Selfridges

Selfridges first opened the doors of its Oxford Street store in London in 1909. Now with two stores in Manchester and another in Birmingham, Selfridges is the ultimate place for new brands, experiences and ideas.

The challenge

Following its decision to open a new store in Birmingham, Selfridges asked CACI to help it plan a targeted direct mail campaign to inform the most appropriate people. Selfridges also needed to identify hotspots of potential customers so it could select the best sites for a poster advertising campaign.

To maximise the return on investment from its marketing activities, Selfridges wanted to target consumers in Birmingham with the same characteristics as existing customers for its London and Manchester stores. It also wanted to ensure that it only targeted consumers that would be likely to travel to the new Birmingham site.

The solution

CACI began by appending ACORN types to customer records for Selfridges’ stores in London and Manchester so it could understand which types of consumers would be most likely to shop at the new store.

The next step was to define the areas in and around Birmingham from which potential shoppers would travel to the new Selfridges store. This was achieved using CACI’s Retail Footprint, which uses real shopper data and exit surveys to predict likely customer travel times.

CACI was then able to identify hotspots of potential customers by mapping the customer ACORN profile onto the Birmingham catchment area.

The results and benefits

CACI provided Selfridges with a map to show hotspots of potential customers to enable a selection of poster advertising sites and a list of postcodes for direct mail targeting. Selfridges also used CACI’s analysis to plan advertising on transport routes such as buses and trains.

Nicky Marsh, Regional Marketing Manager at Selfridges comments,

“Having worked with CACI over the past three years, we have come to appreciate the extra dimension their independent location planning expertise adds to our decision making process. Their review of the catchment and customer dynamics of a new centre is imperative to the store location and the planning of the marketing launch.”

Retail Footprint