In a bold move aimed at capitalizing more on its loyalty programme, Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo has initiated a public tender offer for Intage Holdings. The latter is a market research and consultancy firm operating out of Chiyoda City, Tokyo. DoCoMo’s ambition is to acquire a stake ranging from a baseline 40% up to a majority 51%. This translates numerically to between 15.4 and 19.6 million shares of Intage.
The offer would cost DoCoMo up to JPY45.09 billion ($305 million) for a 51% stake, calculated on the prevalent rate of Intage’s share price. Investors representing a cumulative 19.9% stake in Intage’s shares have already agreed. Additionally, Intage’s board has give its thumbs-up to the deal.
This is not the start of a relationship between the two companies. Their collaborative journey began in 2012 when they established a joint venture focused on melding Intage’s prowess with data gathering and analysis, and consumer data harnessed from DoCoMo’s loyalty programme, ‘d Point Club’.
The ‘d Point Club’ program, like most other loyalty schemes, allows members to earn points redeemable at online and brick-and-mortar stores. As a byproduct, it also allows DoCoMo to construct detailed user profiles that can prove useful in deploying targeted offers. The Club is open to not just DoCoMo customers, but anyone interested, making it Japan’s largest with 96 million members on record.
Expanding on this solid foundation, DoCoMo and Intage established DoCoMo Insight Marketing (DIM), providing data insights to aid marketing activities of manufacturers, retailers and service providers.
Now, DoCoMo has plans to deepen this relationship with Intage.
DoCoMo envisions a scenario where data usage becomes paramount not only for marketing purposes but also in unraveling and finding solutions to societal problems. “It is an area that can grow significantly as a business and as a contribution to society,” DoCoMo mentioned in a statement.
The long-term goal for DoCoMo, through this purchase, is to maximize the value of the data it collects. By taking data as a starting point, DoCoMo aims to deliver comprehensive marketing solutions covering research, communication, sales promotion, etc., to enhance marketing capabilities and enrich consumer lives.
