Without computers, all that information would overwhelm marketers. The first step, she said, is for a company to learn as much as possible about its best customers. Using a computer, it can find out how often these star customers buy, how much they spend, how old they are, where they live, what kind of credit cards they have. The next step is to search for lists that, alone or combined with other lists, can produce the names of those people most similar to a company's best customers. For that price, it also will filter that list by one other attribute, such as age or whether there are children at home.
Additional attributes cost more, sort of like adding more toppings to an ice cream sundae.
The computer is helping Devon Direct wade through a daunting marketing challenge for British Telecom, the United Kingdom's former telephone monopoly. When the company was privatized, it faced competition for the first time. Devon Direct's task was to generate mailings to keep BT's customers on board. The computer helped Devon Direct sort through 13 million customers by 4,000 attributes. Then it figured out which of BT's existing or new services would best keep each category.