issue: August 2011 ApplianceMagazine.com Case Study - Marketing Dacor Ramps Up Social Marketing	Share  Printable format  Email this Article  Search
High-end appliance maker Dacor increased its social media fan base five-fold in one year.

Dacor, a family run producer of high-end appliances based in Costa Mesa, CA, U.S., used email marketing campaigns and other methods to increase its social media fan base by five times in just one year.

Dacor was founded on cooking appliances in 1965, but its luxury appliance line now includes refrigerators, dishwashers, warming drawers, microwaves, and kitchen ventilation, as well as ranges, cooktops, wall ovens, and outdoor grills.

Engaging with the purchasers of luxury appliances drives the appliance makers business, but it was challenged by the need to connect with three primary customer audiences: retailers, kitchen design professionals, and home chefs. Dacor needed a targeted email approach and the capability to launch marketing campaigns to reach the right audience with the right message.

Other challenges for Dacor in the late 2000s: it had two databases for consumer and trade records, which made list maintenance and email campaigning inefficient. Dacor also wanted to bring HTML design in-house as a way of cutting costs.

There were other problems. The appliance maker was dissatisfied with the level of insight their campaign analytics provided them – they could not measure who saw the marketing campaigns and what action those viewers took as a result.

In 2008 the company turned to email marketing services provider Lyris, Inc. The Lyris HQ solution enabled better email compliance, easier HTML coding and layout, more insightful analytics, and good overall functionality. The appliance maker found itself saving time and money on email marketing and could focus on growing the business. One example: Dacor was able to augment the analytics in the solution to gain insight on the company PPC (pay-per-click) campaign initiative.

The service company provided increased services as the relationship with Dacor proved successful, and today efforts focus on three Dacor strategies.

List Consolidation and Segmentation

As a first step, the service provider worked with the appliance OEM to consolidate the two disparate lists into one list, which was segmented to enable relevant communications. Having one, segmentable list saved Dacor time, money, and resources in database maintenance as well as offering the ability to more effectively analyze and measure list segments.

Better Web Analytics for Actionable Insight

Dacor was able to significantly improve its web analytics and make changes to its approach based on information that had previously gone unnoticed. Dacor conferred monthly with the services provider to review analytics reports and recommendations, helping it implement changes, validate marketing needs, and improve the overall experience for its customers.

One example: the service provider discovered the Dacor site was getting more traffic from Android smartphone users than from iPhones using the Apple iOS, a trend not reflected in the industry. The service provider pinpointed the extra Android traffic as coming from Dacor sales reps. Changes to the analytics now filter out sales rep traffic to give Dacor a clear view of true customer visitors and their behavior when on the web site. More accurate data about website visitors helped optimize the design of future campaigns to reach them.

Social Contest Bring More Followers and List Growth

In late 2010, Dacor was determined to grow its social presence and acquire new fans and followers on Twitter (@dacorkitchen) and Facebook (facebook.com/dacor). The success of the first Twitter-only contest campaign led to more such contests. By June of 2011, after three sweepstakes, Dacor had increased its overall fan base five-fold. The sweepstakes also helped it grow its database and, the services provider says, led to industry-leading success with click-throughs and customer engagement.

“We have been able to save time and money on email marketing, which has allowed us to focus our efforts on selling to grow our business,” said Sherry Chan, manager, emarketing for Dacor. “With three very different types of customers – homeowners, retailers, and kitchen design professionals - it is imperative that we tailor our email campaigns so that each audience receives a relevant message." She said the email services company helped Dacor accomplish these goals.

Since engaging with the services provider in 2008, Dacor has seen email deliverability rates reach 99.9% and has seen list growth by three times to-date. Dacor has very low bounce-back rates and unsubscribe rates – both 0.5%. Dacor overall has improved its email marketing campaigns, resulting in a direct impact on sales and growth.