The recent economic downturn affected consumers up and down the socioeconomic ladder. Retailer Holt Renfrew wanted to know how its customers were affected: is the luxury market shrinking, growing or shifting to new communities? By analyzing everything from the distance affluent consumers will travel for a designer handbag to the dollars spent on luxury products by each PRIZMC2 segment, researchers at Environics Analytics identified the untapped potential in key markets, the neighbourhoods for mailing its chic catalogues and the ways to improve its offerings for different trade areas and customer segments. In this session, Holt Renfrew’s Jason Greenspan examines the latest analytics to help retailers size their market opportunity, identify cross-sell opportunities and evaluate niche market segments.

To improve sales of its insurance policies through partners, Canada Life sought to better understand the drivers behind consumer purchase behaviours. Collaborating with Environics Analytics consultants, Canada Life used data mining techniques to find qualified leads. The results were impressive: Telemarketing response rates rose 37 percent, acquisition costs fell and ROI steadily increased. Then analysts mined customer data to determine the key lifestage triggers as well as the best channels—direct mail or telemarketing—for connecting with buyers. And the results were presented in a customized visualization dashboard. In this session, David Savournin will discuss his experience with EA’s consulting services and the new models and visualization tools that helped Canada Life turn insight into profits.

One of the missions of Environment Canada (EC) is to increase public awareness about its Air Quality Health Index, which reports on air pollution levels. But like many government agencies and private companies, EC lacked a customer database to better understand and advise populations who are sensitive to air pollution. Using a PRIZMC2 segmentation of the Canadian population optimized with the Canadian Community Health Survey, analysts helped EC personify its target audiences with demographic and behavioural information so health partners could better target marketing materials, including brochures, websites, messages and slogans. In this session, Sharon Jeffers provides insights into how public and private organizations can turn a blank portrait of its constituents into a targeted national communications campaign. And Sally Radisic will outline how the City of Hamilton Public Health Services applied Environiment Canada's segmentation of Canadians to its communication strategy.

With blockbuster products like Bing, Xbox LIVE, MSN and Windows Live, Microsoft Advertising had access to a range of metrics and visitor imagery. “But we wanted a deeper understanding of the human behind the machine,” explains Andrew Assad. For those insights, Microsoft Advertising used a unique combination of custom research with data from Environics Analytics and Delvinia to develop key target segments—information the company plans to use for product development, sales and marketing. This session will recount how three organizations came together to integrate data for better digital insights.

When the Royal Conservatory of Music formed a partnership with New York’s Carnegie Hall to launch its music assessment and education system in the U.S., it needed to identify the best markets and communities for presenting information sessions to U.S. music teachers. Using PRIZMC2 and PRIZM in the U.S., researchers profiled participants in Canada and identified comparable segments in the U.S., which allowed the Royal Conservatory to develop market rankings and site screening maps for the most promising communities. And they did it all on the limited budget of a not-for-profit arts institution. At a time when many charities—and businesses—are trying to expand into new markets, Gerry Dimnik will describe the process of using data from one market to predict success in another through the smart analysis of market and site selection.

To deepen its relationship with existing customers, ING Direct expanded its product offerings to include balanced index mutual funds. While ING Direct provides ways for customers to save while investing, it needed to better understand the target audience to execute a cross-sell and up-sell marketing campaign. Using WealthScapes and PRIZMC2, researchers profiled ING Direct customers, identified key groups and then developed detailed personas to help develop targeted offers and creatives for a differentiated marketing campaign. In this session, René Bettio will describe the imaging effort and explain how the marketing message, creative and media mix varied based on the different groups. The lessons learned are not limited just to the financial sector, but are relevant to anyone interested in the effective application of customer imaging to increase engagement.

Because of the growing interest among municipal and regional government professionals in using Environics Analytics products, we’ve added a special session focusing on the unique needs of these agencies. After providing a brief overview of how some municipalities are employing EA products and services, EA’s Rupen Seoni and Dr. Doug Norris will lead a discussion on how municipalities can share information, innovative applications and best practices. The session will also cover the release of the new Census and National Household Survey data, and include a short demonstration of how ENVISION can be used to profile geographic areas of interest.

For some time, smart marketers have recognized that the ethnic and multicultural consumer populations are increasing at a rate faster than the general population. But the strategic and tactical decisions needed to reach these specialized audiences can be daunting. In this presentation, multicultural marketing expert Bobby Sahni will discuss what organizations are doing right—including the use of OriginsCanada to predict consumers’ cultural, ethnic and linguistic origins—and what they’re getting wrong in their efforts to connect with multicultural populations. His multimedia session will feature video, audio, Internet and social media.

When Brenda Jones joined Parks Canada six years ago, visitor analysis was conducted on a park-by-park basis by different researchers who created their own segments. “They couldn’t talk to each other,” she recalls, “and couldn’t share their results.” No longer. Today, the government agency uses ENVISION, PRIZMC2 segmentation and data links to understand visitorship at some 200 national parks and historic sites in order to target its marketing, media outreach and community engagement using a more standardized approach. “Now, everyone is singing from the same song sheet,” says Dr. Jones. “We’re using the same tools and information across the organization.” She will describe how a large, decentralized organization took the leap to get smarter about strategic operations across the enterprise and the challenges they faced.

How far should you go in defining a trade area? What are the best markets and neighbourhoods to promote your products? Which consumer segments offer the most opportunity for growth? These and other critical site location and target marketing questions will be answered by industry veteran David Spira. Drawing on real-world examples from Best Buy that made use of the micromarketing tool ENVISION, David will describe innovative projects that involved distance decay models, PRIZMC2 segmentation and syndicated survey data to identify areas of growth and opportunity. By integrating customer attributes—such as expenditure and volume—with segmentation and syndicated data, companies and not-for-profits can better understand how customer behaviour changes within a trade area.

Every year since 1983, scientists at our sister company, Environics Research, have conducted a nationwide survey that measures human motivation and social relations to better understand the mindset of Canadians. In this keynote address, Michael Adams, President and Founder of the Environics group of companies, well-known author and a preeminent public opinion researcher, will reveal the latest survey results and their implications.

• Adam Froman, will discuss the emerging role of social media in today’s marketing mix.
• Steve Shaw believes marketers must re-invent themselves to stay relevant within their own organizations. Steve will tell us why and how.
• Peter Miron will highlight findings from our 2011 WealthScapes release on the impact of the recent financial crisis on Canadian households.
• From his insider’s perspective, Steve Irvine will detail the role and future of Facebook in innovative marketing campaigns.
• Doug Norris will discuss why and how marketers should connect with multicultural populations.