Beyond DP/MIS: Targeting "Super-Users" For Your High-Tech Offers

As marketers of high-tech software and hardware products, you may be convinced that your best prospects are individuals carrying "DP/MIS" titles. Removing one's blinders and looking beyond the title is the first step in uncovering a new breed of product buyers, which I refer to as the "super-users."

It is fascinating to see the changes in the corporate world due to the impact of PC technologies. Knowledge workers at the individual level are now empowered with enterprise-wide information that, not too long ago, was only accessible by individuals who were in charge of data processing.

Dramatic shifts have occurred at the product level as well. Do you remember the minicomputer? It was defined as a multi-user 16-bit system that was between the 8-bit PC and 32-bit mainframe. With PC technologies rapidly exceeding these levels, savvy marketers repositioned their minicomputer products to fit into the new business landscape of networked PC systems. As "servers", these systems perform the needed function of warehousing and distributing large amounts of information to individuals in a client-server environment.

So what is happening to the DP/MIS types, from a direct marketers perspective? While these individuals may still ensure that the overall informational infrastructure is functioning, they are not necessarily the ones that are championing the purchases of PC-related products.

With the decentralization of corporate information, there is a tremendous amount of purchasing decisions coming from the individual users. And, in many cases, they are the technical-savvy PC-enthusiasts who, without a "DP/MIS" title, are actively driving product purchasing decisions at their company.

Stop for a moment and take a look within your own organization. I am sure you can identify a group of individuals that are energized over new technologies and their application within the company.

Interestingly enough, these "super-users" are most likely in different departments with varying job titles - none of which are necessarily "DP/MIS."

So how do we find the super-users, in a traditional list rental environment? The first step is to remove the constraint of renting lists only by specific job titles. Though there will always be a functional role for the Data Processing Manager or Manager of Information Services, the decentralization that has occurred due to quantum leaps in PC technologies have brought product purchasing decisions to the individual knowledge-worker level.

If you are utilizing merge/purge for your direct mail efforts, a tremendous amount of marketing intelligence can be derived to help you identify the presence of super-users. With your house file ranked at the highest priority level, the merge/purge reports will reveal duplication between files (inter-file duplicates). Stripping away the negative connotation that a 'duplicate' is necessarily bad, these names actually represent individuals who have purchased multiple products from different companies. They are the very best prospects!

With this mindset, identifying outside lists which show duplication with your own file confirms not only the presence of super-users, but overall market affinity. It might even justify that rental quantities are increased on such lists, and, using the same rationale, reduce or even drop the rental of outside lists which show little or no affinity at all.

You may opt not to take advantage of a net-name discount (which gives you a reduction in list cost based on duplication) so you can mail, for a second time, the multi-buyer names identified between the outside lists. These multibuyers represent prospect names that are, in fact, super-users who are actively purchasing multiple products for their company. Perhaps a specialized promotion might be in order to tap the full potential of these volume buyers.
* * *