BLAIR SELECTS SAS TO OVERHAUL CRM STRATEGY
Blair to improve direct marketing capabilities through intelligent applications from SAS
CARY, N.C. (Oct 20, 2004) – Blair Corporation’s (AMEX: BL) mission is to be the best direct marketer serving value-conscious consumers of apparel and home products. So when the company decided to upgrade its legacy customer-management system it conducted an exhaustive vendor search. As a result of this search, it became clear to Blair that the best technology partner to help it achieve its goals was SAS, the leader in business intelligence.
Blair recognized the need to move its marketing efforts from a product-centric approach to one that was more customer-centric. Blair executives decided that the company needed a more sophisticated system to target catalogs and email promotions to its existing and prospective customers.
"We needed to enhance our processes and our technological capabilities to increase customer response rates while simultaneously lowering advertising costs. We chose SAS because we believe strongly in the analytical capabilities of the software," said Robert Crowley, Blair’s senior vice president for menswear, home & marketing services. "SAS® Marketing Automation will help us build more successful marketing campaigns through enhanced customer segmentation and profiling, and SAS® Marketing Optimization will help with our contact strategy execution. We’ll have an improved understanding of the combination of catalogs and emails that will work across all three divisions, which affords the prospect of higher response rates and lower advertising expenses."
Blair plans to initiate a more targeted multi-phase approach to marketing. For example, SAS analytics will help to determine how quickly Blair should email an offer to a customer who does not respond within ten days to a catalog mailing. "Determining the speed of response and the frequency of communications to the customer –- or the right offer at the right time through the right channel -- is central to successful direct marketing," added Crowley.
One of Blair’s major goals is to reactivate dormant customers. The combination of optimization software and analytics will allow Blair to delve more deeply into the buying habits of existing customers. This will help target new customers by modeling the behaviors of its best customers to identify new prospects that fit the model.
"We have a lot of confidence in SAS, a technology partner for over 20 years. During the review process for campaign management, which included several vendors, SAS’ customer service was the clear choice for Blair," said Crowley.
Built specifically to meet the needs of key members of the marketing process, only SAS Marketing Automation provides comprehensive data management, campaign management and advanced customer analytics in one integrated, easy-to-use solution. As a complement to marketing automation and campaign management technologies, SAS Marketing Optimization helps marketers plan and prioritize all outbound customer communications in order to maximize effectiveness while balancing an organization`s capacity to deliver and the customers’ likelihood of responding.
Marketmax was acquired by SAS Institute in October, 2003 allowing SAS and Marketmax to build a global footprint for retail intelligence combining the merchandising domain expertise of Marketmax and the analytical and financial horsepower of SAS, the world`s largest privately held software company.
Today’s announcement was made at the BetterManagement LIVE Worldwide Business Conference, which addresses critical business management issues from around the world. BetterManagement LIVE brings together more than 1,000 thought leaders from the public and private sector to share insights and knowledge. More than 130 speakers in nine focused tracks represent a broad spectrum of executives, academics, consultants and financial experts. Learn more at www.BetterManagement.com/worldwide.
ABOUT BLAIR
Headquartered in Warren, Pa., Blair Corp. sells a broad range of women’s and men’s apparel and home products through direct mail marketing and its Web sites at www.blair.com, and www.irvinepark.com. Blair employs over 2,500 people and operates facilities and retail outlets in Northwestern Pennsylvania as well as a catalog outlet in Wilmington, Del. The company, which has annual sales of more than $500 million, is publicly traded on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX-BL).
ABOUT SAS
SAS is the market leader in providing a new generation of business intelligence software and services that create true enterprise intelligence. SAS solutions are used at more than 40,000 sites – including 96 of the top 100 companies on the FORTUNE Global 500® – to develop more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; to enable better, more accurate and informed decisions; and to drive organizations forward. SAS is the only vendor that completely integrates leading data warehousing, analytics and traditional BI applications to create intelligence from massive amounts of data. For nearly three decades, SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know ®.
Editorial contacts:
Americas: Angela Lipscomb, (919) 677-8000
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