In searching for new Blog content, we found this “blast from the past” in our archives and felt it was still worth a read…
Whilst almost 30 years old, reflecting differences in technology and terminology, the article still has some relevancy, when considering the value and use of Postcodes and Postcode geography in the business context.
The piece was originally written for and published in “Postal Technology International ’97 Magazine” and was authored by our current MD John Taylor.
The postcode continues to grow in importance. This raw material designed to improve operational effectiveness and efficiency within many postal administrations has a broad range of applications. Geoplan, with the support of Royal Mail, has gone some way to facilitating postcode product development with its range of Geographic Information Systems.
As industry strives to keep pace with rapidly changing needs, marketeers play a key role in preserving an optimum fit between a company's offer and the marketplace. A central theme is the drive for niche or even personalised, individual markets, enabling the delivery of discreet products or services to a given customer.
For years, postal administrations around the world have achieved this aim with amazing success, delivering personalised messages over long distances, against all odds, to the targeted recipient. In response to their own needs for improvements in efficiency and effectiveness, many administrations have introduced Postcoding and have developed a postal geography.
Under superficial review, one can see the benefits of Postcoding to postal administrations. However, given that industry as a whole is trying to achieve something that the postal administrations have achieved for years from a targeting perspective, it is not surprising that there are numerous ways in which the postal. geography can be exploited to provide direct and indirect benefits to industry as a whole and postal administrations, in particular.
Established in 1984, Geoplan is the only independent company in the UK that is wholly committed to the maintenance, enhancement and exploitation of Postcode data to competitive advantage. Partnership with Royal Mail has facilitated the development and maintenance of a fully integrated range of Postcode-related products and services. These range from simple Postcode maps and directories, to digital boundaries, Geographic Information Systems and data management consultancy. This development was driven by Geoplan in the early 80's - a market need for high quality, regularly updated digital
Postcode boundaries and point data for use in the newly developing geodemographic systems. Having invested time and financial resource in the development of a postal sector boundary file at 1:50,000 scale, it was imperative that the support and co-branding of Royal Mail was secured. A mandate to proceed was required and for this Geoplan committed to develop and market a range of Postcode-based products engineered and positioned in such a way that they would fulfil the following criteria:
The strategy agreed upon by Royal Mail and Geoplan harnessed the best in both organisations. Royal Mail had developed and owned copyright to the Postcode system itself. Geoplan had the flexibility to exploit the added benefits of the Postcode system to mutual advantage.
In support of the product innovation and maintenance commitments, Geoplan also provides an outlet for Royal Mail to direct a broad range of customer enquiries and bespoke product development requests. In many respects, it is the constant dialogue with Postcode users that has set the agenda for product development to date.
Central to the relationship with Royal Mail was the development of a joint venture contract. This contract provided stability and facilitated the commitment to long-term product development and customer care programmes.
In the early days, Geoplan generated one product only, a digital Postcode boundary file of the UK for primary use in PC-based geodemographic systems. The boundaries were digitised using Geographic Information Software (GIS) utilising Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 scale maps as a base. The first digital Postcode boundary product from Geoplan represented three of the five layers of UK postal geography, Postcode Area, District and Sector with the sector file breaking the UK into approximately 9,000 land parcels, each containing between 2,500 and 8,000 households. Visibility of these boundaries was low within the software packages used, as they were operated primarily as a key to show other data overlays such as Census data or customer address data. Awareness and usage of the boundaries was limited essentially to users of these systems, primarily blue chip companies able to invest in and utilise leading edge technologies. As a consequence, market growth for the original products was slow.
In parallel with developments in targeting and segmentation was the rapid use in direct marketing and direct mail techniques. Both of these disciplines contributed to a significant increase in mail volumes both to transmit marketing messages and to deliver ordered goods. Central to this process were consumer and business addresses. Increasingly the Postcode was relevant to enable efficient mailing and effective targeting and monitoring of effort.
Economic and technological developments in recent years have further supported the role of direct marketing techniques in both developing and defending market share in the most cost efficient and effective way possible. Responsibility and accountability were, and remain, the bywords for the successful marketeer in any organisation.
In the late 1980s the drive was for more new business, expansion was the keyword. During the 1990s, in post-recession Britain, expansion has been replaced by consolidation, retrenchment, downsizing and customer retention. However, to succeed in either environment the need for a clearly structured and measurable approach is of paramount importance.
During this period computer hardware and software prices have continued to fall. In addition, software has become more accessible and computer literacy has risen significantly. This dramatic shift in technology and skill has facilitated increasing developments in the usage of customer databases as a core marketing tool. In response to this rapid development has been the creation of increasingly sophisticated software tools and marketing approaches: Marketing Information Systems, GIS, data warehousing, data mining and lead tracking are common elements of a successful marketeer's armoury. All of these tools depend upon clean, fully Postcoded data that can be geographically referenced and keyed to enable the design, implementation, planning and control of specific marketing strategies.
This growth in the importance of a structured approach has created a platform for the further extension of the Geoplan Royal Mail range of Postcode-related products.
While acknowledging the rapid pace of technological development, detailed market research indicated that some potential users were being left behind This was particularly true of small businesses who had not yet developed computer-based customer databases, but who had access to Postcoded customer address data.
In response to the needs of this group, Geoplan developed a broad range of Postcode planning wall maps. A combination of modern GIS technology and desktop publishing software was used to combine the digital postal geography boundaries with cartographic data from the Ordnance Survey. The creation of these maps fulfilled a number of objectives:
Even at this simple level, postal geography was not merely being used to facilitate direct mail activity. Planning applications came to the fore:
This experience, combined with the increasing number of requests from map buyers for additional data, set the agenda for the acquisition of a broad range of Postcode-related data sets and the development of a later addition to the Postcode product range, the Geoplan Postcode Marketing Directory. This publication draws on all the experience gained in the use of Postcodes in business planning and highlights the importance of the Postcode in consumer and business marketing by bringing together the strengths of detailed Postcode maps with comprehensive, demographic lifestyle, businesses and media information. Throughout, the Directory is punctuated with detailed indexes and cross reference points to allow the user to immediately locate and compare specific areas of interest. Currently in book form, this product is now being developed as an interactive CD product and for access on the internet. This approach will facilitate more detailed 'what if analysis at much lower levels of geography. With specific reference to the internet, this will also enable the user to select discreet segments of the publication on a pay per view basis. In support of the downstream development of simple Postcode planning maps, and the more complex Directory, Geoplan entered into a distribution agreement to market Tactician, a PC-and Mac-based Geographic Information System. There are many packages similar to Tactician such as MapInfo and Arc View that facilitate spatial analysis of data from the desktop. For these systems to function in the commercial marketplace, the key ingredients are some form of geocode (invariably Postcode), and a range of supporting data sets from third party suppliers such as Census or Dun & Bradstreet information. These data sets are overlaid on an appropriate cartographic map base and viewed in conjunction with a given range of customer data. These 'open' mapping systems provide users with the opportunity to view their marketplace in a unique geographical way, enabling visualisation of difficult marketing, distribution and logistics concepts. When enabled with postal geography and coordinates, such systems can be used to:
The increasing use of GIS has highlighted the need for improvements in the integrity, consistency and accuracy of the data. GIS allows the user to drill down to a minute level of detail or to overlay many different data layers. In response to this trend, Geoplan has developed digital Postcode boundaries down to unit level in the UK, each containing about 15 to 25 households. All postal geographies at all levels are maintained by Geoplan and updated for release approximately every quarter. This means that all other Postcode-related data sets also have to be updated to ensure continuity. There is no doubt that postal codes and postal geography form the basis for most structured marketing planning in the UK and in many other countries. Postcodes are correlated with other geographies to enable further discreet targeting of activity and can be related to a given point on the map, a TV area, radio station coverage, press circulation areas or telephone and cable communications geography. This enables the user to target specific markets for discreet communications. It is inappropriate to view the Postcode as a vehicle for enhancing direct mail only. Postcodes can be used to form a base framework for decision-making at both a broad strategic and discreet tactical level. The Postcode and postal data are becoming increasingly embedded into the marketing planning and implementation process. This can only mean increased awareness and usage of Postcode-related transactions for the future. The development of Postcode products can be replicated wherever a postal administration has developed a functional Postcode system. Ultimately the challenge will be to create seamless links between all postal geographies to facilitate the development of pan-World and pan-European Postcode-based planning products and systems. It is already known that the demand is there, creating opportunities to further enhance both direct and indirect revenues from the significant investment made by postal organisations.
