How Do I Decide Who Is Judy, Jennifer, And Jasmine?

There are two key issues to consider, when deciding how to segment Judy, Jennifer, and Jasmine.


Issue #1 = Weighting Dollars:  A telephone order in 2002 is virtually meaningless.  An online order in 2008 has some meaning.  A mobile order in 2012 means a lot.  I like to use the following weighting of historical orders/dollars (these weights are company-dependent ... more Judy-type customers usually causes the weights to be greater ... more Jasmine-type customers usually yields smaller weights).

• Orders 0-12 Months Ago = Weight of 1.00.
• Orders 13-24 Months Ago = Weight of 0.50.
• Orders 25-36 Months Ago = Weight of 0.25.
• Orders 37-48 Months Ago = Weight of 0.15.
• Orders 49-60 Months Ago = Weight of 0.10.
• Orders 61+ Months Ago = Weight of 0.05.

Issue #2 = Weighting Channels:  This one, of course, is important.  Each advertising channel gets a weight.  Now, we can debate the weights until the cows come home, and there isn't a right or wrong answer here, so pick up a broom and do some work.  Here's a starting point for some of you ... my weights are client specific, of course.

• Mail Orders = Weight of 0.00.
• Telephone Orders = Weight of 0.15.
• Online Orders Matched Back to a Catalog = Weight of 0.30.
• Search Orders Matched Back to a Catalog = Weight of 0.40.
• Email Orders Matched Back to a Catalog = Weight of 0.50.
• Pure Search Orders = Weight of 0.60.
• Pure Email Orders = Weight of 0.70.
• Online Advertising Orders, No Offline Interaction = Weight of 0.75.
• Pure Online Orders = Weight of 0.80.
• Mobile, Social, Flash Sales Orders = Weight of 1.00.
• Tablet Orders:  Right now, I don't evaluate these different than online orders, we need proof that these orders lead to different subsequent behavior, different than classic e-commerce.

Tomorrow, I'll show you a series of examples of how to calculate Judy, Jennifer, and Jasmine.

Why Won't Jennifer Budge?

Many of you tell me that "social media doesn't work".

Or you tell me that you have an app that generates $225 sales a week, saying the strategy "doesn't scale".

The real issue, of course, isn't social media or apps or whatever the fancy, shiny new tool is.

The real issue is "whether Jennifer will budge or not"?

Remember, I like to think of our ecosystem as a mix of three customers.

• Judy, the 50-64 rural catalog shopping veteran.
• Jennifer, the 35-49 year old online maven who hunts for the best deals.
• Jasmine, the 18-34 year old social shopper who knows that information will "find her".

So, if you want fancy new channels to work, you really have two choices.

1. Recruit Jasmine, in large numbers.
2. Convince Jennifer to become Jasmine.

You're not going to move Judy into Jasmine territory ... at least not fast enough to matter.

Too often, we try to convince Jennifer to become Jasmine.

Too often, Jennifer doesn't want to become Jasmine, she wants to be Jennifer!

Once you code Judy, Jennifer, and Jasmine in the database, measure (or, as they say on Twitter, #measure) the percentage of each audience that switches in the next twelve months.

Here's an example:

Look at Jennifer.  Jennifer doesn't want to become Jasmine, heck, she'd rather become Judy!

Look at Jasmine.  Jasmine doesn't even want to be Jasmine, she's more likely to become Jennifer next year.

Customers are willing to try new channels, but sometimes they have a gravity for "moving backwards" to existing channels.  This was very common in the 1995 - 2003 timeframe, when customers tried the online channel thanks to a whopping 30% off plus free shipping incentive, then back-tracked to old-school shopping for a period of time.

I see this trend, over and over and over again.  When you see this trend, it means you have a customer base that does not want to change, they don't want your brand to innovate.  Your customers want things as they always have been.

There are a lot of smart people out there who tell you that you must move into new channels ... or risk becoming obsolete.  It's good advice, until you actually measure customer behavior.  In this example, we demonstrated that customers do not want to change.  When your customer doesn't want to change, you have a whole different set of strategic options to consider.


You'll know what your strategic options are when you code Judy, Jennifer, and Jasmine in your customer data warehouse and web analytics solution.  Get busy doing this!!

Dear Catalog CEOs: Three Ways To Monetize

Dear Catalog CEOs:


We don't often think about the profit models surrounding Judy, Jennifer, and Jasmine, do we?


We monetize Judy by "front-loading" her experience.  We spend money, up-front, with the hope that Judy will pay us back.  We rent Judy from the co-ops.  We advertise to Judy on television.  We spend money, under the assumption that Judy will pay us.  We spend $10,000,000 up-front, hoping to get $50,000,000 in sales and $5,000,000 in Earnings Before Taxes.


We monetize Jennifer by "intercepting" her while she hunts.  We do this in many ways ... by sending her three email campaigns per week (low cost) ... by intercepting her while she comparison shops on Google (only paying for clicks) ... then by teasing her (free shipping + 20% off) to close the deal.  We spend money at the time of the transaction.  Between Google, Email marketing, and discounts/promotions, we spend $10,000,000 to generate $50,000,000 in sales and $5,000,000 in Earnings Before Taxes.


We monetize Jasmine via a hybrid of "gamification and freemium" strategies.  We use Facebook and Twitter to "engage" Jasmine, we use Email marketing to build a prospect list of a half-million folks who behave like Jasmine.  Then, we offer Jasmine low prices with free shipping, the offer/merchandise is so compelling that Jasmine does the marketing for the business, earning recognition-based rewards in the process.  A Jasmine-based business gives up $10,000,000 of gross margin / shipping income to generate $50,000,000 in sales and $5,000,000 in Earnings Before Taxes.


We get in trouble when we attempt to fuse all three strategies upon a customer, without knowing who the customer is.


Sit down with your Executive Team this morning, and discuss each strategy for growing a business.  Then discuss the mix of Judy, Jennifer, and Jasmine in your business.  Are your strategies aligned with your customer base?

Sending Catalogs to Jasmine: A Bad Idea

And then there's Jasmine.


Brand marketers love Jasmine.  Advertisers love Jasmine.  They'll pay a premium to advertise on television shows frequented by 18-34 year olds.  She's the mobile/social/local guru that the pundits can't stop talking about.


If you're a catalog marketer, however, you want to steer clear of Jasmine.


You see, Jasmine (the Transformational cusotmer) thinks catalog marketing is something that her Grandparents participate in.  When you send her a catalog, this is what you're likely to see:

Jasmine isn't going to call Cuddledown of Maine to place an order.  And if she buys from Cuddledown of Maine, it isn't because she was mailed a catalog, it was because she has a need or because her friends told her to.  As she always says, "If I need to know something, the information will find me".


When you mail Jasmine a catalog, it looks like the catalog mailing is profitable.  But, it is not profitable.  In this example, only $0.69 of the $4.60 she spent online was "caused" by catalog mailings.  Again, the key word here is "caused".  Just because you mailed a catalog to Jasmine doesn't mean that it "caused" her to purchase.  You can easily verify this through mail/holdout testing to a segment of customers like Jasmine.


Jasmine warrants maybe one catalog a year, sometimes two catalogs a year.  We over-mail the living daylights out of people like Jasmine.  We'd be better served by investing the resources sending catalogs to Jasmine in business models and merchandise congruent with the way that Jasmine lives.


Want your own custom Judy / Jennifer / Jasmine segmentation plan and optimal contact strategy  developed?  Send me and email message, and let's get busy!!

Sending Catalogs to Jennifer

We learned that sending catalogs to Judy is a good idea, and for good reason!  Judy is a thirty-five year catalog purchasing veteran.


Judy is always going to buy from catalogs, as long as she has the money to do so.  This is a BIG issue, by the way.  As best I can tell, I'm the only person in catalog marketing willing to talk about the fact that the core catalog customer (Judy) is now 55+, and in many cases has begun to enter retirement.  For now, we can count on Judy to pay the bills.


We can count on Jennifer (the Transitional customer) to pay the bills in the future.  But she won't pay them the way we want for her to pay them.


Jennifer shops for the best deal she can find.  She takes initiative, "searching" for the businesses and products that best align with her needs.  Catalogs may be a source of inspiration, but they aren't a direct source of profit.


Here's what a sample catalog segment profit and loss statement looks like for a segment comprised of a lot of people like "Jennifer":

This profit and loss statement looks different than what Judy produces.  Notice that Jennifer is unlikely to shop via phone/mail.  She spends her money online.  Her value, as a customer, is equal to Judy.  But, and this is a big BUT ... Jennifer buys regardless whether you mail her a catalog or not.  Look at the 3-week online column, then look at the catalog caused online column.  Of the $4.25 she spent online, only $0.98 was "caused" by catalog mailings.  Your database provider sometimes incorrectly allocates the $4.25 she spent online entirely to the catalog.


When you execute mail/holdout tests, you find that Jennifer is brand loyal, not catalog loyal.


And this is important, because it means that, on an annual basis, you only have to send Jennifer 3-6 catalogs a year, not the 22 catalogs a year you are currently sending her.  Pocket the ad cost, pocket the profit, or re-invest it in customer acquisition if you like, but don't waste it on Jennifer!!


Want your own custom Judy / Jennifer / Jasmine segmentation plan and optimal contact strategy?  Email me by clicking here!

Sending Catalogs to Judy

You've been introduced you to three types of shoppers relevant to catalog and e-commerce marketers:

• Judy (pictured here), the 50-64 year old catalog-centric customer who enjoys catalogs more than just about any other form of marketing.
• Jennifer, the 35-49 year old online maven, one who may shop from catalogs, in fact, she may do just about anything/everything!  Jennifer, however, doesn't need 22 catalog mailings a year to make a decision ... she's the "decider", and because of this, you can save a lot of money by mailing fewer catalogs to Jennifer.
• Jasmine, the 18-34 year old master of social commerce thinks catalogs are old-school.  As Jasmine likes to say, "if it is important, it will find me".  You're not likely to make a dent sending catalogs to Jasmine.

Let's see what a typical catalog profit and loss statement looks like for Judy, the die-hard catalog shopper.

Judy tends to shop catalogs, then she picks up the phone and speaks to a customer service agent in your call center.  As a result, her sales are highly "trackable".  Judy doesn't shop online much, and if she does shop online, most of her online sales are caused by catalog marketing.  

Judy tends to be a very profitable catalog customer.

Segment folks like Judy in your database, or give me a holler and I'll do it for you!

Oh Jasmine, You're Fickle: Gilt Groupe

By now, you've probably had the opportunity to read this article about layoffs at Gilt Groupe (click here for the article).


Gilt is the quintessential "Jasmine" brand (click here to see the demographic composition of the website).  It is heavily skewed to the 18-34 audience, with some crossover into the younger "Jennifer" demographic.


The article talks about all of the discounting/full-price issues that everybody is forced to think about.


The article does not talk about the core customer.  In fact, these articles almost never talk about the core customer, focusing instead on channels and tactics that are the outcome of a relationship with the core customer.


Jasmine, of course, is loyal to "brands" ... but Jasmine is more loyal to price.  She can't afford what Jennifer can afford.  When Jasmine is given a lot of choices, Jasmine will spread her dollars out across choices.  This can only hurt a business like Gilt.  One can imagine the Powerpoints with lofty sales growth expectations, forecast not built on actual customer behavior.


Study Questions:

1. If you were an Executive at Gilt, how would you have forecast sales growth over the next five years?  Describe the methodology you would have used to avoid over-forecasting the future of the business.  How would you have protected the business from having to lay off employees?
2. Describe the marketing strategy that converts Jasmine from discount/promotion purchases to full price purchases.  Under what circumstances can you convince Jasmine to pay more, given you've invested considerable marketing effort in encouraging Jasmine to spend less, historically?
3. Is there a business model that might appeal to Jennifer, or Judy, and if so, how would you convince Management of the opportunity?
4. What role does social media and mobile play in a low price point business vs. a high price point business?