SAS Customer Intelligence: In Fashion At The Limited

The Limited Inc. and Intimate Brands Inc. have recently begun pilot studies using SAS customer relationship management (CRM) software. The first test showcased the potential for return on market investment.

Through its Express, Lerner New York and Limited Stores brands, The Limited operates more than 2,700 specialty stores. The company also owns controlling interest in Intimate Brands Inc., the leading retailer of intimate apparel, beauty and personal care products sold through more than 2,400 stores under the Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works and White Barn Candle Co. brands.

When using SAS, the customer databases are segmented to determine which customers are most likely to respond to targeted marketing campaigns and to help influence behavior such as the number of channels through which they shop. The most successful of these tests was a direct-mail pilot campaign for one of Intimate Brand's most popular brands. The campaign was for a new Victoria's Secret fragrance line called Dream Angels.

After careful analysis of their existing customers, Victoria's Secret used SAS to select more than 100,000 clients to receive a special direct mailing for the fragrances. The mailing, which invited these customers to visit a Victoria's Secret store to sample the scents, proved successful in moving catalog-only clients to the retail counter.

"Our analysis has shown that customers buying Victoria's Secret products through all three channels – retail stores, the Web and catalogs – spend three to five times more than customers who buy through only one channel," says Bill Lepler, vice president of CRM. "Based on this valuable analysis, The Limited and Intimate Brands can better understand our customers' behaviors and tailor marketing campaigns for all our brands."

Lepler believes that the key to successful CRM lies in applying powerful analytics to a single, customer-centric database – one that gives a comprehensive view of all customer interactions. SAS' industry-leading analytics give Lepler the knowledge he needs to identify the right customers for specific marketing campaigns that result in multi-channel shopping. In the pilot test for Victoria's Secret's e-commerce Web site, the results indicated a potential 400 percent return on investment.

"At Victoria's Secret, it's imperative to have a 360-degree view of our customers' activities across all channels, because a single-channel view can't give us full insight into customer needs," says Lepler. "SAS is scalable, which is very important when you're looking at whether a campaign that you've piloted on a hundred thousand customers will run against an enterprise database of over 25 million buyers."