InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh, has launched a transpromo pilot for hotel chain Best Western International.
The initiative will bring personalized and relevant promotional offers to Best Western Rewards members via their rewards statements.
Transpromo is a newer direct mail technique that combines transactional data with promotional documents and information to provide more targeted marketing messages on statements and other documents. Billed as an easy way to reach out to customers without having to make a huge investment in new promotional campaigns or materials, it is more widely used in Europe and Canada than the US at this point.
“While providing special offers to customers is not a new concept, the ability to offer existing customers relevant and targeted promotions that enable a brand to remain engaged throughout the billing cycle really is,” said Lee Gallagher, manager of direct marketing solutions at InfoPrint, in a statement. “This is particularly important in a crowded market and our current economic environment, where a brand needs to differentiate to reduce churn and retain a trusted customer base.”
The pilot program is being conducted as part of the Chief Marketing Officer Council’s Precision Promotion campaign, which explores customer revenue optimization strategies. It is being run at the InfoPrint Innovation Center in Boulder, Colorado, and output is being sent to members of the Best Western Gold Crown loyalty program. InfoPrint is also leveraging its TransPromo Consultancy Practice and software offerings from partners such as GMC, which lets users design and create personalized documents while integrating data-driven marketing messages. Materials are being printed on InfoPrint’s full-color, continuous forms inkjet drop-on-demand printing system, the InfoPrint 5000.
The results from the pilot program will be released as part of the CMO Council’s Precision Promotion Route to Revenue report in early December.
