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Precise audiences keep Persil at no. 1
Overview
When replacing its dilute liquid detergent with a new super concentrated formula, it was business-critical for Persil to communicate the benefits of this greener, more convenient alternative to its core customer base. Using Acxiom’s Personicx segmentation to define and identify audiences for personalised marketing communications. This enabled their marketing agency, Ogilvy, to extend the campaign to new segments while focusing in on only the most relevant recipients within existing ones.
The brand
Established in 1909, Persil is the United Kingdom’s leading washing detergent. Manufactured by consumer goods giant Unilever, this trusted brand has been revolutionising the way we clean our clothes for over a century, developing innovative products that are used in households across the country.
The challenge
Commercially vital requirement to communicate to customers the benefits of switching from dilute liquid detergent to a greener, super concentrated alternative.
Our response
Personicx helped extend the reach of the campaign in a personalised way, communicating the marketing message to a wider audience.
The impact
Although dilute liquid products have now been phased out, Persil has retained its top position as the leading UK washing detergent brand.
Reducing environmental impact
As part of a company-wide initiative to become a greener, more environmentally responsible organisation, Unilever decided to formulate a new super-concentrated liquid detergent. Small and Mighty would deliver the same number of washes as Unilever’s existing Persil Liquid product—but with a bottle that is just a third of the size.
Communications challenge
Communicating this new initiative to Persil’s loyal customer base presented Unilever with a considerable challenge. “Buying a much smaller bottle to do the same work as the larger dilute bottle was counter-intuitive for most people,” comments Amanda Smith, Interactive Marketing Manager at Unilever. “We needed to connect with our target consumers and explain the benefits of the new product —both for them and for the environment.”
Precision audiences
To identify suitable recipients, Ogilvy used Acxiom’s Personicx data audience segmentation solution to analyse a database of people who had responded to previous Persil marketing campaigns. Based on detailed Personicx lifestyle criteria, Ogilvy was then able to identify new data that had similar characteristics to the existing respondent list. “Personicx allowed us to extend the reach of the campaign by 10% while targeting communications precisely,” remarks Charles Proctor, Principal Consultant at Ogilvy. “This ensured that the communication we sent was relevant to recipients.”
A breakdown of response rates confirms the success of the approach. “Of the 24 segmentation ‘cells’ within the data selected using Personicx profiling, over half delivered response rates that were above average for the overall campaign,” confirms Proctor. “This means that in some cases the Personicx-selected data performed better than the cells of proven responders to marketing campaigns. That’s an impressive result!”
Effective campaign management
As well as helping Ogilvy to widen the reach of the campaign, Personicx also helped the direct marketing experts to segment the data for more effective campaign management.
“Personicx enabled us to group together households meeting similar profiling criteria,” comments Proctor. “We could then measure which types of household were most responsive as well as test different creative designs and offers for each segment. This provided an important insight to help with future marketing activities.”
#1 detergent brand
The campaign proved to be an outstanding success for Unilever, meeting its key objective of successfully communicating the case for switching to a super concentrated formula to Persil’s core customer base. And ongoing direct marketing activity supported by Personicx audience segmentation is helping to keep Persil ahead of its competition.
“Supported by Personicx Insight, our direct marketing activities have played a key role in this successful product launch,” concludes Smith.
“Personicx allowed us to extend the reach of the campaign by 10% while targeting communications precisely.” In some cases the Personicx selected data performed better than the cells of proven responders to marketing campaigns. That’s an impressive result!”
— Charles Proctor | Principal Consultant at Ogilvyone