The Power of the Name and Address

How one company has developed its use of customers' names and addresses is discussed. Thorn‐EMI would claim to have installed the first extensive EPOS system, but this was aimed almost exclusively at recording and allocating customer cash payments. Significant savings accrued from reductions in the accounting staff, but further major benefits were only discovered when customer data were analysed from a marketing orientation. A key to further uses of names and addresses was the post‐coding of virtually the whole database. Mailshots then began to be used and have since become more selective until new individual shops are able to specify the selection criteria. Recent developments of store credit cards, competitions and credit scoring are touched on in relation to customer data.