Home Factors 
*This content has been adapted from a webinar
Luci:
Why are you different from some of the other data providers and marketing service organizations?
Michelle:
We actually started years ago specializing in email acquisition deployment. Why that statement is really important is because when you specialize in email deployment, understanding the individual is really important because you want to be able to send email campaigns to an individual, not necessarily a household.
Because of that, we build all of our products at an individual level versus the household level. So we are the opposite of a lot of the really big data compilers that are out there in the industry because they start at a household level and then backfill in individual-level information.
So we start at an individual level and then we combine together the individuals via household information. We have individual keys along with household keys and address keys because we also own a data quality product that has been in market for a number of years and we have an entire key system. We use that to then tie individuals together at a household level.
The reason why that’s really important is because individuals within a household are all different and households are all different. Just because households have a common living situation, they are not all alike.
I think that is a common methodology that a lot of other data providers have but we just find that is not the case. You could take my household for example and compare it to my neighbors but I’m a household of nine people. My neighbors are two people so if we were to assume that because we live next to each other, we are the same, you would be wrong, and you would be marketing me completely wrong products compared to marketing to them.
So understanding that individual compilation is just so important, and being able to talk to the individuals within that household, in a way they want to be talked to, is also really important.
Nowadays, we are definitely seeing more families living together. You’re seeing more of the multi-generational families and older children staying with their families longer. And those older children are making buying decisions, and so you want to be able to reach them. They’re also influencing other people in the household to make buying decisions.
So you want to be able to reach everybody, not just the head of household anymore, which is something that a lot of people used to try and do, thinking, “Hey, if I contacted the head of household, that’s good enough.” We believe that’s not good enough.
Todd:
That’s a great point, Michelle. Because with some channels – I’ll just imagine that the person in the upper left box is looking at their cell phone and reading email, that’s a 1:1 personal communication with that message. That brand will get specifically to that person.
But if you look downstairs where the television is, the message there might reach everybody in the household. And you do want to also reinforce across all the screens in the household, because there’s going to be dialog about that purchase decision depending on how expensive it is and what it is.
But understanding those rich, strong, accurate data points of the individuals in the household, and then being able to coordinate to allow brands to make sure the entire household gets the same consistent message geared towards who they think the decision makers are, that’s where you get a huge lift in the effectiveness of your marketing.
