Sears Canada doubles frequency of coordinated telemarketing and direct mail campaigns for retail stores; annual revenues from this campaign rise 50 percent, helping the multi-channel retailer to generate ROI in just one month.

1. Sears Canada Automates Campaign Execution,
Increasing Revenue while Lowering Costs
Customer name: Sears Canada
Industry: Retail
Sears Canada doubles frequency of coordinated telemarketing and direct
Business Need: Increase marketing
mail campaigns for retail stores; annual revenues from this campaign rise 50 efficiency and ROI by replacing a legacy
system with a cross-channel campaign
percent, helping the multi-channel retailer to generate ROI in just one month. management platform that’s easy to
implement, easy to use, and delivers
high-volume automation.
Sears Canada is a multi-channel which meant that campaigns were “Neolane was more
retailer with a network of 196 corporate executed in silos. Moreover, the marketing nimble, flexible, and
stores, 260 hometown dealer stores, 33 teams were bogged down by inefficient,
home improvement showrooms, over manual, and undocumented processes, hungry than the
1,800 catalogue merchandise pick-up such that generating campaign lists alone other providers we
locations, 108 Sears Travel offices and a took a tremendous effort. This inefficiency, considered. Even more
nationwide home maintenance, repair, in turn, significantly limited Sears Canada’s important… was that
and installation network. The Company ability to run additional campaigns to
also publishes Canada’s most extensive support its revenue goals. the product was both
general merchandise catalogue and offers easy to implement and
shopping online at www.sears.ca. By implementing a campaign management easy to use.”
solution, Sears Canada hoped to kill
Jill Speirs, Senior
When Sears Canada set out to implement two birds with one stone. The company
Vice President,
a campaign management solution for its could deliver a more consistent, relevant Customer Strategy,
retail, catalog, and card services marketing customer experience by centrally managing Sears Canada
programs, it had an aggressive timeline. communications across multiple channels,
Just how aggressive surprised even Jill including direct mail, email, and the call
Speirs, Senior Vice President, Customer center. At the same time, it could generate OBJECTIVES
Strategy at Sears Canada. significant efficiencies and Return on
• Reduce ongoing maintenance costs
Marketing Investment (ROMI) through by replacing a legacy campaign
“Our CFO wanted a solution implemented greater automation. management system
in just three months—a goal I didn’t initially • Integrate with MDM solution to
think was possible, reflects Speirs. “Six
” According to Speirs, Neolane was the leverage latest customer data during
campaign targeting
months seemed more feasible, but he was right company and product for the job:
• Increase marketing efficiency by
adamant that we do it in three. Fortunately, “Neolane was more nimble, flexible, automating list generation across
Neolane was able to rise to the challenge and hungry than the other providers we multiple divisions
and together, we met the objective. ” considered. Even more important, given • Centrally manage communications
our urgent business needs, was that the across channels, including call center,
email, and direct mail
Stepping back, the campaign management product was both easy to implement and
project was part of a broader Sears Canada easy to use. We were confident that they
RESULTS
initiative to become more customer centric. could meet our aggressive three-month
• Met aggressive 3-month deployment
With the recession raging, the retailer implementation timeline.” goal thanks to strong project
wanted to address a fundamental shift in the management
marketplace: increasing consumer control Another point of differentiation for • Achieved significant cost savings by
over how, when, and where they interact Neolane was its flexible financing and phasing out legacy system
with brands. For marketers, this meant delivery options. Sears Canada chose the • Reduced campaign execution
moving toward an interactive dialogue with rather unique combination of a perpetual time and doubled output with no
additional staff
consumers, regardless of the channel. software license with hosted delivery by
• Generated a 50% increase in retail
Neolane. Because the company lacked the campaign revenue—and ROI in 1
At the time, Sears Canada was using available IT resources needed to complete month
multiple, disparate systems across its a full-blown, on-premise installation, the
retail, catalog, and card services groups, hosted model was crucial to meeting the

2. “Neolane has done a phenomenal job for Sears Canada. They’ve by far
exceeded our immediate goals, and we’re confident the platform will
continue to grow and support us over time as our needs evolve.
”
short, three-month timeframe. It would based on profile data, transaction and
also streamline ongoing operational response history, etc. To prevent contact
maintenance, minimizing the need for fatigue, customers who have received a
additional IT infrastructure or headcount. campaign within the last three months are
automatically excluded.
Because it had implemented a Master Data
Management (MDM) solution only a few Thanks to this enhanced automation, Sears
months prior, Sears Canada had already Canada significantly reduced campaign
done the bulk of the work needed to create execution time. Previously, the company
a 360-degree view of its customers. Using could only run campaigns every two weeks.
Neolane’s advanced data management As a result of the efficiency gains generated
capabilities, it was relatively easy to create by Neolane, they’re now running campaigns
an automatic sync between the MDM weekly, doubling the number of campaigns
solution and the Neolane database— with no additional staff.
ensuring the latest customer data would
always be driving its direct marketing efforts. In addition, Sears Canada is able to conduct
more targeted, ad hoc campaigns—
In addition to these enabling technical something that simply wasn’t possible
factors, expert project management by before. Overall, the increased targeting
Neolane was critical to meeting Sears capabilities provided by Neolane are
Canada’s target go-live date. “Neolane translating directly into increased results.
was a great partner in listening and
adapting to our needs throughout the With the retail campaigns running
implementation process, reflects Speirs.
” smoothly, Sears Canada next turned to
“More specifically, they recognized that we its card services campaigns, automating
were trying to tackle too much at once, so yet another list creation process. The third
they helped us develop a phased approach phase will be the catalog campaign, which
that made the project more manageable will entail sophisticated household-level
and ultimately more successful. ” targeting to drive more effective catalog
mailings. Ultimately, all three campaigns
The first phase involved launching Sears will be planned and executed from a single
Canada’s retail campaigns on the Neolane platform and user interface: Neolane.
platform. These campaigns involve a Sears Canada anticipates that having
coordinated direct mail and telemarketing a centralized campaign management
effort to drive store traffic. Because they solution will not only increase marketing
generate millions of dollars in revenues, effectiveness and efficiency, but
they were given highest priority. dramatically improve ROMI. Neolane, Inc.
275 Washington Street
Third Floor, Newton, MA 02458
With Neolane’s workflow capabilities, Impressed with the results to date, Sears Office: +1 617 467 6760
Sears Canada has transformed complex, Canada has begun exploring additional Fax: +1 617 467 6701
manual processes into an intuitive visual uses for the Neolane platform, including info@neolane.com
www.neolane.com
framework that automates campaign email marketing. “Neolane has done a
execution. Each month, a workflow phenomenal job for Sears Canada, asserts
” United States
generates a master list of qualified Speirs. “They’ve by far exceeded our United Kingdom
customers that serves as the basis for that immediate goals, and we’re confident the France
month’s campaigns. This list is then further platform will continue to grow and support Nordics
segmented for each individual campaign, us over time as our needs evolve.”
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© 2011 Neolane, Inc.