Customized Data Manipulation Application Provides Individualized, Targeted Mailing Solution

The Client: One of the largest health insurance providers in the United States.

The Challenge: Develop a customized data manipulation application that matches consumers to retail locations based on proximity to consumer home zip code.

The Solution: One of Heeter Direct’s clients approached them with what appeared to be, on the surface, a typical variable data direct mail campaign. A self-mailer, targeted to each consumer, driving them to a local retail chain to receive a discount off of health club membership. With more than 500,000 consumers in the mailing database and more than 1,000 retail chains, simply matching the retail chain to the consumer based on tags within the data normally is not a challenge. However, in this case, the client needed Heeter Direct to determine which retail chain to drive the consumer to based on geographic proximity to each consumer’s home zip code. In other words, print the retail chain name and location on each consumer’s mail piece based on the shortest mileage from their home.

This is where Heeter Direct’s value added services, coupled with their organizational beliefs in building strong partnerships with their clients, played an integral role in developing a unique solution. Leveraging their technology and experience in the data manipulation field, Heeter Direct developed a customized application, incorporating geocoding algorithms to determine the closest retail chain for each of the 500,000 consumers provided in the mailing database.

The results were nothing short of ideal. Consumers received an offer for discounted health club membership, providing them with the name, address, and location of the health club closest to them. In addition, Heeter Direct provided an added solution. A small percentage of consumers did not live near any of the more than 1,000 retail establishments. The customized application identified these individuals, allowing the client to send a different offer to these individuals.

“This was a unique challenge that we were definitely up for” said Brian Reddecliff, Senior Exceutive – Client Solutions. “Although it was unique, it was also a refreshing challenge to develop a solution and we were extremely pleased with the outcome that we were able to provide our client.”