Duo designs one-stop database service

February 5, 1996 by Strategy Staff

Toronto-based Compusearch and Valassis Canada have joined together to offer clients a package of database services called ConsumerQuest they say will see clients through the process of collecting consumer data, organizing it, and using it to create effective promotions.

Foremost among the benefits of the service is that it allows clients the chance to contribute to the Canadian Shopper Survey with their own question or questions.

Clients are guaranteed category exclusivity, and response to their question becomes proprietary information.

The data is collected over 18 months in three waves of surveys of about three million households each.

Questions will include a number of straightforward demographic questions such as sex, age and financial status, as well as the sponsored questions.

Upon completing the survey, participants are rewarded with a package of coupons, samples and special offers from the sponsors of the survey.

Using a Compusearch proprietary software package called MarketSuite, clients can get access to the database with any type of query, then can enter the data into a mail management sytem, or map the data.

The data will be linked to Compusearch’s StoreBase database that contains the trading areas of all grocery stores in the country, allowing specific analysis.

Valassis’ services come to the fore when the data have been collected and clients want to develop promotion and advertising plans based on the results.

Valassis offers participation in co-op envelopes, Shop and Save newspaper freestanding inserts, solo direct mail, and sampling.

According to Jan Kestle, president of Compusearch, this package of services allows marketers to get involved in comprehensive database marketing without the expenditure neccessary to undertake a solitary effort.

‘[Our] customers have been asking for help,’ Kestle says. ‘This is an affordable solution.’

While the program is marketed as a package, it is also available as individual components.