Maplin gives its marketing tools an IT makeover

Electronics and gadget retailer Maplin has replaced its Smartfocus Viper marketing campaign management application with a solution from Alterian, supplied by MarkIT.

Maplin runs 13 campaigns a year, plus promotions for reprinting of its catalogue in September. According to Maplin IT director Nigel Fawcett, the incumbent solution was not performing well enough for the retailer to continue to run it.

'We were using Viper to track campaigns and to create direct marketing lists, but we found areas where the tool was letting us down,' he said. 'Our campaigns run for four weeks, but the software could not tell us how the promotions were going until that four weeks was over.'

The new solution refreshes data on a daily basis, allowing Maplin's marketing team to tweak campaigns as they are running. It can also compile reports on customer buying habits and demographics, and can prepare the main board marketing report.

Fawcett is also in discussions to use the system, which is going live at the moment, to collaborate more closely with suppliers.