According to a Mercer study from 2002 improved customer relationship management would help automobile manufacturers to increase sales in their after sales business. As an example, a Saab Germany after sales campaign demonstrates how to tap this potential. With a mailing campaign tailored to dealers’ and customers’ needs, Saab increased not only the response rate but also sales of the advertised products up to 60 percent. When the company was looking for new ways to communicate with its customers, its communications agency employed a new approach – a targeted communication, ensuring that each customer only receives information and offers that are relevant to their car. Saab’s agency, MainLine located in Frankfurt, came up with a marketing campaign utilizing direct-mails as the central communication tool. Based on vehicle age, three owner groups were defined – depending what group a customer belonged to, the mailing contained offer cards for accessories and services specifically developed for that group. Saab dealers manage customer data as well as pricing for accessories and services themselves. The special offer cards were thus stored online as templates, enabling the dealers to directly access them, type in their prices and order them in the numbers needed. Customer data as well as pricing information were collected at Saab’s agency which organized the mailings centrally. Due to the up to 20 prices per dealer and individual dealer information also contained in the special offer card packages, the mailings had to be printed digitally. “Digital printing is the only way to implement the mailings”; says Michael Härtlein, General Manager at MainLine. The Saab advertising materials were printed on a NexPress 2100 digital production color press of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg). As Saab confirms, the result was not only improved quality compared to the previously used digital printing system, but also a reduction in costs. “We used to have our advertising media printed on a different digital system,” says Uwe Geldner, Manager After Sales at Saab Germany. “But the NexPress 2100 gives use even better quality that also lives up to the Saab image. In addition to which, printing is 20 percent cheaper.” The target-group specific communication enabled Saab Germany to increase the response rate up to ten percent and sales of the advertised products up to 60 percent compared to the previous year. Some individual products even recorded an increase of 300 percent. Due to the success of the campaign, some dealers already show great interest in a further personalization. Today, the one-shot promotion campaign for the German dealers has developed into a program involving three campaigns per year. For a copy of the Saab case study and the White Paper see http://www.heidelberg.com Click: News & Events, Recent News, Individualized Marketing