Download - Database Management Issues
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Database Management Issues
July 3, 2013
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Sources of Data
External Data are
obtained as a
compiled list fromoutside the
company.
Internal data are
obtained from
various data sources
within the company.
Direct-contactbusinesses where the
customer and the
business have a direct
interface, data
gathering opportunity
exists.
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If a company has no direct contact with
customers it could gather data in the followingways:
1. List purchase. This may include lifestyledatabases which holds lists of people according
to specific products and brands bought in
categories such as packaged goods, finance and
leisure.
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2.Data-building schemes. These may
include club membership, credit schemes,or promotions.
3.Introduce new contact channels.New channels that offer direct contact
could be opened to obtain data about
customers. Airlines could offer ticketsdirect over the telephone rather than
through travel agents.
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Summary of Data Sources
For directCompanies
For indirectcontact
companies
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In the majority of companies, data about customers rarely
goes directly from the customer onto the marketing
database.Sale is made
recorded in salesledger
Accounts section andbilling section
Stock control
Marketing
department
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Manage the Database
Advantages Disadvantages
In-house A customized
approach is possible
Day-to-day control
Data can be moved
easily
High cost of
development
Lack of internal
expertise
Name and addresshandling is difficult
Bureau Easier to enforce
service-levelagreements
Leverage on
Experience
Conflicting demands
from other clients High operating costs
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People Issues
IT people are cautious. Its their job to
be cautious; they know the danger of
chaos. Marketing is aggressive. Its
their job to be aggressive; they know
the danger of delay.
-- A. Tapp
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The Marketing perspective:
As a marketer you are obsessed with the customer. You
understand that one of the few differentiators we have is
customer information. So why does not the rest of the
company understand? Why is it so difficult to get them to
accept that this is a priority?
Marketers:
Own the objectives of the database. They want it
to be up and running quick to steal a march of
their competitors; Dont fix on the cultural rules. They are there to
be broken.
Are often weak on technical details
Know the danger of delay
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The IT Perspective
IT database managers have a very different view
of the world. To them, marketers are only recent
arrivals on the scene, coming behind theaccounting system, billing system, the stock-
control system and the sales-recording system.
What does marketing do anyway? They have neverunderstood it, and no one has bothered to tell them, so
whats the fuss all about? An IT managers job is to make
sure the companys internal systems are working properly.
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IT people:
Own the technical knowledge of the
database and the internal systems to make ithappen;
Focus on the details;
Can feel weighed down by the problems;
Need strong guidance on what data to hold
and what software applications are required;
Know the danger of chaos
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Managing the Conflict
The solution to the conflict is understandingeach others different points of view, and
understanding what each others role are in
managing the whole picture.
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Data Management over
time
Issues involved:
Keeping data up to date
Auditing
Archiving
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Keeping Data up to Date
Problem: Data decays over time, and so
money has to be spent keeping it up to
date.
In the US, Stone (1996) estimates that consumerdata changes by as much as 20 percent every year.
In the UK, a lifestyle database manager explained
that his consumer data decays by 17 percent every
year.
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Gone-aways are
customers whoserecords become out of
date
Cause of great
concern to directmarketers.
The last thing you would want is to waste money
by mailing people who no longer live at that
address, to get peoples names wrong, or cause
distress to relatives by mailing someone who
has recently died.
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How to minimize these problems:
Verify data against the electoral rollbefore selections of name and address
are made. This will
- help reduce the number ofgoneaways mailed;
- reduce the data capture errors
getting back to the customer
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2. One rule of thumb is to use only recent
data.
-- For example:
A supermarket would count three-month-
old
3. Run off 1,000 records regularly. Review
common mistakes. Analyze the source of dataentry: coupon, phone, in-store. Look for
patterns and track down source of the
problem, then rectify it.
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Auditing
Audit counts should be carried out
regularly for record verification. This
should include checking databaserecords against the sources of those
records, right back to the original data
capture. It may be that mistakes alongthe way can be spotted and rectified.
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I had a mailer recently from my bank. It
eventually reached me after being forwarded bya friend who now lives in a house I vacated over
two years ago. The mailer offered me a product
which I had already taken up from the bank awhile back.
Exhibit 1.1
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The overall impression
was one ofinefficiency and a lack
of care being taken. It
is likely that properrecord verification
would have prevented
the bank from wastedmailers such as this.
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Archiving
Relates with decisions about how
long to hold records.
Ask the question: When does a
customer become a former
customer?
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Manage the Applications
The key area to manage is the accuracy of any
data that is going to get back to the customer.
Areas of consideration:
1. Selection
2. Outputs
3. Managing campaign responses
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A company that sells flowers
once mixed up two lists: one
was a list of birthdays and the
other was funeral anniversaries.
Unfortunately, the funeral
anniversary people got a letter
starting Happy Anniversary!,
while the birthday letters began
On this sad day
Exhibit 1.2: Mistakes with Data
Happy Anniversary!
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A telecommunications company launched a new
product by writing to 1.7M of its customers. It
needed to write to only those customers who were
connected to updated equipment. By mistake,
however, the list consisted of those customers notable to take up the service. When this had been
discovered, the company has to write again to all
these people explaining that they had been a bit
hasty, and the service was not quite ready.
Exhibit 1.2: Mistakes with Data
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Outputs
Outputs are those fields which are transferred
from the database to the communication
material going to the customer.
For direct mail this would include address,
name for salutation (Dear Mr/s), and also
personal data such as account information for
use in the letter.
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Exhibit 1.3 More Mistakes on Data Outputs
A large company once made a mistake whenoutputting data. The mistake was in the
setting of fixed data fields for a test mailing it
was doing. Instead of allowing the usual 20
spaces for the name field, a wrongly
pressed key meant only four spaces were
allowed. So when customers received their
mailers, their names were cut in half:
instead of Dear Mr. Buttley the letter
read
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Dear Mr. Butt
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Managing Campaign Responses
A code to be part of the communication
for the campaign. In the event of a
response, this code could tell the directmarketer which campaign generated the
response;
A response (yes/no) code placed on the
database