power of partnership - Salmat

innovations
communications solutions for the real world
issue one, Autumn 2010
customer communication
the use of multi-channels
power of
partnership
developing a flexible
customer focus
business efficiency
new creative strategies

WElCOME...
Welcome to the autumn edition of Innovations.
In this issue we outline two smart solutions that Salmat has
delivered for its customers.
At American Express Salmat’s Enhanced Statement Messaging
solution takes communication of card member offers and benefits to
the next level. It is the first solution of its kind communicating offers
and benefits to card members using visually engaging and targeted
messages on their credit card statements. This creates an exciting
marketing opportunity as research suggests statements are opened
and read in more than 95 per cent of cases.
With electrical retailer Dick Smith, Salmat has produced a raft
of solutions. Not only does Salmat assist Dick Smith to maintain a
presence on www.lasoo.com.au they also rely on Salmat’s catalogue
distribution channel for the distribution of their promotional
catalogues, however with a twist, as Salmat has developed a
detailed database which allows Dick Smith to better target its
customers with these distributions.
Meanwhile, our special feature in this issue explores the critical
importance of business efficiency and the ways businesses are
implementing a range of strategic and creative strategies to become
stronger and more competitive.
Flexibility and an ability to think outside the square and beyond
the bottom line are important attributes in today’s business
world, and we showcase the creative and flexible approach some
businesses are using to navigate a harsher business climate.
I hope you enjoy this issue.
Grant Harrod,
Chief Executive Officer
02 Innovations Autumn 2010
CAD life
Computer-Aided Design (CAD) has entered
a new era, with synthetic biologists
attempting to build artificial life forms using
a CAD system to redesign the stuff of life.
Deepak Chandran and colleagues at
the University of Washington in Seattle
developed Tinkercell to allow biologists
to model the components of a living
organism such as a bacterium to simulate
the effects of change. TinkerCell is a visual
modelling tool that supports a hierarchy
of biological parts. Synthetic biology brings
together concepts and techniques from
engineering and biology and in this field,
CAD is necessary to bridge the gap between
computer modelling and biological data.
An ideal CAD application for engineering
biological systems would provide features
such as: building and simulating networks,
analysing robustness of networks, and
searching databases for components that
meet the design criteria. At the current
state of synthetic biology, there are no
established methods for measuring
robustness or identifying components that
fit a design.
The online sneaker
Want more from your sneakers? How
about a sneaker that allows you to enter
an online world?
Adidas has created a virtual 3D world
that can be accessed using a line of men’s
sneakers, in an idea that ties into one of the
technology trends of the year: augmented
reality.
The Adidas Originals AR Game Pack is
a set of five shoes, each printed with an
AR code on the tongue. When you hold
the code in front of the Adidas computer
webcam a virtual world then appears.
The sneaker is used as the controller as
you access a virtual version of the Adidas
Originals Neighbourhood. Each month
Adidas will launch a new interactive game
within the Neighbourhood including a
skateboard and a Star Wars-like game.
The experience is available at www.
adidas.com/originals.

Cover photo: Andrew Shaw. Transistor art Hyunwook Song and Takhee Lee/Yale University.
First molecular transistor created
They just keep getting smaller. The world’s smallest transistor has been created from
a mere six atoms of carbon suspended between two gold electrodes.
Researchers from Yale University and South Korea manipulated the molecule’s different
energy states, depending on the voltage they applied
to it through the contacts. By manipulating the energy
states, they are able to control the current passing
through the molecule.
“People always thought the end game was making
transistors small,” says Mark Reed, a professor at
Yale University who helped design the new transistor.
“That’s really not the problem; it’s how much power
they dissipate, and one way to modify that is by using
different transport devices.”
“It’s like rolling a ball up and over a hill, where the
ball represents electrical current and the height of the
hill represents the molecule’s different energy states,”
Reed says. Source: MSNBC
Tiny solAr
cells developed
Sandia National Laboratories scientists
have developed tiny glitter-sized
photovoltaic cells that could revolutionise
the way solar energy is collected and used.
The tiny cells could turn a person into
a walking solar battery charger if they were
fastened to flexible substrates moulded
around unusual shapes, such
as clothing.
The solar particles, made from
crystalline silicon, hold the potential for a
variety of new applications. The cells are
made using microelectronic and micro-
electromechanical systems) techniques
common to today’s electronic foundries.
3D in the home
It’s coming and it’s going to be big. The
introduction of 3D television mid-year
will bring a new dimension to sitting on the
couch.
3D TV is not really new, it has been in the
development stage for nearly a decade and
now, finally, it is coming to the market.
Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, LG and
Panasonic have all unveiled 3D-capable
televisions and Samsung and Sony say
they plan to have models on the Australian
market mid-year, to coincide with the
World Cup in South Africa, which will be
shot in 3D
The 3D TV technology works by throwing
a different image to each eye and angling
Sandia lead investigator Greg Nielson
says the research team has identified more
than 20 economies of scale for its micro-
photovoltaic cells.
“Eventually, units could be mass-
produced and wrapped around unusual
shapes for building-integrated solar,
tents and maybe even clothing,” he says.
This would make it possible for hunters,
hikers or military personnel in the field
to recharge batteries for phones, cameras
and other electronic devices.
Photovoltaic modules made from these
micro-sized cells for the rooftops of homes
and warehouses could have intelligent
controls, inverters and even storage built
in at the chip level.
Source: ScienceDaily.
them so that one eye picks up one image
and the other picks up the other. There
are in fact eight separate images, the
technologists having added more after early
users reported feelings of nausea
and dizziness.
Samsung 3D Digital
MUST READ
Cockroaches
inspire robots
The sight of a cockroach may have you
reaching for the spray can, but the insect
is also a biological and engineering
marvel, and is providing researchers at
Oregon State University (OSU) with what
they call “bioinspiration” in a quest to
build the World’s first legged robot that is
capable of running effortlessly over rough
terrain.
“Humans can run, but frankly our
capabilities are nothing compared to
what insects and some other animals
can do,” says John Schmitt, an assistant
professor in the School of Mechanical,
Industrial and Manufacturing
Engineering at OSU.
“Cockroaches are incredible. They can
run fast, turn on a dime and move easily
over rough terrain.”
Schmitt said, cockroaches don’t even
have to think about running – they just
do it. That, in fact, is part of what the
engineers are trying to achieve.
Right now some robots have been built
that can walk, but none of them can run
as well as their animal counterparts.
Source: OSU.
Salmat awards
Salmat Speech Solutions (New Zealand)
has won the 2009 Telecommunications
Users Association of New Zealand
(TUANZ) Local and Central
Government Services Award. This is
in recognition of the installation of
voice-enabled technology to manage
the 6.5 million annual calls received
by the New Zealand Ministry of Social
Development’s work and income
call centre.
The services provided by Salmat
Speech Solutions have substantially
increased call capacity and enhanced
service levels, halving average call
waiting times.
In addition, Salmat Interactive was
named one of the Deloitte Technology
Fast 50 in Australia 2009. Salmat
Interactive was recognised as the 19th
fastest-growing technology company in
the recent Deloitte Technology Fast 50
Australia 2009. This is an improvement
of six places from 2008.
Innovations Autumn 2010 03

usiness solutions
CReAtiVe
cOMMUNIcATION
American Express
is using Salmat’s
Enhanced Statement
Messaging solution to
take communication of
card member offers and
benefits to the next level.
SALMAT pErSpEcTivE
Nathan Symes, Client Director – Strategic
Accounts & Business Development, says
the project demonstrates the power of
partnership.
“When you work with market leaders
like American Express, they truly value
and engage you as a partner to deliver an
outcome,” says Symes.
Highlights of the collaboration with
American Express included creating
a solution that transforms a standard
transactional document into a more
relevant, informed document with
consistent brand messaging. Earning the
trust and confidence of American Express
was also a highlight, says Symes.
04 Innovations Autumn 2010
American Express has come a long
way since it began life in 1850
as a US express delivery service.
Today, American Express is a leading
global payments, network and travel
company, backed by one of the world’s
most recognised brands. American Express
is unique in the payments industry as an
issuer of cards, with a worldwide network
that processes millions of merchant
transactions daily.
The company also operates the world’s
largest travel agency, offering travel
and related services to individuals and
corporations.
As American Express has grown and
evolved, they have never strayed from the
customer service ethos and values on which
the company was built – trust, security,
integrity, quality, good citizenship, respect
and customer commitment. Innovation is
also paramount, and in early 2008 American
“American Express, like any other
organisation, is very protective about
changing the design and content of
customer communications,” he says.
“We had to collaborate and engage
with all stakeholders to meet their
comfort levels.”
Symes says while Transactional
Relationship Marketing strategies
are becoming increasingly popular
and widespread, Enhanced Statement
Messaging is still at the forefront of current
available solutions.
“There are many examples being brought
to the marketplace today but this was
unique and market leading,” he says.
Express embarked on a ‘white space
messaging’ project with Salmat’s Business
Process Outsourcing division.
The result of the partnership is ‘Enhanced
Statement Messaging’, a creative and
effective targeted marketing solution
developed and refined to meet American
Express’s sophisticated requirements.
Enhanced Statement Messaging is
a cutting edge market leading solution
allowing the communication of offers and
benefits to card members through the
inclusion of visually engaging and targeted
messages on the available white or blank
space of statements.
This improves engagement with
customers, enriches the customer’s
experience, and provides a cost-effective
marketing channel.
“Enhanced Statement Messaging offers
a low cost marketing channel within
a communication that our customers
“American Express has the desire to be
the best they can be in their space and
they also have a drive to engage in global
best practice. We have been able to work
rigorously with American Express to deliver
the right outcome.”
“By embracing Transactional
Relationship Marketing strategies,
the statement becomes a more relevant
and personalised document, driven by
our insights into customer’s spending
behaviours. By delivering timely and
targeted messages, we are able to
promote the brand, enhance the value
of the relationship, and enrich the
customer’s experience.”

Photo: Andrew shaw
regularly, receive, trust and value,” says
Innes Kent, Director from Customer Network
Partners, whose mission is to deliver business
value and service excellence through world
class partnerships.
“Offers can now be targeted to individual
card members, or based on statement data
such as product, cycle, rewards point balance
and postcode. New technologies, postal
changes and economic conditions have
created an environment where statements
are increasingly proving an effective
communications channel to generating sales
and long term relationships.”
Research suggests statements are opened
and read in more than 95 per cent of cases,
making them an ideal vehicle to help
businesses boost customer loyalty
and retention.
“Salmat was an existing partner for
American Express and possessed the
capabilities within their business to deliver
the innovative solutions American Express
was seeking to leverage,” says Kent.
“Leveraging Salmat’s technical
environment, we now have the capability to
include graphical, visually-engaging offers on
Nathan Symes, client Director – Strategic
Accounts & Business Development, Salmat
with Innes Kent, Director, customer Network
Partners, American Express.
a statement page that are personal, timely
and relevant.”
The high-level technical design of
Enhanced Statement Messaging allows the
receipt of print-ready files, the identification
of available areas of white space within
pre-defined page sections, and the
embedding of images on to the page based
on pre-determined business rules, image
prioritisation and customer targeting criteria.
Approval process
A web-based interface facilitates day-to-day
interactions between American Express and
Salmat, and supports the end-to-end image
submission, review and approval process.
Business rules and targeting criteria are also
managed through this interface, promoting
flexibility and timeliness by allowing
marketers to dynamically make changes at
short notice.
Enhanced Statement Messaging allows
American Express to promote merchant
partners that are geographically close to
Cardmembers, increases the relevance of
rewards programs by analysing previous
redemption behaviour, and encourages
kEy poinTS
Enhanced Statement Messaging
communicates offers and benefits
to American Express Cardmembers
with visually engaging and targeted
messages printed in available
white spaces.
Enhanced Statement Messaging was
created by Salmat specifically for
American Express.
It is no longer cost-effective for
companies to use statements only
as transactional documents and to
not effectively use available
‘white space’.
It is a low cost marketing channel
within a communication that
customers regularly receive, trust
and value.
diversification of customer spend.
Enhanced Statement Messaging was
implemented for American Express’s
Australia and New Zealand consumer
customers during September–October 2009.
Kent says American Express and Salmat
recognise the importance of flexibility and
providing superior customer service, and this
contributed to the project’s success.
Looking ahead, Kent believes the
solid relationship with Salmat and the
effectiveness of Enhanced Statement
Messaging will see the solution rolled out
across other markets where it can deliver
a return on investment and support the
American Express brand.
“It’s no longer cost-effective for a company
to only use a statement as a transactional
document when it can be so much more,”
he says. “This process is a journey and we’ve
just started.”
For more information contact Nathan
Symes, Client Director – Strategic Accounts
& Business Development, Salmat
(02) 93119898 or 0433 275 999 or
nathan.symes@salmat.com.au or
www.salmat.com.au.
Innovations Autumn 2010 05

ISSUES FORUM
dEFINING BUSINESS
EFFICIENCY IN 2010
Businesses are implementing a range of strategic and creative policies
to boost business efficiency, to become stronger and more competitive,
and to enhance the all-important customer experience.
In the days of US industrial engineer
Frederick Winslow Taylor, business
efficiency focused on the division
of labour, a wage system based on
performance, and time and motion studies
to monitor performance levels.
A short time after Taylor’s ‘scientific
management’ swept US industry, Henry
Ford created his iconic car business. Based
on a streamlined assembly line, Ford’s
business model increased productivity
ten-fold, allowing him to cut the price of his
cars, to sell more cars to more Americans,
and so maximise Ford’s company profits.
While Taylorism and Fordism were
undoubtedly hugely successful business
principles right up until the 70s; in 2010 the
drive for greater business efficiency is taking
more innovative and creative forms.
06 Innovations Autumn 2010
“The man as machine view of efficiency
that was prevalent in the 1920s and 1930s
has shifted. Then it was about making
people more efficient on production lines
and viewing them as cogs in the wheel,”
says Geoff Kelly, Managing Director of Kelly
Strategic Influence, a Melbourne-based
leadership communication consulting and
coaching practice. Kelly’s clients include
the Victorian Government, several top 40
Australian corporations and professional
service firms.
“Businesses who are making progress
today are looking at effectiveness,”
continues Kelly.
“Efficiency is getting the job done for least
effort and it focuses on improving processes.
But effectiveness focuses on getting the
right job done right and it focuses on the
core outcome – and it’s the outcome that is
of value to your client, your business and
your stakeholder.”
The world sTage
Australian businesses are obviously doing
something right when it comes to efficiency,
according to The World Competitiveness
Yearbook 2009, published by the prestigious
IMD business school in Switzerland.
In its 2009 Business Efficiency Global
Rankings, IMD placed Australia seventh
– ahead of countries such as the US, Japan,
Germany, the UK and China. IMD judges
business efficiency according to
the ‘extent to which the national
environment encourages enterprises to
perform in an innovative, profitable and
responsible manner’.
Illustration: Alastair Taylor

It takes into account productivity,
efficiency, labour costs, the performance
and global integration of the financial
sector, management practices, and attitudes
and values around competitiveness.
Australia polled particularly well in its
culture being open to foreign ideas, to
ethical practices being implemented within
companies, and in the attractiveness of
its business environment to high-skilled
workers from overseas. It also ranked
well in the flexibility and adaptability
of Australian workers in dealing with
new challenges.
Flexibility and an ability to think outside
the square and beyond the bottom line are
important attributes in today’s business
efficiency world and the global financial
crisis showcased the creative and flexible
approach of some businesses in navigating
a harsher climate.
Outsourcing has also become an
increasingly important weapon in the battle
for better business efficiency, says Kelly.
“Outsourcing was in vogue a few years
back and it still makes sense. It’s based
on the principal that we should get people
who can do specific jobs better than we
can, especially with regard to non-core
functions,” he says.
“We need to understand what our core
business is and, in theory, outsource
everything else.”
While some businesses took the
traditional cost cutting and redundancies
route during the recent global financial
crisis, others looked for alternative ways to
manage costs but retain their workforce.
They have emerged in a stronger position as
the GFC in Australia begins to recede.
For example, the reputation of Pacific
Brands suffered greatly when it announced
in February 2009 that it was exiting
manufacturing in Australia with the loss of
1,850 local jobs. Pacific Brands said it would
relocate its manufacturing operations to
China for price reasons after posting a net
loss for the six months to December 31 2008
of $150 million.
The company faced an angry reaction
from customers loyal to its Holeproof,
Dunlop and Hard Yakka brands. The very
GettinG to the Core – GoinG GrAnulAr
Business efficiency today also means
understanding what elements of a
business are core.
Companies have had to reassess their
business to accurately determine what
value they provide to customers and how
to enhance that value.
The banking and financial services
sector has seen a raft of small and agile
competitors offering similar financial
products to customers at reduced rates.
This shake-up of this once stable and
conservative sector has seen big banks
forced to take a long, hard look at what
they currently offer customers, and what
they can offer customers in the future
that their smaller competitors cannot.
Ben Shields, a strategy consultant and
Partner in Deloitte says businesses need
to take a more granular approach to
become more efficient and to outperform
competitors.
“Granularity enables you to understand
your data better and so get a better
view of the resources your organisation
has internally and, from an external
perspective, the opportunities it is
presented with,” he says.
“It is about measuring your
organisation and applying your capability
to your opportunity set in a much more
fine-grained way.”
�
Innovations Autumn 2010 07

ISSUES FORUM
Australian-ness of the brands, and their
associations with hard-working, salt-of-the-
earth Australians made the news that the
company was shifting its manufacturing
operations overseas even harder to stomach
for many customers.
The homegrown quality of the brands
were a key part of Pacific Brand’s value
proposition and some customers felt
the company was shedding its ties with
Australia simply in the pursuit of greater
profits. Even the Prime Minister joined
the debate, describing the Pacific Brands
decision and the job losses as “devastating
and distressing news”.
Sue Morphet, Pacific Brands chief
executive, said the job losses and change in
08 Innovations Autumn 2010
manufacturing operations were necessary
to deliver the ‘future strength, growth,
profitability and sustainability of the
business – for shareholders and employees’.
But there is no doubt that in the pursuit
of old-fashioned business efficiency in the
form of cost-cutting, Pacific Brands may
have failed to recognise the impact of its
decisions on its core outcome, business,
clients and stakeholders.
using The scalpel
Other businesses, such as some financial
services and professional services
organisations, stemmed job cuts by
adopting four-day weeks and forgoing
pay rises, says Ben Shields, a strategy
consultant and Partner in Deloitte
consulting in Sydney.
“In the first blush of the GFC we had
a lot of clients talking to us about a cost
reduction exercise. They wanted to reduce
cost by 10-20 per cent,” says Shields.
“We pushed back against that and
looked at their runway. How long could
they sustain the downturn before it caused
serious issues for a business?
“We also encouraged clients to
understand what the growth engines or
platforms were for their business when
things turned around. You don’t cut too
deep into areas that will deliver growth
to a business when the market turns. We
encouraged cutting, if and where it was
required, with a scalpel – not a hatchet.”
Too many organisations default to shortterm
cost cutting in the name of business
efficiency, says Kelly.
“But no business cost-cuts its way to
greatness,” he says.
“I was heartened by the fact that
so many organisations under stress
looked for alternatives to mass layoffs.
Whether it was General Motors-Holden or
PricewaterhouseCoopers or major law firms,
they looked for options to hold on to their
people before they blew them away.
“We all know the war for talent will
return. It made sense to hold on to people
and there may have been a dawning
recognition by some businesses that their
people are the key to getting them out of
this difficult period.”
The importance of retaining talented
workers, even during tough times, to
promote continued business efficiency has
been echoed by some of Australia’s leading
HR professionals.
Gareth Bennett, Director of People &
Development at Freehills international law
firm, has said ‘Retention of key talent is the
critical thing. Your key people are still very
vulnerable – they are the ones who will lead
your organisation out of this period’.
Melanie Laing, Executive General
Manager, People & Culture, at Origin Energy,
agreed. “Nothing has changed in the search
for talent. It’s a struggle to find people
we want to employ,” she said. “We are
searching globally for talent.”
The ouTsourcing issue
Shields also predicts a ‘second wave’ of
outsourcing as businesses get to grips
with focusing on their core business areas
and outsourcing the non-core aspects to
professionals who can support those areas.
“My gut instinct is that we are still behind
a number of other nations in the degree to
which we outsource,” he says.
But he says businesses will soon boost
their outsourcing capabilities and approach
outsourcing with a different, smarter
approach to boost efficiency.
“We won’t see outsourcing as ‘this is a
problem area for me, I can’t do this very
effectively so I’ll just get rid of it offshore’,”
he predicts.

“I think organisations will look at the way
they do certain processes, they’ll fix them
and then they’ll outsource them to make
sure they are not outsourcing the problem
but are actually getting the gain they want
from it.
“And they won’t offshore tasks that
could be better done in this country, even
if it is slightly more expensive locally. If
outsourcing something is to the detriment
of customer service and the customer
experience, that makes no sense at all.”
Geoff Kelly agrees that as companies
focus on their core business, more of
them will outsource other non-core areas of
their business.
“It makes sense but bureaucrats often
don’t think that way. They think in terms
of control and ownership of everything. All
businesses need to outsource more, and
to do this they will need to evolve their
cultures to accept that.” he asserts.
unleashing human poTenTial
Some of the most efficient and effective
businesses in Australia are also recognising
the potential of their employees for even
greater achievement. Brain science and
MRI technology is allowing researchers
to discover what parts of the brain are at
work and what areas lay dormant while
performing various work-based tasks.
This science has the potential to be
translated into optimising work conditions
and leadership behaviour to allow people to
perform at much higher levels, says Kelly.
“The big thing that we are learning
from this field of science is about our
constraints,” says Kelly. He says the
research exposes the myth of multitasking.
“We now know that if you multitask on
high involvement activities you will fail. The
average US executive, and it would be the
same in Australia, is interrupted every five
minutes. How long does it take you to get
back in the zone when you are working on
something and are interrupted that often?
You spend an awful lot of time for little
achievement.
“Other research suggests that a CEO
who is able to find one more hour a day of
discretionary strategic time would double
their strategic breadth.
“I think efficiency and effectiveness in
the next 20 years are likely to be driven
by the recognition that we can unlock so
much more in the area of human potential.
Leaders will see great leaps in performance
as they learn to manage themselves and
their people to unlock this potential.”
The growing willingness to look beyond
the bottom line and to focus on innovation
is critical to boost business efficiency. Kelly
nominates CSL Ltd as an example of an
Australian organisation that has grasped
this concept.
CSL Ltd now has more than 10,000
employees in 27 countries. The specialty
biopharmaceutical company is involved in
researching, developing, manufacturing and
marketing plasma products, vaccines and
pharmaceuticals. Brian McNamee, CEO and
Managing Director, has been determined to
build the CSL business globally.
“McNamee has said Australia shouldn’t
just be a country that is about digging up
resources and sending them overseas.
He believes we have to develop other
industries and CSL is a great example
of a company that has done that. There
is no natural reason why an Australian
pharmaceutical company should become a
world leader – except that they decided they
would,” says Kelly.
Shields points to an example of a large
consumer goods manufacturing business
that remodelled its national sales division
operations to improve efficiency.
Rather than measuring the sales
division uniformly and so ‘averaging’
performance across the territories, each
territory was clustered into teams of similar
attributes and given different thresholds of
performance. This enabled management
to focus on what was important. By
introducing Key Performance Indicators
(KPIs) progressively, each territory could
prioritise and work to a structure for
success.
“Rather than a traditional balanced
scorecard, this staged introduction of
thresholds in essence creates an unbalanced
score card,” says Shields.
“By focusing on some of the KPIs – not
all of them at once – you can introduce the
next KPI targets when the business is ready.
This staged approach is more efficient and
so far more effective.”
key points
Outsourcing will continue as
businesses focus on core aspects,
but businesses will be smarter in
their use of outsourcing.
If costs have to be cut, use a scalpel
to cut more from underperforming
areas and less, if anything at all,
from areas that will be growth
engines for the business.
Granularity – measuring and
assessing business performance
from a finer perspective – can
be applied to a diverse range of
industries.
The war for talent has not gone
away. Retaining valued employees
gives businesses a jump on
competitors.
Innovations Autumn 2010 09

usiness solutions
FinDinG
THE TARGET
Using a range of channels to reach target customers is part and
parcel of building and growing the Dick Smith success story.
When Dick Smith opened a car
radio installation business
in Sydney in 1968, he was
determined to put his total capital of $610 to
good use.
The business that became the Dick Smith
empire began in rented premises beneath
a car park. Within a year the business had
moved to a larger site, and by 1980 the
company included 20 stores. Woolworths
bought a 60 per cent share in the company
at that time and bought the remainder of
the business in 1982.
Today, Dick Smith has 433 retail stores
in Australia and New Zealand and employs
more than 5,300 people.
In its specific industry, ‘Talking
Technology’ is what Dick Smith does best
and the company prides itself on its ability
SALMAT perSpecTive
Julie Russo, Account Director, describes
the working relationship with Dick Smith
as a successful partnership.
“We have a very honest relationship,”
says Russo. “We are there to help their
business grow and to support their brand.”
Regular strategy meetings between Dick
Smith and Salmat ensure there is ample
opportunity to analyse past and current
activities, to monitor performance, and to
brainstorm future activities that will meet
the business’s strategic objectives.
10 Innovations Autumn 2010
to bring technological expertise to everyday
consumers. Dick Smith is also determined
to ‘talk technology’ when it comes to
employing effective technological solutions
and tools to help the company reach its
target customers. Since November 2007, the
company has worked with Salmat to develop
a suite of services to meet its marketing
objectives and to reach its customers.
“It’s about being smarter with everything
we do,” says Brent Allan, Dick Smith’s Head
of Marketing Australia & New Zealand.
“We scrutinise every cost to make sure we
get the best return for our investment dollar
and Salmat is proactive in that process. If
I say I want to do fewer brochures more
efficiently and hit a specifically identified
target market, Salmat would say ‘that’s not
an issue. We can help you’. They are not
Russo says the suite of Salmat solutions
used by Dick Smith provides a solid platform
to ensure the business optimises customer
awareness and appreciation for the Dick
Smith brand and products.
Importantly, the strategy developed with
Salmat helps Dick Smith reach the right
customers – its target customers – and
reduces unnecessary waste by ensuring
catalogues are not distributed to people who
would not read them.
“Working with Dick Smith and doing
focused solely on the size of the prize, but on
the quality of the communications strategy.”
The partnership between Dick Smith and
Salmat has produced a raft of solutions.
Salmat assists Dick Smith in maintaining
a presence on www.lasoo.com.au, an
online catalogue site that has become the
leading online destination for consumers
to research what’s on sale in the stores
of major Australian retailers. It’s a pre-
shopping search engine that enables
consumers to search retailers’ catalogues
before they decide what to buy and where.
Lasoo enables Dick Smith to upload its
catalogues and use Dynamic Catalogue
technology to enable customers to interact
with them by turning pages, enlarging
images and accessing product details.
Over one million people visit Lasoo each
regular research, we find the same type of
customers are interested in reading and
purchasing from Dick Smith brochures,”
says Russo.
“We’ve used that data and mapped it to
better target Dick Smith campaigns and
we’ve been able to eliminate areas where
customers aren’t reading the brochure and
so reduce wastage.
“Dick Smith trusts our experience and
knowledge. They know we want our
solutions to work for them.”

Photos: tom lau
Brent Allan, National Marketing Manager, Dick Smith, discusses business with Julie Russo,
Account Director, Salmat.
month with the average visitor spending
just under 10 minutes on the site searching
for products and offers. About 250,000 of
those visitors go on to make a purchase as a
result, according to research.
In addition, Dick Smith relies on a
traditional letterbox distribution channel
– with a sophisticated twist.
“As much as there is a huge swing to
technology and web-based media, people
still enjoy getting a catalogue,” says Allan.
“I don’t think the physical media of
catalogue will ever go away. But, I think
how you deliver catalogues to the home is
getting more scientific.”
Detailed database
Salmat developed a detailed database that
has allowed Dick Smith to better target its
customers during letterbox distributions.
The database is supported by ongoing
Roy Morgan Readership research to help
determine the number of readers per
catalogue and the actions customers take
after they’ve read a Dick Smith catalogue, for
instance, whether they buy a product.
The Salmat technology is able to map
metropolitan areas where letterbox
distribution appears to most effectively reach
Dick Smith customers.
The letterbox distribution is supported
by the insertion of Dick Smith catalogues
in weekend editions of key metropolitan
papers. Salmat uses its sophisticated data
analysis and mapping solution to identify
newspapers with the highest penetration of
target customers. This is overlayed with the
letterbox distribution data to ensure all key
target customer areas receive a catalogue.
“We are not about putting junk mail in
letterboxes. It’s only junk mail if the end
recipient doesn’t value it. We use letterbox
distribution in harmony with a host of other
channels to give us the best result,” says
Allan. “And the research and data show our
distribution strategy is making inroads and
we are getting into people’s homes and are
getting read by more people.”
Dick Smith also relies on Salmat’s
expertise to analyse competition entry
forms submitted by customers at its
stores. The customer data available on
each competition entry form is seen as yet
another way of ensuring the company is
reaching its target audience.
Salmat scans the competition entry forms
and then performs a database analysis of
the addresses of competition entrants. This
is matched with the Dick Smith catalogue
distribution strategy to reinforce that
the correct geographical areas are being
targeted in the distribution strategy.
“We go out of our way to ensure the Dick
Smith portfolio of products has relevance to
our target customer. If you get that right, a
catalogue is not junk mail. It’s welcomed, it
gets a read and it educates the customer on
what Dick Smith stands for.”
For more information contact Julie Russo
Account Director, Salmat at (02) 9612 8023
or julie.russo@salmat.com.au or visit
www.salmat.com.au.
key poinTS
Dick Smith uses a combination
of tailored and targeted
communication channels and Roy
Morgan Readership research to
achieve its marketing objectives.
Traditional letterbox distribution
becomes more scientific using
analysis of customer data and
research to map the location of
key target customer groups.
Catalogue distribution via
letterbox is supplemented with
catalogue insertion in weekend
metropolitan newspapers – with
newspaper titles selected using
data analysis.
Scanning of Dick Smith
competition entries allows
customer addresses to be
analysed to ensure existing
strategies reach target customers.
Dick Smith’s Brent Allan believes
marketers need to be smarter and
to use a ‘host of channels’ to get
the best results.
Innovations Autumn 2010 11

JOANN SKENE
GENERAL MANAGER, SOUTH AUSTRALIA/NORTHERN
TERRITORY, TARGETED MEDIA SOLUTIONS.
“At Salmat, we are not talking to our
clients in terms of delivering a set
quantity of catalogues into letterboxes
any more.
Today, we are talking to our clients in
terms of the reach Salmat can achieve
using a combination of online catalogue
publishing on lasoo.com.au,
SMS and email messaging of retail
offers, smartphone applications,
Bluetooth technology and, of course,
letterbox delivery.”
FOR INFORMATION: 1800 050 472 (Australia only)
www.salmat.com.au
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