Heidelberg will offer Schober's "Intelligent Address" service
and support customers in their quest to become media service
providers
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) is expanding its
portfolio to include direct marketing solutions from the Schober
Information Group AG (Schober), following the signing of a
co-operation agreement between both companies.
Digital printing and variable data printing are becoming more
and more synonymous, meaning print shops must gain expertise in
these areas and market this knowledge to their end customers. To
support this process, Heidelberg will shortly be offering its
digital printing customers further variable data printing services.
"Intelligent address" from Schober will be one of the main areas of
focus. Schober will assess the addresses in terms of potential and
risks. In this respect, regional buying and even payment patterns
are examples of important criteria. The information will increase
the efficiency of personalized print media as coverage waste and
other risks can be minimized. Heidelberg's digital printing
customers can either have their own or their customers' addresses
analyzed by Schober through direct access or they can retrieve
pre-analyzed addresses.
The service also includes, for example, direct market
training, analysis of potentially important customers for a media
service provider and even an evaluation of the competition in a
given region.
"The co-operation between Schober and Heidelberg enables our
digital printing customers to become real media service providers.
They are now in a position to manage their client's direct
marketing campaigns much more efficiently and to offer them a wider
service portfolio, extending far beyond printing. Furthermore, we
hope that the cooperation will constitute a further step towards
the widespread use of variable data printing," states Holger
Reichardt, Marketing, Sales and Service Director at Heidelberg,
commenting on the signing of the contract.
Thanks to this co-operation, Heidelberg customers will
benefit from a wide range of direct marketing solutions from
Schober. The new service will begin as a pilot project in Germany
and Switzerland and will be available from the fourth quarter of
2003 through Heidelberg's sales organizations. Likewise, an
international rollout of the service is planned in the medium term.
Klaus Schober, owner of the Schober Information Group
commented, "The Heidelberg initiative - delivering direct marketing
know-how to customers - is an immense step forward. As a result,
the print media industry will profit in the long term from the
great opportunities for growth associated with this marketing
strategy. We are pleased that we are able to contribute to this
development thanks to our extensive experience which extends over
more than fifty years."
About Schober
The Schober Information Group, with a workforce of 400
employees in Europe and sales of 130 million Euro, is one of the
leading information providers for manufacturers, dealers and
service providers. Providing precise customer and market
information means the Schober Information Group is an important
partner for business when it comes to strategic and operational
decisions. One-to-one information on every single customer and
every single potential client is the key to growth and profit. More
than 50,000 companies use the business and consumer addresses as
well as the market data provided by the Schober Information Group
to increase customer loyalty, to win new customers and for customer
profiling and market analysis.
For further information:
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
Corporate Communications
Matthias Hartung
Tel.: +49 (0)6221 92 5077
Fax: +49 (0)6221 92 50 46
E-mail:
matthias.hartung@heidelberg.com
Schober Information Group
Corporate Communications
Matthias Brock
Tel.: +49 (0)7156 304 649
Fax: +49 (0)7156 304 576
E-mail:
matthias.brock@schober.de