Confused.com recruits SAS for customer insight

Business analytics firm SAS has signed a deal to help improve Confused.com's customer targeting, segmentation and management.

The deal was necessary as recession-hit consumers spend more time on aggregator sites, searching for the best deals out there, said SAS in a press statement.

"The introduction of more aggregators means that the market is changing whilst competition increases," said Ian Manocha, managing director of SAS in the UK and Ireland.

This created the opportunity for Confused.com to be far smarter in its customer targeting, said SAS.

"The current economy has made customers much more savvy about finding the best deals for insurance and financial products," said Manocha.

He added: "SAS' software will provide Confused.com with a more analytical approach to marketing activities ensuring it remains the most widely recognised aggregator in the UK."

The deal will allow the comparison site to gain better insight into its customers, as well as develop additional marketing campaigns and move towards providing online product referrals.

"Our main requirements from SAS are to reduce our cost of offer, bring down marketing costs, improve cross-sales with other products on the site, and increase retention," said Tom Beverley, customer director at Confused.com.

He added: "We want to improve the level of customer insight and are developing a lot of personal finance products that require better one-to-one targeting."

Confused.com will use SAS to highlight the customers who will find the product most relevant, and use this information to maximise response and optimise the campaign size, said Beverly.

He added: "Using SAS we will target fewer people and achieve more uplift."