Acxiom continues measures to reinvent image.

THOUGH THE ACXIOM THRONE changed occupants nearly two years ago with the introduction of CEO John Meyer, for a long time--at least from the outside looking in--the firm seemed to be the same old data Mecca.

But after a slew of internal changes, from management to organizational structure to office space, the marketing services firm is starting to show a new persona.

Though the company had a rough first quarter--down 61 percent from the previous year--at least one analyst thinks a mangled economy masked good marketing tactics.

"I think this management team understands the way the business was run historically and that they saw a need for change. The organizational overhaul has had a positive impact on the business that has been difficult to see from the outside because of industry headwinds," said Carter Malloy, a research analyst in digital marketing IT services at Stephens Inc. of Little Rock.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The hints of a new empire began dribbling out more than a year ago in the form of "Consumer Dynamics" reports, free periodic studies tracking consumer behavior.

Last week, Acxiom released its "Communications Consumer Dynamics Report," which aimed to determine which wireless customers have changed carriers in the past, which are most likely to change in the future and the reasons those customers will change.

The most visible sign of change, however, emerged earlier this month when Acxiom launched a new Web site.

Michael Darviche, Acxiom's chief marketing officer, said the changes were a combination of acquiring new technologies and exploiting existing capabilities in different ways.

Though many of Acxiom's services are the same, Darviche said the company had made strides in clarifying Acxiom's focus in the marketplace.

Meyer noted in some of his early comments as CEO that finding a common description of what Acxiom does was not unlike searching for a needle in a haystack of data. Issuing "Consumer Dynamics" reports provided a way to connect the dots for prospective clients on how Acxiom data could be linked with profitable applications, Darviche said.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"We as a company have got a terrific amount of summarized observations about the world and how it's changing--how the consumers are changing, how the marketplace is changing, how buying patterns are changing, how people are thinking," Darviche said.

The "Consumer Dynamics" reports demonstrate Acxiom's ability to synthesize and analyze data, Darviche said, and "draw the dotted lines between what's going on in the marketplace and how people can understand it."

For example, Acxiom released a report during the federal government's wildly popular Cash for Clunkers program that gave nearly $3 billion in rebates to consumers for trading in fuel-inefficient vehicles. The study revealed who was most likely to have qualifying trade-ins and which types of cars they preferred.

"And so we're trying to make that information available to marketers and to risk managers, clients who are interested in understanding another dimension about how the marketplace is working," Darviche said.

A Web Reweaving

Acxiom intends to further polish its image with the new Web site, which is increasingly becoming a consumer's first impression of a company.

And the new image will focus more on a customer's problem and less on touting Acxiom's fancy products.

"In the past, direct marketers were clearly defined, but Acxiom is now focusing on deploying its clients' marketing strategies across various channels and to a more focused audience," Malloy said.

Tim Suther, vice president of global multi-channel marketing services, said no one stays awake at night "worrying about an InfoBase problem or an AbiliTec problem," referring to Acxiom data products. "They just don't frame their business that way," he said.

"What they are concerned about is: 'I have an acquisition problem,' or 'I have a need to retain my customers longer, or to cross-sell better or up-sell better.' So what we're trying to do is leverage our core strengths and move closer to what the real problems are," he added.

"So when a visitor comes to the Web site, it will be easier to navigate based on challenges and opportunities they may have in their own world as opposed to, historically, it was very organized around what Acxiom does," Suther said.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Suther, who worked for Acxiom long before the CEO change, said Acxiom had struggled in the past with connecting to consumer problems.

"So we have this proud heritage at being really good at data, being really good at technology, but we had stopped short of being able to really connect that to the broader business problem," Suther said.

As Darviche said, many of the capabilities have always existed at Acxiom. However, as any chef worth his salt would say: Presentation is everything.

"We are extending those raw capabilities, which perhaps in the past we would have satisfied ourselves by saying, 'Well, gosh, our data's the best and you should buy into it because our data's the best,'" Suther said.

Today, Suther said, Acxiom would present a solution to a customer's problem instead of pushing a product.

The recession is prodding many companies to do some soul-searching, and Darviche said that now is the time for Arkansas business owners to place their companies under the magnifying glasses.

"There are probably terrific inner strengths of their companies," Darviche said, adding that marketing through a recession requires an unabashed session in front of the mirror.

"And just as we're doing, we're looking at what our strengths are and trying to figure out how to leverage them in new ways, how to reinvent them. And usually a small business like that is going to find some terrific competitive advantage," Darviche added. "And if [the company] just looks at it in a different way, it just might be able to be so unique that it reinvents not just its own business but perhaps even the category that it's in."

By Jamie Walden

[e-mail]

Acxiom Predicts Christmas Spending

A RECENT "CONSUMER Dynamics" report from Acxiom Corp. of Little Rock analyzed consumer behavior and predicted which market segments are most likely to loosen the purse strings for the upcoming holiday season.

The three groups most likely to bounce back from their bouts of economic whiplash are Savvy Spenders, Protecting the Dream and It's My Life.

Acxiom's Persona Engine, a technology that finds common traits among various consumer segments, identifies the Protecting the Dream segment as middle-income, married young adults living in the city. Savvy Spenders are mostly affluent married couples. The It's My Life segment includes affluent younger adults, many of whom are single with no children.

Despite being the most financially strained, the Protecting the Dream segment shows signs of loosened spending habits.

The other consumers likely to rebound for the holiday season include the Been There, Done That segment, mostly older, low- to middle-income consumers with children and who live in rural areas, and the Eye on Essentials segment, a mix of young and mature lower middle-class consumers who live in the city.

The study also showed that eight of the nine segments, or about 86 percent of U.S. households, say they plan to spend the same or modestly more than they did last year. And four of the segments reported less restraint in future spending.

Oddly, the Full Spend Ahead segment, affluent consumers who are older and married with no children, report some future restraint on spending. Acxiom said in the report that could be a result of that group being slower to respond to economic issues initially.

--Jamie Walden