At last week's Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) communications awards, the winners seemed to have one thing in common: they paid careful attention to segmentation of their members as a way to better communicate with them.

ASFA chief executive Pauline Vamos said it was necessary for super funds to focus on different membership segments, rather than looking at members as a homogenous group.

"You need to wrap up a lot of different things like investment information and personal advice into one. But the current system doesn't allow that to happen. The Cooper review [of the superannuation system] should get better results in this area," Vamos said.

According to new research from Mercer, super fund members were demanding more targeted communication.

"We did research with the overarching premise of how we could think of each customer as a single customer," Mercer marketing and member experience leader Anthony Schiavo said.

"We've come up with a system that overlays segment analysis over a database of members that changes with them as their lives change."

While the Mercer research highlighted the importance of segmented communication, it also found the cost to funds could be prohibitive.

"Bombarding clients with irrelevant material is not a good idea, but as a counterpoint super funds can't afford to have a print run across different segments," Schiavo said.

Instead, he recommended that funds focused on electronic communication as a way of minimising the costs.

"Members may ask how much of their money is being spent on print communication, so utilising electronic methods can avoid this," he said.

"SMS can be useful for call-to-action-type campaigns such as information meetings. However, this wouldn't work as well for more blatant advertising."

And it seems super funds are taking this message on board.

Industry fund Auscoal, which won an ASFA excellence in communication award for its 'Your insurance is changing for the better campaign', used segmentation to effectively target its audience, according to the ASFA judges.

"Segmentation is vital. It helps us build a meaningful and valued relationship with our members. There is nothing more irritating than receiving an offer that is completely irrelevant to you. It increases our effectiveness, which ultimately has an impact on the bottom line," an Auscoal spokesperson said.

Russell Investments also won an ASFA excellence in communication award for its 'Russell supersolution annual member statement' campaign, which also used segmentation.

"Each statement had targeted key messages and sets an industry benchmark," Russell Investments member services senior manager Justine De Mestre said. 

Schiavo said the use of segmentation for member communications would only rise.

"It's all tied to retention and a justification of costs," he said.