Database Marketing: Mining for Gold

A Customer is a Customer … is a Customer …

Madison, Wis.-based The Guild, which began as a Web business and later developed a print catalog of gifts called The Artful Home, regards Web clients no differently than those who order via catalog.

“The result of our being a Web site with a catalog advertising outreach is that all of our customers are treated the same,” Guild President Michael Baum says. “We don’t really draw a distinction between Web customers and catalog customers, except in that we track who had a catalog and who didn’t. Regardless of whether a particular customer is responding to a catalog or arrives via the Web or telephone, the same data is collected.”