Home and office spring water distributor Nestlé Waters North America has enlisted CentrPort Inc. technology to transform untargeted online mass marketing into targeted messaging.

Nestlé Waters’ U.S. brands include Poland Spring, Deer Park, Arrowhead, Ozarka, Ice Mountain, Zephyrhills and Calistoga. Since Nestlé Waters' regional brands are tied to specific spring water sources dispersed across North America, the company's marketing base is segmented geographically, by brand, product lines, and by delivery method/availability (e.g. at retail vs. through home and office delivery services).

Since consumers respond better to messages containing a brand name (for example, "Poland Spring") than a generic one ("spring water"), Nestlé Waters’ challenge was how to geographically identify and profile prospective customers through their interactions with online media alone, while at the same time preserving consumer anonymity.

To meet the challenge, digital marketing firm Byte Interactive conceived and developed a system using CentrPort technology that deduces consumers’ geographic locations based upon each consumer's behaviors with Nestlé Waters' digital media, onsite and offsite. The system enables the company to deliver the appropriate brand and product message. Furthermore, profiles include behavior related to the consumer's interactions with the company’s home and office services -- enabling the company to distinguish "customers" from "prospects" to send the appropriate messages.

Equally valuable is the company's ability to identify "application bailers" -- consumers who initiated but inexplicably never completed the online purchase process. Remarkably, regardless of where that individual next interacts with a Nestlé Waters online message -- for example, a banner ad at iVillage.com -- that high-potential prospect will receive a message specifically encouraging him to complete the application process to become a Nestlé Waters "customer." This permits synchronization between onsite and offsite messaging, while providing Nestlé Waters with maximum flexibility to place digital messaging through any channel or vendor.

The result enables Nestlé Waters to dynamically target the right marketing message to each individual in its segmented consumer marketing base, while preserving consumer anonymity, thus empowering the company to employ its marketing dollars strategically and with precision.

"This delivers on all of the promises of the Internet," says Michael LeBeau, CEO and founder of Byte Interactive. "Respecting consumer privacy, we are now able to deliver the right message based upon that consumer's relationship with their respective brand, converting prospects into customers, and guiding customers to higher-value activities throughout a lifetime."