Ricoh-InfoPrint gets into Mainstream media. Nice.

From B to B magazine:

Transpromo’: Can it adapt to a b-to-b world? :
" . . .transpromo can only work if it’s tied tightly with database marketing analysis. The reason is its customizable nature, its ability to include a tailored message to the recipient based on customer profiles contained in a CRM system or marketing database.

That message could accurately reflect each customer’s previous behavior, buying pattern, need, geography and the like, with improved relevancy to drive customer action.

“What I focus on 99% of the time is database marketing, to help our clients leverage existing data about their own customers, to generate personalized, individualized communications that can build loyalty, up-sell and cross-sell,” said Lee Gallagher, worldwide manager for direct marketing with transpromo-service provider InfoPrint Solutions, a joint venture between International Business Machines and Ricoh Co."

Targeting a customer based on past behavior is a good way to make a sale today. But the secret sauce is harvesting the incoming information.

If you do it enough times, you get to the real super secret sauce - predictive analytics.

Selling CMO's a program for every better predictive analytics should be a lot easier than trying to sell transpromo, which " in a recent study by the Chief Marketing Officer Council, 75% of senior marketers didn’t have a clue about the word, although they probably were aware of the technique."

They probably know what predictive analytics means. Don't sell a zebra if the man wants to buy a horse.