Case Study: The IDM Business Performance Awards 2005 — Overall business performance award (the Diamonds)

Abstract

The winner of the Diamond award in 2005 for overall business performance was Gala Group, with its agency Perspektiv Marketing/ ISD Computer Services, for a campaign that used direct marketing to enable a retail business philosophy. Gala's use of direct marketing is unusual for a retail business in two respects: instead of adopting direct mail (as increasing numbers of retail businesses in recent years have learned to do) simply as an add-on mass-communication medium, it has created and used a customer database to select and target small specific customer segments with customer-relevant messages designed to drive footfall; it has also used the power of the computer not to centralise decision making - as is so often done - but, contrariwise, to devolve power and responsibility within the business to local managers, giving them improved tools to do their job with considerably greater speed and flexibility than could be achieved by a centralised operation. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]