Dominion Stores
Christmas in July

Case History
Imagine picking up a digest-sized magazine from your mailbox and glancing at the cover (shown alongside). Lo and behold, there's your name on the masthead! But only if your name is Katherine. If it's Helen, Helen is the masthead; if you're George, it's George.

So far as we know, this endeavour (led by Jane-Michèle Clark while working elsewhere; she hired Norman Lowe & Partners to do the work) was the world's first magazine to be personalized to the ultimate - one "edition" per person. At the time, Dominion was tracking its customers’ purchases by means of a mag stripe card that had to be presented to get the “specials” pricing. We knew what customers bought, where and when. This enabled us to create a magazine that was highly personalized and was customized to the needs of each shopper.

Inside the magazine (mailed to thousands of supermarket customers) recipients found two personally addressed letters, one signed by the president, the other by the managers of whichever store the shopper used - and the departments he or she favoured (e.g. deli, bakery, butcher). The savings they had received since joining the program were mentioned in the letter to subtly reinforce the benefits of participating in the program.

Articles dealt with matters germane to supermarket shopping and the season (Christmas). We created advertisements for national suppliers to include – targeted to the customer. For example, if you bought diapers, there was an ad for baby food. Pinpoint targeting; absolutely no waste.

The cost per unit was low; advertisers were very happy to pay for space (at a fraction the cost of a newspaper insertion, mail drop or independent direct mail piece) because they were able to a) target customers specifically and b) could then track the effect (bringing some accountability to the sometimes nebulous benefits of advertising). Although few ads were included (we wanted this to be a magazine, not a flyer, after all), the publication costs were virtually offset by vendor participation. Talk about win-win.

Obviously, such a complex exercise requires a sophisticated customer database, replete with purchase detail. And database marketing advisers who really know their stuff.

The result? Sales and customer loyalty targets were eclipsed. (And for the first time, store managers received Christmas cards from their customers. Lots of them.)

As for “Christmas in July”: We included a questionnaire in the magazine to find out if people liked the magazine, and if they liked having their name on the masthead. Without any kind of inducement, we got a 35% response rate. Very positive comments. When we contacted some of these customers a few months later, we found that many people still had the magazine; they had kept it because their name was on it. For Dominion and its vendors, it was like Christmas in July.