London, UK – September 30, 2009
All consumers, but particularly young people, continue to value the financial documents they receive in the post alongside on-line access concludes a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh. The study shows that consumers value personalised marketing on their documents online but even more so on paper, indicating an overlooked opportunity for marketers to increase brand and customer loyalty with promotions on documents such as banking, utility and mobile statements.
Younger consumers do not seem to be moving away from paper, as might be expected; for example, 70% of consumers aged 25-34 who receive bank statements read them on paper compared to 63% of consumers aged 50-64. Moreover, across all ages most printed documents are read more than once and often for an average of three minutes.
Even with the shift to electronic communications, over 60% of consumers in France, Germany, Italy, the UK and US read the bank statements they receive in the post even if they are heavy internet users. While 67% of consumers read their bank/building society documents in paper form, nearly 30% also view their statements online. By contrast just 26% of consumers only read their statements online. Consumer desire to have both online access and printed statements underscores the importance of multi-channel communications.
The Forrester study found that consumers value their transaction documents highly with 74% finding them useful or very useful. 67% of consumers say the value of these documents affects their opinion of a company and 74% think that personalised, relevant messages are useful, implying that statements present a significant opportunity to enhance a consumer’s perception and loyalty through promotions using TransPromo.
According to the Forrester study, consumers prefer to receive these relevant messages on their paper statements rather than by email, web or direct mail. 32% of consumers choose paper as their preferred channel compared to email statements at 19%, web statements 8% and direct mail at 6%.
"Forrester’s study reflects our belief that consumers are very receptive to using transactional data and documents to bring them more value – regardless of age, income or country," said Allen Thrasher, marketing principal at InfoPrint Solutions EMEA. "Bringing relevant, personalised promotions onto these highly-valued financial documents can make a positive impact on the brand, retention and loyalty as well as ROI. TransPromo truly can be the next wave of customer communications."
According to the study, "The technology to enable marketers to include relevant, targeted messages on consumers’ transactional documents (targeted based on, for example, their recent purchases) is now well advanced and widely available. However, marketing departments have often taken a limited view of the possibilities of TransPromo, as it differs significantly from the types of marketing they are accustomed to. Both traditional and interactive marketers also question the acceptability of marketing on important documents — will consumers accept such marketing, will it detract from the other content on the document, and will consumers act on such messages?" The study adds, "Overall, Forrester’s survey shows that European and US consumers are open to receiving TransPromo across multiple channels, and many would see truly personalised marketing as adding value to their transactional documents."
TransPromo is a key marketing communications strategy that combines must-read, highly involved transactional documents with data-driven, relevant promotions. Some examples of TransPromo include promotions for varying interest rate credit card promotions on a monthly banking statement; a car hire promotion on an airline boarding pass; offers for a Bluetooth headset on a mobile phone delivery receipt; an affinity credit card promotion on a loyalty statement and a full colour handset upgrade promotions on a mobile bill to high-value customers whose contracts are due to expire.
Consumers do consider the environmental impact of receiving paper transactional documents; however, they still prefer to continue receiving their paper documents. In fact just 18% of younger consumers prefer companies to stop using paper documents.
"This study helps marketers understand their customers attitudes to using TransPromo to reach their consumers," said Benoit Chatelard, senior vice president and general manager, InfoPrint Solutions EMEA. "This study reflects the significant opportunity TransPromo offers our customers by using transactional documents as a marketing channel – both online and offline. We are committed to empowering our customers with the data analytics, consulting and technology to realise the customer value TransPromo represents."
Building on IBM’s heritage in transactional documents, InfoPrint helps customers implement a fully integrated TransPromo programme across multiple channels. With InfoPrint’s TransPromo Solution, customers have seen ROI increases higher than 50%, response rates and conversion increases up to five times greater, enhances in their brand perception, and improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.
InfoPrint Solutions helps marketers and IT professionals understand how to integrate TransPromo with other marketing strategies and programmes, as well as with their existing technology, systems, and processes. InfoPrint offers the technology, software and hardware to implement TransPromo. Its consulting team brings expertise across the marketing, data, technology, software and hardware required for TransPromo, enabling customers to realise the benefits of TransPromo particularly during challenging market conditions when customer loyalty is paramount.
For this study, Forrester Consulting surveyed over 1,200 consumers across France, Germany, Italy, the UK, and US in August 2009. Consumers were asked about a range of topics covering their use of and attitudes to statements, invoices, bills, receipts and direct mail, on and offline. All respondents were between 25 and 64 years old and had at least one on-going account or loyalty programme with organisations such as financial organisations, telecom providers, utility companies and retailers.
Additional Information
InfoPrint’s TransPromo solutions
About InfoPrint Solutions Company
InfoPrint Solutions Company, headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, brings to market the advantages IBM and Ricoh have in the development, manufacturing, marketing and building of strategic solutions for customers, creating a growth-oriented global enterprise that is strategically focused on the output market. For more information go to www.infoprint.com or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/infoprint.
Media and Industry Analyst Contact
Tracey Sheehy
Breakaway Communications for InfoPrint Solutions Company
tsheehy@breakawaycom.com
212-616-6003
