A Walk in Their Shoes: Three Perspectives on Using Market Intelligence

As advertising becomes more and more fragmented among media, one way newspapers can stay competitive is to use market intelligence to meet advertisers' needs. Newspapers hold valuable household-level data that they can tap into to help advertisers identify, understand and target key audiences. At the American Press Institute's recent seminar, "Unleashing the Power of Market Intelligence" a panel of speakers shared their intelligence on what advertisers want, what newspapers are doing, and what newspaper competitors are doing.

What advertisers want:
Sharon Swendner, vice president of marketing at Centex Homes, said that while real estate is moving out of print advertising as readers seek homebuying information from other media, there are still opportunities for newspapers to help real estate developers. "We want newspapers to understand us better than we do," she said. Her advice includes:

• Creative alternatives:
  Educate advertisers on alternate delivery solutions, packaged options, and new products such as Internet advertising and the opportunity to place ads in targeted e-newsletters.
• Talk about the benefits:
  Help advertisers by using internal research resources to tell them why newspapers deliver to their targeted audience. Advertisers are willing to share their own market data if it will help newspapers create more targeted advertising opportunities. For instance, a product with longer shelf life would better serve Centex, whose customers shop an average of six months before deciding on a home, according to Swendner.
• Evaluate:
  Newspapers need to be accountable to advertisers for results, and to help customers track and measure the effectiveness of newspaper advertising. Swendner says that advertisers conducting their own market studies can find out whether or not a product is effective. Newspapers need to have the same data before advertisers do.

What competitors are doing:
Scott Pompe, currently vice-president of Tribune Direct, a subsidiary of The Los Angeles Times, and formerly of the direct mail company, ADVO, shared his insights on how ADVO uses market intelligence to take preprint business away from newspapers, and some things newspapers should be doing to counter ADVO's strategies. ADVO's priorities include:

• Collecting data at the sub-ZIP level:
  ADVO uses ZIP plus four numbers to gather information at a more specific level than many newspapers do. ADVO organizes data by postal carrier route, better allowing advertisers to target at the sub-ZIP level. Pompe says that while newspapers probably have the same data, few have organized it the same way to empower their sales representatives.
• Forging newspaper alliances:
  Pompe says that while ADVO's forming newspaper alliances is counterintuitive, it can be a win-win situation. Newspapers and direct mail companies can share data to create better packages for advertisers. Recently, ADVO and the LA Times paired up to produce a new weekly insert targeting five million homes in Southern California. Subscribers to the paper receive this in their paper and non-subscribers receive it in the mail. This insert is targeted at the sub-ZIP level.
• Tailor packages more specifically:
  Newspapers usually charge more for less than full-run preprint distribution. ADVO fills the gap by offering smaller packages and charging by the carrier route. ADVO also satisfies both the consumer and the advertiser by tailoring packages to specific consumer demographics.

What newspapers can do:
Joni Silverstein of Gannett remains optimistic about newspapers' regaining market share. She's already begun to make changes at her company, where an emphasis on audience targeting is already under way. The goal is that by the end of the year, sales representatives will be able to talk to advertisers about very specific targets. Among the keys to success for this initiative:

• Ownership: Place the responsibility for market data squarely on the shoulders of one person in the organization to insure that the data will be updated and used effectively.
• Secondary Information:
  There's a whole world of consumer information beyond bare-bones circulation and advertising data. The person who calls to say that his crossword was damp tells you that he values crosswords.
• More is merrier:
  Keep track of as many people as possible. Create databases on people who frequently call and/or write letters to the editor. These are the one in ten "influentials" in any market who advise the other nine. Identifying these figures will help you focus on them and their needs.
• Apply your data :
  Untouched data is wasted data. Mine data for information that tells you what the market needs and how to address these needs, or don't go to the trouble of collecting and storing it. For example, the Ithaca Journal used market intelligence to re-evaluate drop-off locations for its entertainment guide, Buzz. The data told the paper locations that college students frequented. Pick up rate increased from 72% to 90%.