Diageo, Global Vision build relationships in Latin America

The world`s leading premium drinks business, Diageo, has partnered with local e-business software developer, Global Vision IT to provide its operations in Brazil, Venezuela, Costa Rica and Uruguay with the Eureka! relationship marketing (RM) application. Global Vision has successfully completed the technology roll-out with the final implementation in Uruguay going live at the end of March 2004.

Diageo, best known by its leading brands such as Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Baileys, J&B, Tanqueray, Captain Morgan, Jos'e Cuervo and Guinness, selected Global Vision and its Eureka! software to support its relationship marketing strategy in the region.

Jon Jacobson, managing director of Global Vision says: "Over the last couple of years Diageo has developed a long-term relationship marketing strategy which focuses on building relationships with customers through managing brand journeys. Diageo operates in approximately 180 markets globally. Historically, each market has developed their own RM applications to manage these journeys. Diageo undertook a process of selecting one service provider whose offering came closest to meeting its needs. We were selected from the myriad of vendors providing RM solutions globally, and were subsequently asked to implement a modified version of Eureka! in their four key markets in Latin America to pilot the concept."

Global Vision created a relationship marketing ERP solution called Eureka!, which merges all the existing customer information and makes it available across the brand groups as well as providing platforms for the capturing of new information.

"The challenge for Diageo was to transform a huge amount of inaccessible, latent data into knowledge. Eureka! combines the information in a way that gives the brand managers control over their marketing activities and provides a feedback mechanism so that promotions can be continuously evaluated. This has an impact on the potency of the below-the-line marketing campaigns and assists brand managers in getting better returns on their investments," says Jacobson.

Global Vision started working with Guinness UDV, the local arm of Diageo, in 2000. It was through this local relationship that Global Vision was approached to implement Eureka! in the four Latin American markets. "The initial Guinness UDV project was to combine the individual brand databases into one central portal. Subsequently we introduced business intelligence, messaging and other capabilities which fundamentally changed the way `marketeers` were able to manage their relationships with consumers. The success of this project initiated Global Vision`s current project with Diageo," says Jacobson.

"Diageo are currently involved in a review process to determine the critical success factors of the Latin American project. We are confident that we will be successful and that Eureka! will be rolling out to new Diageo markets in the next year ," concludes Jacobson.