|
|
|
|
European Address Formats – an overview
By Shane Redding, Think Direct A great deal of media attention is focused on the increasing internationalisation of business today. More and more companies and consumers are buying across borders, especially within the European community, a trend only set to increase with the introduction of the euro on the 1st Jan 1999. Few British companies today have only UK addresses on their databases, and yet many are unaware of the pitfalls of holding international addresses. Consequently data becomes corrupted to the extent it is no longer possible to communicate with your customers.
WHY IS A CORRECT ADDRESS SO IMPORTANT? The basic element of the address, whether UK or foreign, is key to the success of a direct marketing programme as it affects:
Examining each of these areas in turn it is possible to see the effect of an incorrect address: Postal Delivery (incorrect to postal authority requirements) - simply, your mailing piece will not be delivered, it may or may not be returned to you as undeliverable, depending on the country you are mailing. Customer attitudes – incorrect addressing, either in gender, name spelling or not using a preferred address can all adversely affect response, as well as giving the recipient a poor impression of your company. As can be seen from the examples later in this article, overseas addresses are easily miskeyed, incorrectly formatted, or simply appear of poor quality due to anglicisation. Cost savings – incorrect addresses can adversely affect the ability to deduplicate between different data sources, resulting in multiple versions of the same address being held on the database producing higher processing and mailing costs. In addition, incorrect addresses reduce the postal discounts available to you. Maximising return on investment – without a robust base of correct addresses it is impossible to carry out detailed analysis, improve targeting and maximise response, as unreadable addresses will simply fallout out, or be excluded from, detailed reports.
WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK FOR ON YOUR DATABASE? The most practical step for any database manager is to carry out an audit of their name and address data, either internally or externally. If your database is international in its coverage then it is well worth using an external specialist supplier as a check to your own audit, as they may well produce different results! However, do ensure that the supplier you select has extensive experience of international address processing and enhancement, including copies of local postcode tables. A DATA AUDIT: The following table provides a simple guideline as to what an audit can identify, as well as the purpose or application of the information.
The level of audit that you are able to undertake automatically will depend on the sophistication of your internal computer routines. It is always worth eyeballing data by taking a random selection of data, especially if you wish to analyse whether addresses are held in the local language or have been anglicised.
CORRECT ADDRESS FORMATS As has already been established an address needs to be correct to meet 3 requirements:
An example from the Netherlands shows how these 3 requirements may differ:
A QUESTION OF LANGUAGE Europe in its widest geographical definition includes 58 countries, 225 languages, with 20 different address formats. When considering the structure of your European database it is essential to consider the impact of language. If you are marketing an English language product such as book, magazine or seminar in English it has been considered acceptable to store customer’s names and addresses in an anglicised format, using English spellings and no accents. However, if you are going to the expense of producing local language letters for your European customers, the failure to hold correct local addresses, makes it glaringly obvious that you are not a local company and that you are in danger of alienating the recipient. If a customer has communicated with you in a particular language, either by mail or through your international call centre, it is essential you flag that language preference on the database. One common mistake made by international direct marketers is to assume that languages are country dependent, they are not. Large numbers of expatriate British people live in Spain for part, or all of the year, and are frequent direct marketing purchasers of goods from home. However, if your database recognises just that it is a Spanish address and produces a letter in Spanish your expatriate customer may not be able to read it! Within countries you have the additional problem of dialect, again in Spain you may have 2 different spellings according to the dialect used: Javea (Valencian dialect) or Xabia (Castillian dialect) Other countries where language is an issue include: Belgium (French and Flemish) Switzerland (French, Swiss German, Italian, Romanche, English) Note the 2 different address formats:
M Dupont 17 Rue de Genève 2000 BIENNE
Herr Strausse* Bahnhofstrasse* 39 7002 ZÜRICH *n.b. This illustrates another problem with databases and diacritical (accents etc.) characters in that they are not present in all computer languages or supported on all computer platforms, as I am unable to insert the German ‘sharp’ or schareses s, and had to anglicise the spelling with the acceptable double s. Diacritical characters can be held with hexadecimal values on the database, but beware as some characters still cannot be reproduced (e.g. œ using MS DOS ASCII 850). WHAT’S IN A NAME? It is difficult to put aside ones own cultural view of what is correct, especially with personal names. In the UK we are accustomed to the first name being followed by the surname, in Hungary this is reversed. In Germany when writing to an individual at a business address the company name is placed before that of the individual. In Iceland a family at the same address may have 3 or more surnames: Magnus Magnussen (son of Magnus) married to Bjork Jandottir (daughter of Jan), daughter Sally Magnusdottir (daughter of Magnus) In addition, gender can be difficult to determine from a first name look up table that is not country specific, Jean in the UK is usually a female name, in France Jean would be male with Jeanne the female version. Look up tables based purely on first names are never 100% accurate, as my own name illustrates, so it is safer to hold a separate gender flag. Summary The following checklist is perhaps the best method of ensuring that when adding or holding European addresses on your database you have considered the key issues: DO
DON’T
Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Graham Rhind, OTS Group and Ian Goodman, Printronic International both of whom gave their permission to use their research and presentations which formed the majority of the invaluable material for this article.
About the Author: Shane Redding, MA Cantab. M IDM,Director of Think Direct and Vice Chair of the Federation of European Direct Marketing (FEDMA) Shane founded Think Direct as an independent consultancy specialising in international direct marketing in February 1997 following a career as Sales and Marketing Director of Mardev Ltd, and prior to that as a board director of IBIS Information Services. Her clients now include Fleet Bank USA, Dun and Bradstreet, Database Marketing Services, and IPC Magazines. Shane lectures on international direct marketing for the IDM diploma, as well as undertaking regular speaking engagements with Royal Mail, The DMA (USA) Annual Conference, The London International Direct Marketing Fair and the FEDMA Forum.
Recommended Reading: Building and maintaining a European Direct Marketing Database (1994) Graham Rhind Published by: Gower ISBN 0-566-07471-0 The Global Source-Book for Address Data Management (New) Graham Rhind Cost: US$ 250 Both can be ordered via the following web page:
or direct from Gower Publishing Tel: 01252 331551 GUIDE TO WORLDWIDE POSTAL CODE & ADDRESS FORMATS Editor: Marion Nelson Direct International 150 East 74th Street New York, NY 10021-3528 USA Tel: 00 1 212 580 4819
MARKETING WITHOUT FRONTIERS Published by: Royal Mail International 12 – 15 Fenton Way BASILDON Essex SS15 4BR UK Multinational Direct Marketing: The Methods and the Markets Richard Miller Published by McGraw Hill ISBN 0-07-042356-3 Available from the IDM direct book service
International Database Marketing Suppliers: Contacts for advice on European address formats, database structure and deduplication. Printronic International Plc 1 Endeavour Way LONDON SW19 8HU Tel: 0181 946 7537 OTS GROUP Postbus 192 5300 AD ZALTBOMMEL The Netherlands Tel: 00 31 418 516 593 Listmaster 3rd Floor Royal Mead Railway Place BATH BA1 1SR Tel: 01225 484300 (Supplier of European postcodes on CD ROM)
Useful Reference Sources: General information on European address formats
Links to Postal Service providers and other useful sites
Examples of European Postal Codes Http://nic.funet.fi/pub/doc/mail/European_country_codes.txt
|
|
Last modified: November 15, 2006 |
