The Individualised Travel Marketing process
TravelSmart is based on a process known as Individualised Travel Marketing (ITM), which highlights travel choices people may not realise they have. Our teams talk to individual households and provide locally relevant information and support. They motivate people to think about their day-to-day travel choices and to try small changes that often make life easier and travel more fun. TravelSmart projects have a uniquely customer-focused approach which is critical to their success.
Segmentation
The ITM process starts with personal contact, either by phone or on the doorstep, with households in the project area. Based on our initial conversation with them, households are segmented into three main groups: regular users of sustainable travel modes; non-regular users who are interested in finding out about sustainable travel; and those who are not interested in taking part.
Information
Most of the ITM campaign focuses on the 'interested' group. These households receive an order form from which they can choose the materials and services that meet their transport needs. These include walking and cycling maps, bus and train timetables, guides, active travel advice and discount cards for local bike and outdoor shops. Each household's personalised pack is then hand-delivered by our local staff. People who don't regularly use sustainable travel modes are offered further support, including home advice sessions with a local expert on walking, cycling or public transport. Regular users are offered a small reward to thank them for travelling sustainably and given the chance to receive a personalised pack if they would like one.
Most TravelSmart programmes are evaluated through detailed travel behaviour surveys conducted before and after the ITM campaign to gather robust evidence of its effects on travel choices and other mobility indicators across the target population. Wherever possible, data on the use of local bus services is analysed to corroborate the findings of the surveys.