DATABASE SCREAMS!
The DMSI e-NEWSLETTER... Rants and raves from the database pros at DMSI.
Serving 3500+ Marketing Pros

In This Issue:

Dear Friends,

Access Rules! For low-tech marketing database software, you can't beat Microsoft Access - and this month we explain why. Our second article asks the provocative question: Who is your best customer? The one who bought from you yesterday? Finally, we can't help giving our version of "My summer vacation" - a delightful client visit to Kauai Coffee Company in Hawaii.

As always, please let us know how DMSI can fit into your database plans!

Bruce Gregoire,
President and founder,
Desktop Marketing Solutions, Inc (DMSI)

Adjunct Professor, Marketing Information Systems
Johns Hopkins University Graduate School

DMSI to teach "Fundamentals of Database Marketing"
The Direct Marketing Assoc. of Washington (DMAW) has once again enlisted Bruce Gregoire, DMSI to lead an all-day seminar on "Fundamentals of Database Marketing", on Wednesday, November 9, 2005. This course, to be held at the UVA Tech Center in Falls Church, VA, is designed for both entry level and experienced direct marketing professionals who want added exposure to the art and science of Database Marketing. A great deal of the material for this course is abstracted from Arthur Hughes' popular text "Strategic Database Marketing", used by Mr. Gregoire for his graduate marketing class at Johns Hopkins University.

New database topics! The course (formerly known as RFM Boot Camp) has been expanded to include new material for marketers.

• More database terminology: learn some of the industry jargon, so you can actually communicate with your tech staff (what a concept!).
• Introduction to CRM: hear from Martha Rogers about Customer Relationship Management.
• New marketing technologies: learn how to employ Google adwords, Constant Contact, and more.

And as before, you will use Microsoft Access to manipulate a sample marketing database in a hands-on environment.

Who would benefit from this course? Marketing analysts, circulation planners, direct marketers, fundraising professionals, and marketing management who want a basic understanding of how to use a marketing database.

From a recent student: "Mr. Gregoire is obviously very passionate about his field and I truly enjoyed his class and got a lot out of it."

Learn More: Click on the Calendar of Events tab at DMAW
Return to top5

Access Rules: the best solution for low-tech marketing database processing.
Choosing a market database software application is all about four important criteria:

1. User friendliness
2. Scalability
3. Compatibility
4. Processing power

Since the mid-1990's, the popular choices in the desktop world have been Filemaker Pro, Alpha Five, Visual FoxPro and Microsoft Access. In our minds, the clear cut winner is Microsoft Access. Here is how we see these products stack up side-by-side (you may strongly disagree, and if so please let us know with your own rankings).

1. User friendliness: Alpha Five and Filemaker Pro are very easy to use - and lead in this category. They have loyal users, who - like Mac users - will defend their solution to death. But ultimately they are compromised in the compatibility and processing categories. Training availability is also an issue. Since MS Access outsells other products by at least 100 to 1, it has more commercial training programs available (one of the best we've found is at CompUSA).
2. Scalability: (handling large files): Visual FoxPro and MS Access both have database size limits of 2 gigabytes. But MS Access uses linkages to spread out data tables among multiple databases to overcome this obstacle. A colleague of mine relates his experience with a billion dollar fund raising organization, that runs their entire enterprise on a linked MS database structure. DMSI's own WiseGuys program is also Access-based, and can handle 3 million customer and transaction records. The last point about scalability is perhaps the most important - Access can link to SQL Server tables. For larger enterprise solutions, this is a minimum requirement.
3. Compatibility: Nearly all desktop software is designed for Windows compatibility since MS Windows is the default operating system for most businesses. As part of the Microsoft Office suite, Access has superior compatibility with Excel, SQL Server, and web based applications.
4. Processing power: Marketing database activities require sophisticated queries. Our experience with MS Access is that the many built-in functions and tools will handle the most arcane queries you can conjure up. But it is a bit of a memory hog. Count on spending extra funds on your desktop (specifically memory) if you have a large database and want speedy processing.

Learn More: See Microsoft's comparison of Visual FoxPro versus MS Access at Microsoft.com. Their conclusion: "If you are building applications that take advantage of Microsoft Office, or if you want an interactive product with plenty of convenience, then choose Microsoft Access. If you are a database developer and you want ultimate speed and power, then choose Visual FoxPro".
Return to top5

Who is your best customer? The 80-20 rule of RFM Analysis
One of the first questions I ask of a new DMSI client is straightforward: Who are your best customers? Many times the answer is not known and varies depending on whom you ask. The owner of the company may mention his first, most valuable client that launched the business. The accountant may cite the largest account from a spending standpoint.

For direct marketers, I like to reinforce the notion that your best customer is very likely the one who just bought from you yesterday. In other words, "what have ya' done for me lately"? This leads to an introduction of the fundamental concept of RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary Value) analysis. RFM analysis uses these parameters to score each customer in your database. Note that RFM does not pretend to select your best customers. Instead of "best", what RFM do is predict which customers are "likely to respond" to your next promotion; it is more forward looking. Recency scoring can point out, for instance, that the "best customers" mentioned by client staff have lapsed, and now are someone else's best customers. Frequency scoring can determine that large, one-time buyers cannot necessarily be counted on for repeated purchases. Recency and Frequency trump Monetary Value - that is why it is "RFM" Analysis (and not FMR or MRF).

More on RFM: Most direct marketers agree that customers are not all alike - and will not respond alike. Which brings us to the 80-20 rule: 20% of your customers will generate 80% of your response and also revenues. But which 20%? RFM analysis helps you find the 20% segment that is most likely to respond. Now you might say that the specific product buying cycle is more important. For instance, in an association, a lapsed member who just renewed yesterday is not likely to renew again next week. However, consider this: they might still be likely to respond to another offer - perhaps a book purchase, a training class, or registration for an annual conference. RFM can help analyze these buying patterns.

Learn More: Our DMSI WiseGuys application applies RFM analysis in a number of unique ways. Read how it can be applied to your customer database in WiseGuys FAQ. [PDF]
Return to top5

My Summer Vacation - a visit to Kauai Coffee Company
Only one word can describe the islands of Hawaii - Paradise! In August I was fortunate enough to work with the folks at Kauai Coffee Company as part of a marketing database upgrade project. This effort included extensive training on use of the Mail Order Manager (MOM) system, as well as installation of our DMSI flagship WiseGuys application. The staff at Kauai Coffee demonstrated why the island is known for its friendliness. They were the perfect hosts to me and my family for 3 wonderful days. Oh, and we did get a little work done as well: Kauai Coffee is now able to use WiseGuys and MOM to target their customers better for their interactive and postal mail campaigns.

Learn More: Try Kauai Coffee - and visit them at www.KauaiCoffee.com.
Return to top5

How Desktop Marketing Solutions, Inc. can help you!
DMSI is a full-service resource for database marketing software, programming, installation and applications. Whether you're considering a new software system or just need help assessing your current one, DMSI can help. The staff at DMSI offer the rare combination of database know-how and direct marketing expertise. Our niche is small to mid-size organizations who need the power of advanced database techniques to grow their business. We provide software product installation and customization for "best of breed" marketing database and CRM packages.

And now, pick up the phone! One call gets you 15 minutes of Free Database Advice
Step 1: Call DMSI offices anytime at (703) 941-8109
Step 2: "Ask the Experts" at DMSI - give us your toughest database question.
Step 3: No charge - no obligation. 15 minutes may be all the help you need to start solving your marketing database problem.
Return to top5

Feedback from our readers:
"Great newsletter: It is one of the few I read top to bottom"
Carlie Adams, President, MAC Direct

"The newsletter is terrific. The content was valuable and interesting. Thanks for sending it, and we are looking forward to the next issue already.
Joanna Napolitano, Natural Wellness

 See Past Newsletter Issues