January 2009

Environics Analytics launches
micromarketing tool for the Web
New software enables“one click" business applications
for custom maps, customer profiles, reports

When Gary Wood set out to create a new micromarketing platform, he aimed high. “I wanted a solution that would offer advanced applications but not require an advanced degree to operate,” says Wood, vice president of Custom Applications at Environics Analytics. With this month’s launch of Envision—Environics Analytics’ Web-based, user-friendly analytics tool for Canada, Wood appears to have succeeded. At the heart of Envision is a comprehensive set of demographic, PRIZMC2, marketing and media databases that power a suite of “one-click business applications” for creating custom maps, customer profiles, executive summary reports and market, behaviour and product rankings. To Wood, an accomplished software developer and the chief architect in the 1990s of Compusearch’s MarketMath™ and Zephyr™ desktop systems, developing an online tool that can analyze customers, prospects and trade areas across Canada was a result of the technological changes going on in the industry. Recently, Direct Marketing sat down with Wood to learn
more about this solution.

Q: Why does the industry need another micromarketing tool?
A: Most of the existing systems are complex add-ons to GIS technology. That’s fine if you have a GIS technician on staff who is accessible to marketers. While GIS-based analysis is essential to many companies, for others, marketers just want results. They want to see maps and reports to figure out what it means to their business. With Envision, you just start your browser and, with a few clicks of your mouse, you can get a marketing report about your customers and trade areas.

Q: So is it fair to say that with Envision, Environics Analytics is moving away from GIS-based solutions?
A: Not at all. We also offer powerful GISbased desktop systems and partner with providers of server-based GIS. But we wanted to have different ways of delivering our data and analytics that would meet a wide variety of needs. Envision is adding a new approach to our suite of analytics delivery systems.

Q: What are the major features Envision offers?
A: It’s all about ease of use. Everybody’s got a Web browser so there’s nothing to install. The average entry-level marketing analyst could learn how to use the system and be productive in about 15 minutes. Envision integrates your customer and location data with its own geodemographic data. If you give Envision a file of customers and postal codes, it will geocode them with PRIZMC2 and produce a customer segmentation profile in minutes that will tell you all about your customer’s preferences and habits through PRIZMC2-linked surveys. And you’ll have a profile that you can retrieve immediately, tomorrow or in a month.

Q: What are some examples of how Envision can be used?
A: In the retail industry, Envision can help companies understand their customers and purchasing habits. In banking, it can identify site locations for opening and closing branches and installing ATMs.
And in the public sector, it can pinpoint areas of need for delivering community services such as health care, senior assistance or child care. One of Envision’s features is that it customizes reports and maps to suit an industry’s terminology. So a report to a fundraising user will describe donors, not customers, and the map for a government user will discuss catchment areas instead of trade
areas.

Q: How would you describe the user interface?
A: Intuitive and minimalist. With a few clicks of the mouse, you can get a cluster profile of your customers. And then with a few more, you can see where they live, what they’re buying, which Social Values they score high on and what media they prefer according to BBM RTS Canada and PMB surveys. It’s fast and comprehensive—the whole package.

Q: So is this a Canada-only system and if so, why is that important?
A: The answer to the first question is yes and no. Envision was built by Canada’s most experienced
geodemographers. We added it up and realized that the development team had more than a century’s worth of experience in geodemographics, not to mention a deep understanding of the Canadian marketplace and its unique challenges. There are a lot of national and cultural reasons
why Canada is different from other countries and those differences not only affect how we feel about each other but how we market to each other. Our English-speaking and French-speaking communities are just one example that makes this country unique. Envision leverages our years of experience in the field, so we know which variables Canadians want in a demographic report and how to choose the target clusters for a customer profile. But the architecture is country independent. The rapid development capability of the underlying technology would make it easy to adapt to any country
or segmentation system. But that wasn’t our focus; we simply wanted something that worked well for
Canada. In the past, we were faced with creating workarounds to make software built in the U.S. “think Canadian.”

Q: What’s the logic behind Envision’s architecture and user interface?
A: It’s designed with wizards that guide the user in creating profiles and analyses. The user interface prompts users when to import data and then offers some typical market analysis workflows ranging from standard to increasingly complex analyses. But the wizards always let you go back and modify your initial parameters. If you’re doing a trade area analysis and you realize that you’re looking at the wrong store or you won’t get enough customers in a five-mile radius, you can go back and change that definition instantly. You don’t have to go back to the very start. And then
the next time you need the map, the system won’t ask for the definition or customers all over again. It already has them.

Q: Does Envision offer the standard lineup of maps, charts and reports?
A: Actually it does and more. One of the unique features is that it produces an automated executive summary report geared for the C-level executive who may not want pages of statistics and bar charts. It’s written in clear English that’s easy to digest and very informative—it goes on for nearly 20 pages! And it takes you from defining an area geographically to everything we know about the
customers and prospects who live in that area. Basically, it builds a story that an executive and analyst can both appreciate.

Q: What were some of the technical challenges you had to overcome?
A: I’m proudest of the report cue management. If you ask for a bunch of reports, you can come back a few minutes or weeks later and pick them up. If you delete them or lose your own copies, they’ll still be there on our server. With typical desktop systems, you run a report and print it out and it disappears. But Envision archives the output so it’s always available. It’s like it was in the old
mainframe days. You can run eight reports, three maps and an executive summary, and then come back an hour later and they’ll all be waiting for you. Envision can geocode 5,000 customers in about five minutes. Now on the Internet, that may seem like a long time but in the meantime, your analysts can continue to be productive while delegating report production to Envision. And reports are stored on our server so you can always access them.

Q: How can Envision help companies in today’s tough economic times?
A: In bad economic times, you need loyal customers who will continue to buy from you. Envision helps companies reach those loyal customers using precision marketing that explains who they are, what they think and what they want. And that’s important even during economic downturns because brand awareness is built every day.