Hillstrom's Multichannel Forensics by Kevin Hillstrom Hardcover; 264 pages; $95.00 Published September 30, 2007 Read the review >>                 Order >> Book Description In Hillstrom’s Multichannel Forensics, Kevin Hillstrom offers CEOs and business leaders a framework for bridging the gap between multichannel marketing strategy and tactics. By illustrating the complex relationship between customers, advertising,

products, brands and channels, Kevin is able to help the executive see how customers migrate from prospect to first-time buyer status to loyal brand advocates. The techniques in this book illustrate the most productive paths that customers take, resulting in increased sales and profit. Armed with these breakthrough techniques, the CEO or business leader knows where to invest scarce marketing resources to maximize return on investment in a multichannel retailing environment.

The business world was easier to manage, back in 1990. Retailers and catalogers had limited systems that housed customer data. By using canned reports produced by the “data processing” staff, leaders learned how various products sold, how each catalog drop performed, and how various customer segments spent money. With limited reports, and few marketing options, the executive made decisions based on intuition, tribal knowledge, and canned reports.

Today’s multichannel retailing world changed how executives manage online, catalog, or retail business models. Seemingly overnight, the online channel provided numerous ways for customers to interact with businesses. Ecommerce, email, search, portals, affiliates, blogs, and countless other technologies overwhelm today’s CEO.

The overwhelming proliferation of channels, and shorter “analyze, plan, execute” cycles can be confusing to today’s multichannel business leader. Too often, senior managers are asked to develop business strategy, but are given an overwhelming amount of performance data that does not help them develop effective business strategies.

Now, Kevin Hillstrom has finally put it all together, made it clear, and shows you exactly how customers migrate through the buying relationship and which ones you should focus on for improved profitability.

About the Authors

Kevin Hillstrom is President of MineThatData, a consultancy that helps CEOs and executives understand the complex relationship between customers, advertising, products, brands and channels. By strategically reviewing actual customer purchase transactions, Kevin illustrates natural paths that customers take when migrating from first purchase to loyal customer. This knowledge drives strategic thinking within multichannel retailers, resulting in increased sales and profits. The findings of Kevin’s analyses help business leaders and CEOs understand the specific role that advertising, products, brands and channels play within a corporation. Kevin’s first book, Hillstrom’s Database Marketing (Direct Academy, 2005, www.forbetterbooks.com or Amazon; $95.00) describes the foundations of his database marketing vision and is the companion book to Hillstrom’s Multichannel Forensics.

Kevin spent the better part of the past two decades at some of America’s most respected multichannel retailers. As Vice President of Database Marketing at Nordstrom, Kevin was part of a leadership team that turned a money-losing direct channel into one that became highly profitable. Kevin’s team helped Nordstrom understand how a retail website and catalog marketing support and grow comp store sales in the retail channel.

Kevin also spent five years as Director of Circulation at Eddie Bauer. During his tenure there, he leveraged a multichannel database to clearly illustrate how an emerging channel called “the internet” would influence catalog and retail sales in future years. Kevin’s circulation team developed contact strategies that yielded the best pre-tax year in the history of the direct division, in 1999.

Kevin’s formative years were spent at Lands’ End. His five year stint as Manager of Analytical Services included a complex analysis of how each of seven catalog titles interacted with each other, yielding varying levels of incremental sales and profit. Kevin’s team also developed statistical models that determined who should receive the catalogs mailed by business leaders across various catalog titles. Kevin and his wife live in the suburban Seattle area, enjoying nature and a moderate climate.

Published by

Direct Academy, an imprint of Campbell & Lewis Publishers