The Business Advantage Group (BAG) is an integrated communication services provider in Mexico. With over 12 years of experience in the field, the company has served 500 of the largest companies in the country. Their services range from market research to advertising and mobile marketing but a key focus for BAG has been relationship marketing.  

A challenging goal

Through relevant, timely, print and electronic communications, BAG was keen to help companies build and strengthen relationships with customers. "We knew it would be a challenging task," said Cesar Huerta, Creative Director at BAG. "We needed a solution that could help us build customer insight and leverage this for relevant, effective communications." 

Too many tools, not enough time

Before GMC Inspire, BAG had to use many different tools such as Excel, MS Access and MS SQL for marketing campaigns and this was both complicated and time-consuming. There was also a lot of dependence on external suppliers for image manipulation and campaign execution. Testing campaign variations meant even more time, effort and re-work. "The complexity and time required to build out campaigns left us little opportunity to be creative and brainstorm new ideas to drive business," explained Huerta.

Inspiring a radical change

GMC Inspire radically changed the way BAG approached their marketing campaigns and allowed them to experiment with new ideas in relationship marketing. "With GMC Inspire, BAG is the only company in Mexico that can offer personalized campaigns in less than half the time it would usually take" said Huerta. 

GMC Inspire allows BAG to: 

• Automate and manage the end-end campaign process
• Use trigger marketing to enable two-way dialogue
• Personalize campaigns without reliance on external suppliers
• Use data more effectively for closer targeting
• Deploy campaigns through multiple channels
• Effectively track and manage customer responses 
• View detailed reports of campaign success 

Increasing value with multichannel

GMC Inspire is used for almost all campaign stages including database management, data segmentation, art management and production. With a single solution BAG can now streamline campaign processes, creatively apply variable data, and also integrate multichannel campaigns to drive response rates. "Initially we used GMC Inspire for both print and e-mail campaigns but with its ability to drive multiple channels, we are now exploring SMS and mobile channels too."

Personalized credit renewal campaign for VW Group automobile owners

BAG is now able to deliver completely personalized campaigns for VW Bank, which provides flexible banking solutions to Volkswagen Group and Porsche clients. The campaign objective is to encourage clients to renew their credit agreement. GMC Inspire is used to target VW Bank clients that have a good credit history, are classified as not risky, and will be finishing their credit within three months. Each communication is then personalized according to the vehicle that the client has purchased and even the pre-authorized credit limit that is calculated on an individual basis. Individual responses can then be tracked allowing for ROI measurement and follow-up communications.  

With GMC Inspire BAG expects to:

• Increase retention by 50%
• Improve efficiency by 90%
• Achieve cost savings of 40%
• Grow new business by 45%
• Boost response rates by 60%

From 15 days to one: Turnaround reduced by 90 percent 

With GMC Inspire, BAG’s delivery of relationship marketing services has been transformed allowing more creative campaigns in less time while also enabling better response management. "Our turnaround time for campaigns has dramatically reduced by about 90 percent. One campaign that used to take 15 labor days to complete, takes one day with GMC Inspire." 

Greater accuracy in response tracking  

BAG needed to ensure that customer responses could be accurately tracked and processed in a timely manner to promote a two-way dialogue. "With GMC Inspire we can track exactly how customers respond to our marketing messages with personalized URL’s, bar codes, QR codes and even SMS short codes," continued Huerta. "Customer responses are processed within GMC Inspire to automatically trigger new campaigns and relevant communications."

Setting the benchmark

BAG can now deliver a unique service that allows clients to see faster results, accurately measure success, and increase the lifetime value of every customer. "GMC Inspire is the tool relationship marketers have always wanted," declares Huerta. "It gives us the opportunity to set the benchmark for marketing campaigns in Mexico."