Predictive analytics software provider SPSS has sold its data mining software into one of Australia’s largest direct mail marketing services providers, Virid.

Virid has mail volumes exceeding 28 million pieces per year and required a solution to better segment its existing customers’ databases to produce more targeted mail outs. It also needed an effective method of comparing lists rented or purchased through global brokerages, to determine which would get the most profitable response.
 
The SPSS data mining software got the nod for its segmentation capabilities, according to Virid.
 
“SPSS enables us to segment our database into several customer tiers and highly target mailings within each segment. We received response rates as high as 50 per cent in some segments, which is almost unheard of,” said Ian Daley, Marketing Manager at Virid. “Through better segmentation, we have halved our variable mailing costs while achieving a 10 per cent jump in revenues, effectively doubling our profitability over the first year.”
 
“Moreover, SPSS allows us to rank external lists from most to least profitable by determining the highest customer profitability from a list over a 12 month period rather than the largest response per campaign,” Daley added. “Since implementing the software, we’ve also slashed the time to calculate customer lifetime values from three months to several hours,” he said.