From TheFutureOf (10Nov 08): Responding to Jim Novo’s 1 Sept 08 5:46pm comment

Jim’s Comment

Steve, try reading http://blog.jimnovo.com/2007/04/25/engagement-customers/ again now and see if it makes more sense / this model is something you can start with. Or, tell me why it’s not!

From a “culture” perspective, the great thing about using the LifeCycle Grid approach is it’s exactly the same format every time. Once someone (Marketing) understands it, then every time you apply it to a new segment there isn’t any downtime.

So, for example, let’s say you want to see what dis-engagement looks like for buyers who became new customers 6 months ago This way they have spent some time on the books and have had a chance to let the LifeCycle play out a bit.

First you apply the Grid to all buyers

Then you apply the Grid to only jewelry buyers

Then you apply the Grid to only jewelry buyers who have purchased over $1000 past 6 months

Then you apply the Grid to only jewelry buyers who have purchased over $1000 past 6 months who buy only precious stones

Then you apply the Grid to only jewelry buyers who have purchased over $1000 past 6 months who buy only precious stones mounted in gold

The same model, again and again. Going through these iterations teaches you a lot about what dis-engagement looks like across different segments. You start to see the patterns, and create tests for cells in the Grid, and discover where the most profitable “re-engagement” timing and offer is for each segment.

Make any sense, or not really your question?

BTW, you probably will not see anything very useful using a demographic segmentation. This is a behavioral model and the segment variables need to be behavioral – spend, type of product, content visited, actions taken.

My Response

Jim, I appreciate the time and effort put into what you’ve shared. If I read your http://blog.jimnovo.com/2007/04/25/engagement-customers/ correctly, it’s both replicable and transferable (it worked more than once and it worked in a wide diversity of environments, not under highly isolated conditions).

Thanks for that. I admit to getting a little tired of reading about solutions that are so isolated in their application that any change in initial or durational parameters causes wildly varying results.

Of course, if I’ve misread what you’ve written…