First Data’s Senior VP Dom Morea provided a set of important insights into the next generation of marketing services to small and medium businesses (SMBs) at BIA/Kelsey’s 2013 SMB Digital Marketing conference, saying these may be more about “commerce” than “advertising.” Using payments as an anchor, these “transaction marketing” services include deals, coupons, loyalty services and CRM/analytics. First Data is the giant processor of 55 percent of U.S. transactions, is aggressively pursuing this rapidly exploding space.
Morea stated that their research shows 82% of consumers want to have a seamless online/offline shopping experience. Over half (57%) start their journey to purchase either online or offline but want to finish their journey easily on the other side (i.e., starting online but ending offline for the final purchase). About four-fifths (81%) of consumers carry two or more loyalty cards and 40% want these to be personalized to them by providing tailored ads or offers.
For SMBs this creates quite a challenge. Providing simple, compelling loyalty programs that allow the consumer to seamlessly bridge their online and offline steps in their journey to purchase is not something they can do themselves. Morea provided a compelling case study of one SMB whose challenge it was to move away from costly plastic loyalty cards that had limited success in driving customer engagement to something that would work better. First Data’s solution was their Offerwise card-linked program that enables paperless redemption for offer providers, merchants, and consumers.
The result was that the SMB was able to learn more about the customer by tying in more data in an integrated view and the program drove up to 85% activation rates, much higher than the previous solution. The integrated data view allowed the SMB to leverage consumer analytics to personalize content and complete a multichannel experience.
Morea said the next frontier in transactional marketing involves rethinking mobile; leverage the cloud to integrate disparate parts of the process; and emerging privacy and security standards.
Rick Ducey is the managing director for BIA/Kelsey. He is an expert in digital media innovations, competitive strategies, new product development and new business models, including digital ecosystem collaboration strategies.
Ducey oversees the firm's consulting, research and advisory services areas. He is also the program director for BIA/Kelsey's Video Local Media advisory service. This program provides coverage and analysis of how online, mobile and broadcast video technologies, competition, shifting consumer demographics and media usage trends are driving changes in the media ecosystem and SMBs and other advertisers can be successful in the new environment. Ducey assists clients with their business planning and revenue models, strategic research, market assessment, and designing and implementing digital strategies. He is also a cofounder of SpectraRep, one of BIA�s companies, which sells a patent-pending IP-based alerting system that he co-invented.
Prior to joining BIA in 2000, Ducey was senior vice president of NAB's Research and Information Group. In this position, he was in charge of the association�s new technology assessment, audience and policy research, strategic planning and information systems, including all Internet operations, and he also developed publications and seminars.
Before joining NAB in 1983, Ducey was a faculty member in the Department of Telecommunication at Michigan State University where he taught and did research in the areas of emerging telecommunication technologies and strategic market research. He also served on the graduate management faculties of George Mason University and George Washington University in telecommunications management and the University of Maryland, where he taught strategic market management and research methodologies. Ducey was selected as the Spring 2011 Shapiro Fellow at George Washington University where he teaches entrepreneurship in new media. He has published a number of research articles and papers in these areas and serves on editorial boards of leading scholarly journals in the communications field. He has also worked at radio stations WSOQ-AM/WEZG-FM and Upstate Cablevision in North Syracuse, New York.
Ducey received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University, M.S. from Syracuse University and B.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
