• by Masha Geller , August 1, 2003

Describing it as a ground-breaking technological implementation that "delivers the right message to the right consumer at the right time," Nestlé Waters North America, with the help of Byte Interactive, has launched a digital marketing solution that allows the company to turn prospects into customers.

"Our intention was to enable Nestlé Waters to build a lifetime relationship with consumers by speaking to each with relevance through use of digital media," said Byte Interactive's VP of client services Gene Tiernan. "For example, we wanted to prevent delivering an acquisition message to an existing customer, or delivering a generic unbranded message to a consumer who has an affinity for a certain Nestlé Waters brand."

Nestlé Waters is the world's largest spring water home and office distributor whose U.S. brands include Poland Spring, Deer Park, Arrowhead, Ozarka, Ice Mountain, Zephyrhills and Calistoga. Since Nestlé Waters' regional brands are tied to specific spring water sources dispersed across North America, the company's marketing base is segmented geographically, by brand, product lines, and by delivery method/availability (e.g. at retail vs. through home and office delivery services).

Research has shown that consumers respond better to messages containing a brand name (for example, "Poland Spring") than a generic one ("spring water"), and in order to deliver an appropriately branded message, Nestlé Waters must first learn the consumer's geographic location. The company's marketing challenge, therefore, was how to geographically identify and profile prospective customers through their interactions with online media alone, while at the same time preserving consumer anonymity.

To accomplish this, Byte Interactive picked the services of CentrPort, a Westport, Conn. provider of e-business solutions that enable online dialogue marketing.

"This delivers on all of the promises of the Internet," said Michael LeBeau, CEO and founder of Byte Interactive. "Respecting consumer privacy, we are now able to deliver the right message based upon that consumer's relationship with their respective brand, converting prospects into customers, and guiding customers to higher-value activities throughout a lifetime."

The technology transforms untargeted online mass marketing into targeted messaging, company officials say. Anonymous consumer profiles are built based upon each consumer's behaviors with Nestlé Waters's digital media, on-site and off-site. The consumer's geographic location is deduced and captured within a profile, allowing Nestlé Waters to deliver the appropriate brand and product message. Furthermore, profiles include behavior related to the consumer's interactions with Nestlé Waters's home and office services - enabling the company to distinguish "customers" from "prospects."

Equally valuable is the company's ability to identify "application bailers" - consumers who initiated but never completed the online purchase process. Regardless of where that individual next interacts with a Nestlé Waters online message - for example, a banner ad at iVillage.com - that high-potential prospect will receive a message specifically encouraging him to complete the application process to become a Nestlé Waters "customer." This permits synchronization between on-site and off-site messaging, while providing Nestlé Waters with maximum flexibility to place digital messaging through any channel or vendor.

"CentrPort allows us to do something none of their competitors could accomplish, which is to allow the capture of valuable, anonymous consumer-behavior profile data both on-site and off-site, and then to apply very complex rules to insure appropriate messaging across channels," said Tiernan. "The superior technological capabilities of this innovative company allows us at Byte Interactive to deliver this first-ever marketing solution to our client. It provides NESTLÉ WATERS with a powerful marketing tool and most importantly, the ability to better serve its customers and consumers."