TIMES UPGRADES TO WEB-BASED MARKETING SYSTEM

KIM ANN ZIMMERMANN

HONOLULU -- Times Super Markets Ltd. here has begun using database-marketing and decision-support tools that will help the retailer to more easily measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

The 13-store chain began working with the system, which is accessed via the Internet, last month.

"We're really still on a learning curve, but this system has already provided us with the ability to measure promotion in a fashion we have never been able to before," said David Higashiyama, vice president of marketing for the chain. The supermarket's customer database is stored and maintained by Stores Automated Systems Inc., which houses the information at its Bristol, Pa. headquarters. SASI also provides the decision-support software.

Users at Times Super Markets access the database through a real-time secure Internet connection. The database contains buying data and customer information from the retailer's customer-loyalty program.

Customer-loyalty programs are becoming more common among smaller chains and independent operators. These smaller players do not always have the resources to manage a customer database, so outsourcing the task is an attractive option.

"We're retailers, not database-management experts, so outsourcing data management makes sense for us," Higashiyama said. "Our Royal Card program, which provides incentives based on customer-specific purchase behavior, is a critical part of our marketing strategy." The loyalty-card program has been in place for several years, he said.

Higashiyama said he feels confident his customer database is secure. "There are security measures to prevent anyone except our staff from accessing our customer information," he said.

One benefit of the new targeted-marketing system, Higashiyama said, is that it enables the data to be downloaded to a standard spreadsheet for analysis, which was not possible with the retailer's previous system.

"This seems like a pretty simple thing, but it was difficult to accomplish with our previous system. Being able to analyze data in spreadsheet form is important for us, to be able to measure the effectiveness of our marketing efforts," he said.