in-house Mailsort packages, we processed the data using Mailsort 3, enabling savings in excess of £50,000 in postage alone to be passed on to our client.
Gabe Cooney is managing director of Data Direct.