The door-to-door believers

Used by 84 of the nation's top 100 advertisers, door-drops are steadily gaining momentum.

While some marketing media have been hit hard by diminishing budgets, the door-to-door sector has experienced strong and steady growth in the past few years. And the number of big advertisers won over by the medium is impressive.

Of the top 100 advertisers in 2002, 84 used door-drops as part of their marketing mix, according to Campaign magazine. In 1997, it was just 23.

Thomson Intermedia research into which advertisers are using door-to-door reveals the biggest users are retailers – especially grocery multiples – and the finance and charity sectors (see box).

'Door-drops work on many levels for the big retailers,' says Nick Wells, managing director of Circular Distributors. 'They are a traffic-building device and increase sales. It's a mass-market medium that can be targeted at a local level.

'Leaflets targeted in a catchment area can deliver a personalised message about a particular store, which reduces wastage and maximises response. Door-drops can also be used to boost promotions with tactical or offer-led messages.'

But door-drops are not all about short-term tactics, explains Wells.

'Door-to-door is clearly doing a branding and a positioning job for retailers,' he says.

IKEA, for example, delivered its catalogue to 10.5 million households in 2003 through Circular Distributors. It aims to generate year-round traffic to its stores, provide ideas and inspiration, show the breadth and depth of the range, and convey its low-price profile.

'Catalogues have been used very successfully by companies such as IKEA,' says Wells. 'They allow customers to walk through the store in the comfort of their own home and they are kept as a reference guide.'

The success of a pre-Christmas flyer has prompted IKEA to trial a quarterly flyer – with plans for a targeted door-drop to ten million households this spring.

Substantial entrants

The growth in door-to-door marketing is not just fuelled by existing users.'One new user is McDonald's,' reveals Wells. 'We have completed a large national campaign for it, offering recipients a series of promotional offers worth pounds 18.'

Boots plans to use door-drops this year after testing the medium in 2003 with Circular Distributors. 'Coupons allow us to track how many people use it and what the response rate is. We have seen uplifts both in frequency of visit and in spend. It is a medium we have ignored until recently,' admits Lisa McGrath, campaign manager at Boots.

'Door-to-door is an economical way of reaching a large number of people,' she adds. 'You can pinpoint store areas and regions and it is more flexible than traditional advertising and cheaper than direct mail.'

As door-to-door gets the seal of approval from big brands, many marketers are giving it a second look. 'The big grocery retailers are all heavy users of the medium and they have helped fuel growth in the industry. But there are also many emerging entrants, such as B&Q, Ford and Unilever,' says Mark Young, managing director of The Leaflet Company and chairman of the DMA door-to-door council.

'Most motor brands now use door-to-door, for instance,' he adds. 'Other entrants include property and the leisure sector, including everything from transport to cinemas and holiday companies.'

Last year saw a diverse range of companies use door-to-door as a key part of their strategy. Ocado, the home-shopping arm of supermarket Waitrose, distributed more than one million leaflets in June to attract customers.

This was supported by ads on radio, posters, London Underground and local press.

Powergen used door-drops to raise awareness of the rebranding of TXU Energi to Powergen, employing Circular Distributors' Solus scheme to distribute 1.65 million leaflets to existing TXU Energi customers.

This reassured customers of consistent service and value for money, and communicated the benefits of being with Powergen.

Hitting targets

In addition, Thorpe Park and Chessington World of Adventures chose door-drops to publicise their 2003 summer seasons. Circular Distributors' Newshare scheme was used to distribute 400,000 leaflets to a targeted database of family households in a concentrated catchment area surrounding the Surrey attractions.

So why are so many different companies increasing their use of door-drops?

According to Young, there are three reasons for this growth: 'First, it is easy and cheap to test and monitor 500,000 households. Second, it is cost-effective. And third, it works. Nobody uses door-to-door because it's sexy.'

To maintain this growth, the industry has had to shake off some negative perceptions. 'Door-to-door used to be associated with a downmarket profile and that has changed. Companies such as Waitrose and Marks & Spencer would not have used this medium five years ago. But suppliers such as ourselves and Circular Distributors have invested a lot in making door-to-door more professional and sophisticated,' says Young.

The quality of door-drops has also improved. Users that take an innovative approach are rewarded with high response levels. 'Many campaigns don't seem to have enough creative care and attention paid to them,' says Martin Troughton, managing partner of agency Harrison Troughton Wunderman (HTW).

'Creative standards in door-to-door are probably the lowest in the industry,' he adds. 'If the creativity is poor, it can completely undermine the rest of the investment. But those that do use good creativity get better standout as a result.'

One HTW campaign that achieved a high response was for Thresher.

'We came up with the theme of 'Any excuse for a party', with Thresher offering two good reasons: its range and prices,' explains Troughton.

The flyer took the form of a spoof letter from an angry neighbour, complaining that Thresher was encouraging parties. It included several money-off coupons. Thresher targeted specific postcodes and tested door-to-door with and without a supporting radio campaign. 'The best results were achieved when we used radio to support the door-to-door activity,' reveals Troughton.

The importance of the creative approach is paramount, agrees Proximity London media director Chris Seth. 'We often tell ourselves that if response is low, it's because it is not targeted well enough, but it is more likely to be because the creative was not strong enough,' he says. 'The medium is a more sophisticated route than people used to give it credit for. The level of professionalism has risen and you can now target postcodes.'

Queting doubters

But there are still doubters. 'Educating marketers about door-to-door is still necessary. We often have to explain it to people because they are not clear on the process and levels of targeting. Some clients don't actually know how the piece is physically delivered and the difference between the delivery methods.'

David Walker, head of advertising mail at Royal Mail, says: 'Door-drops are no longer the industry's poor relation and marketers are beginning to see the value of the medium as part of an overall campaign or as a stand-alone tool. Successful users of unaddressed mail range from small retail and service businesses through to major corporations and government. Financial services companies use it to acquire customers or prospect names and then target the individual with direct mail. FMCG companies find the service useful as it enables them to distribute samples or coupons to encourage trial.'

Many marketers are discovering that the combination of TV or radio with door-to-door is particularly powerful. 'TV positions a brand while door-to-door can deliver the message in a physical sense,' says Wells.

The integrated approach is typical, according to Martin Lawson, data planning manager, media division, at PHD Confidential. 'The majority of clients use door-drop as part of an integrated strategy. Our recommendation is to test several channels, including direct mail, door-to-door and inserts. We find that the response levels ensure that door-to-door stays on most schedules,' he says.

The medium is growing because it works – and its effectiveness can be proven. With many marketers having to make the most of extremely tight budgets, any medium that can prove it delivers return on investment is likely to flourish.

FOUR BIG USERS

Sainsbury's

Sainsbury's runs more than 150 million door-drops a year. They are a key part of the supermarket's marketing strategy, alongside the other media in its mix: TV, radio and direct mail.

Door-drops have a relatively short lead-time compared with some of the other media it uses, and Sainsbury's particularly benefits from this when informing potential customers what's going on in-store in a particular week.

This means that offers and promotions are particularly relevant to door-drops, which can be printed and distributed at a schedule to suit the client, rather than being tied to media schedules.

Sainsbury's targets specific catchment areas with offers relevant to customers.

It produces a leaflet each fortnight that delivers news of key in-store offers, as well as other salient initiatives.

It also makes use of leaflets for more ad hoc communication, such as the opening of a store. The leaflets it produces are aimed at increasing footfall and sales.

'We have a model that allows us to track spend and return on investment. If we thought we weren't getting value for money, we wouldn't do it,' says Gabrielle Appleton, Sainsbury's senior brand manager, national communications.

HILLARYS

One-fifth of blinds specialist Hillarys' turnover is spent on advertising and marketing and it devotes its budget to classified ads in local papers and door-drops.

It started using door-to-door 12 years ago and has increased its expenditure every year. It delivers 400 million leaflets a year – about 14.5 million a fortnight.

The firm plans to build a national business, but at a local level. It says it needs just one response in 2000 to justify the cost of door-drops.

Its creative approach is to use an A4 format with high-quality photographs of its products.

'We are a marketing-driven, soft-sell company; 20% to 30% of our business is through word of mouth and referral,' says Hillarys group sales director Mick Shanks. 'We also do some direct mail – we have more than a million customer contacts on our database. We have tried inserts, but they didn't work as well.'

Focus

Door-drops are a major part of the DIY retailer's marketing strategy. It sees the medium as a cost-effective option that allows it to advertise a large number of products to existing and potential customers in its catchment areas.

A key objective of Focus' door-to-door strategy is to effectively communicate promotional offers and ranges. It also uses the medium to position Focus as the local DIY store of choice.

Focus distributes two formats. Its four-page short-term promotional-offer flyers are distributed once or twice a month.

It also has a 64-page booklet, which is distributed seasonally.

'We measure the success of the flyers in terms of sales increase,' says Focus marketing manager Alison Grubb. 'We also benchmark against non-delivered stores or catchment areas and conduct an independent validation of selected distributions.'

DOOR-TO-DOOR SPEND Company 2003 spend (pounds) 1 BSkyB 21,892,710 2 Safeway 16,839,142 3 Barclays 16,584,609 4 Somerfield 15,978,554 5 Alliance & Leicester 15,716,412 6 Norwich Union Direct 14,861,485 7 Prudential 12,214,778 8 More Th>n 12,201,816 9 Sainsbury's 11,243,191 10 Citi (formerly Citibank) 10,737,397 11 Lloyds TSB Group 10,356,991 12 Tesco 10,020,806 13 Hillarys 9,974,508 14 AXA Sun Life 9,684,512 15 Cancer Research UK 8,471,340 16 Asda 7,658,007 17 Direct Line 7,338,597 18 Farmfoods 7,149,679 19 VarTec Telecom Europe 6,980,516 20 Focus 6,723,967 Source: Thomson Intermedia

Copyright © 2004 Marketing. Source: Financial Times Information Limited – Europe Intelligence Wire.