CASE HISTORIES: Database Development

Boardwalk Finds the Names That No One Else Can Get

A high-profile e-business infrastructure firm was frustrated to find that the major list houses had no contact names for its target audience despite the "enhanced" fees the list houses were charging. Intrigued by Boardwalk’s concept of "entrenched" contacts, the company asked Boardwalk to find the names of the Internet Marketing Manager and Branding Manager. Boardwalk probed within the marketing departments of the client’s top 200 accounts, digging up the contact names one by one. In just one week, Boardwalk delivered nearly 700 of these hard-to-find and extraordinarily valuable names.

60,000-Name Internal List "Cleansed" by Boardwalk

Understanding that its internal lists had error rates of more than 40% and missed many key titles at most of its target companies, a large software company saw an opportunity. It asked Boardwalk to cleanse its entire 60,000-name internal list, adding new names and marking others that were invalid. Boardwalk gathered names in all functional areas — HR to Finance to Sales — so as to enable the client to conduct campaigns to a sub-set of the cleansed list. Then, Boardwalk formatted the data so it could be automatically uploaded into the client’s CRM system.

Insourced Names-Gathering Effort Fails; Project Picked Up by Boardwalk

A client that was using Boardwalk’s other services was convinced that it could use a combination of temps and employees to build a contact database at two-thirds the cost, with an employee managing the project. The internally managed project was troubled from the start in areas such as database management (e.g. what do we do if a company name has changed?) to quality control (e.g. what level of accuracy do we need?). Now, the client specifically hires Boardwalk to develop pristine lists that quickly puts the salespeople in touch with the correct contacts and gets direct mail sent to the correct decision-makers.

Data Mining Company Needs Unique Titles and Quick Upload of Data

A data mining company focused on low costs sought a firm that could provide it with Direct Marketing Managers, Customer Loyalty Managers, and SPSS Specialists, so it sent an RFP to several firms. Initially, Boardwalk did not win the business because another firm claimed it could deliver these contacts at substantially lower fees. Six weeks after the program started, the other firm was well behind schedule and its IT staff was unable to provide the data in the format needed by the client. Needing the list for a mailing with a set date, the company re-contacted Boardwalk. Within two weeks, Boardwalk had "rescued" the entire project and the mailing went out on time with high-quality data and the "entrenched" names desired by the client.

Another Vendor Misses Mark, Delivers Off-Target Titles

For a CRM-related direct mail campaign, a client desired to have 2,000 individuals with sales and marketing titles. Upon learning of Boardwalk’s fees, the client was concerned because they were more than twice as high as those of another vendor. Upon "completing" the project, the other vendor sent its list the client. Unfortunately, the vendor had ignored the need for marketing and sales titles, and filled the list almost entirely with the names of CEOs, Presidents, CFOs, and General Counsels. It was almost entirely useless to the client, who now ended up with a list in which fewer than one in six names were in the targeted marketing and sales areas. With a tight timeline and having overpaid for the few relevant names from the other vendor, the client came back to Boardwalk to have the project completed properly.

List-Build Savings Are Lost on Call-Downs Using Inaccurate Database

Convinced of Boardwalk’s skills in event recruitment, but concerned that its fees for building databases was excessive, a client hired another firm to build a calldown list for Boardwalk. Relative to many other lists, the results were impressive; however, when one in four names turned out to be invalid, the cost differential disappeared between Boardwalk’s lists and the other vendor’s. Suddenly, the entire "savings" of $4,000 associated with building the list were wiped out by the extra time wasted to pursue these invalid names.