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Suppose you walk into a clothing store, and there’s this blue line on the floor. So you follow that line, and it leads to a section that has everything in your size, and in your colors. It would make it pretty easy to choose what’s right for you.’

Don’t get your hopes up – nobody’s actually figured out a way to design a store like that yet. It’s just the handy analogy that Carolyn Cameron of Leo Burnett Company uses in explaining the communications program that her Toronto-based agency helped create for Bell Canada.

Cameron is an account director with Leo Burnett’s integrated marketing services group. And it was this group’s expertise in database marketing that enabled Bell to develop highly customized communications for the members of its Real Plus long-distance savings plan and rewards program.

‘While we have a vast customer base, our customers are not all alike,’ says Susan Charles, director of advertising for the telecommunications giant. ‘And we have a vast range of products and services – more than many people are probably aware of. So database marketing enables us to deliver the right messages to the right audience more cost-effectively.’

Bell introduced Real Plus two years ago, as part of its strategic response to the deregulation of the long-distance marketplace. It ran until July, when it was replaced by a new and improved savings plan and rewards program called – what else? – Real Plus Extra.

Real Plus members received in the mail a quarterly statement that listed their savings and the points they had earned toward the various rewards available – a long-distance credit on their phone bill, Air Miles travel miles, GM Card earnings and so on.

They also received a newsletter that provided additional information about rewards and savings, and updates on new products and services.

‘It was a chance for us to really lay out on paper what value Bell would bring to them,’ Charles says.

By doing analysis of its database and identifying patterns of spending and telephone usage, Bell was able to put together mailings tailored to individual customers.

Many different versions of the newsletter were created. If, for example, analysis of the database revealed a large group of customers who were frequent calling card users and who made regular overseas calls, then each of those individuals would receive a newsletter with features highlighting Bell products or services that might benefit them.

‘Telecommunications is such a complex category, and there are products that may be right for some segments of the market, but not helpful to others,’ Cameron says. ‘Guiding people to the right product or service for their needs is important. When you can demystify things for customers, you’re really increasing the level of service.’

In addition to the appropriate version of the newsletter, the package might contain any of several inserts, along with specific messages on the statement (product information, for example, or savings tips) – all determined by the individual customer’s preferences and behavior.

‘Ultimately what we were able to do was get almost a unique package into every customer’s hands,’ Cameron says. ‘It took a very state-of-the-art process at the back end, and a lot of testing to get it right.

‘It’s a long planning process. And it’s amazing, because what you end up with is something as innocent and simplistic-looking as a newsletter. But it’s really a very powerful tool by virtue of all that planning.’

To help make the package even more powerful, Bell and Leo Burnett developed a model for accurately predicting a customer’s long-distance usage patterns over time.

This enabled them to include a forecast on every statement that would show customers how much they could expect to save over the course of the year, as well as their projected accumulation of reward points.

The addition of this forecast, Cameron says, helped address one of the major challenges confronting any loyalty program: how to make the rewards seem real and attainable to consumers.

‘People tend to get quite excited at the outset about the points they’re collecting, but eventually the question crosses their minds: what does it really mean? We realized that we needed to show them, from the early stages, what it is they’re accumulating towards.’

Besides showing customers their projected points, the forecast also translated that into their preferred reward option. If, for example, a customer had chosen to take his or her reward in the form of a long-distance credit, the statement gave the forecasted dollar value of that credit.

‘What all of this does,’ says Charles, ‘is put customers in a position to better understand what they’re getting from Bell. At a time when they’re being continually barraged by messages from our competitors, this enables them to make decisions based on what is of true value to them.’

Charles says that Bell garnered a strong response to Real Plus. Much of what the company learned about its customers’ desires, through their feedback, has in turn informed the development of Real Plus Extra.

‘The closer you get to your customers, and the more you know about them, the better you can serve them,’ she says. ‘As they continue to evolve, we can continue to be relevant to them.’