According to the head of the Direct Marketing Association, "In recent years, the dramatic growth of the Internet and the increasing sophistication of database technologies have [created] a tremendous expansion of direct marketing and a seismic shift in what it is, how it is used, and who uses it." 2. We also include direct marketing as one of the elements of the direct-to-consumer approach.In fact, most companies still use direct marketing as a complementary channel or medium to market their products and messages.
But for many companies today, direct marketing is more than just a supplementary channel or medium. For these companies, direct marketing - especially in its latest transformation, online marketing - represents a complete model for doing business. Instead of using only direct marketing and the Internet as complementary approaches, companies using the direct model use it as the only approach.
Companies such as Dell, Amazon.com, eBay and GEICO have built their entire approach to the marketplace around direct marketing. According to the Direct Marketing Association, US companies spent $161 billion on direct marketing last year, accounting for a whopping 48 percent of total US advertising spending. These expenditures generated an estimated $1.85 trillion in direct marketing sales, or about 7 percent of total sales in the U.S. economy.
Direct marketing is becoming increasingly web-oriented, and Internet marketing is claiming a rapidly growing share of direct marketing spending and sales. Direct marketing gives buyers ready access to a wealth of products. For example, unfettered by physical boundaries, direct marketers can offer almost unlimited choice to consumers almost anywhere in the world. Direct marketing channels also give buyers access to a wealth of comparative information about companies, products and competitors.
Finally, direct marketing is interactive and immediate buyers can interact with sellers over the phone or on the seller's website to create exactly the configuration of information, products or services they want and then order them on the spot. Direct marketing has g r o m ~ i n ~ - t ~marketing, partly in response to the ever-increasing costs of marketing through the sales force. Similarly, online direct marketing results in lower costs, improved efficiency and faster management of channels and logistics functions such as order processing, inventory management and delivery.
USAA uses the database to tailor direct marketing offers to the specific needs of individual customers. Here, we look at some exciting new digital direct marketing technologies: -=-.*-mobile phone marketing, podcasts and podcasts, and interactive TV (ITV). Many are now integrating podcasts and podcasts into their direct marketing programs in the form of dd-supported podcasts, downloadable ads and informational features, and other promotions.
Marketers must carefully target their direct marketing offers to bring real value to customers5 rather than unwanted intrusion into their lives.
Chapter 17 Direct and Online Marketing: Building Direct Customer Relationships 5031 Internet services and Web browser providers have developed applications that let users block
And Yahoo!, whose advertising revenues account for 84 percent of total global revenues, has become fertile ground for alliances with movie studios and TV production companies. an-eJnt'er_net-vecsion of ~or;-of-mouth marketing-Web. other marketing events that are 'contagious'. customers will want pass_s. Web communities find this so contagious that customers want to pass it on to their friends. As a result of websites where customers pass on the message or promotion to others, viral marketing can be very bad: members can congregate pensively. And if the information comes from a friend, the recipient is much more likely to exchange thoughts online, open and read it.
In an episode of The Apprentice, teams created and marketed a new flavor of Ciao Bella Ice Cream. Although Ciao Bella had previously sold its ice cream in just 18 stores in New York and San Francisco, Yahoo. The product was sold out at 17.00. And thanks to the yahoo!'^ registry, it was able to provide Ciao Bella with the demographic characteristics of v& P &r'$d~/- respondent^.^^. online marketers use viral markxng, the internet version of word of mouth.
3 Viral Marketing: Burger King's wildly successful Subservient Chicken site gets consumers interacting with the brand and buzzing about its edgy new positioning. The website, www.subservientchicken.com, features a gloomy living room where the subservient chicken — someone in a giant chicken suit and garter belt — hangs out in front of his webcam and awaits your bidding. The site promotes Burger King's Tendercrisp Chicken and links it to Burger King's successful "Have It Your Way" marketing campaign.
34;There is great overlap between regular web users and Burger King's core audience." If nothing else, the site gets consumers to interact with the brand. From that single e-mail, without a promotion, Subservient Chicken's site ended the Day with 1 million total clicks Although online advertising still accounts for only a small portion of most companies' total advertising and marketing spending, it is growing rapidly.
For example, although Procter & Gamble spends only a small portion of its advertising media budget online, it considers the Internet an important medium. The popularity of blogs and other Web forums has resulted in a wave of commercially sponsored websites called Web communities that take advantage of the C2C properties of the Internet. For example, iVillage.com is a web community where women can exchange opinions and obtain information, support, and solutions about families, food, fitness, relationships, relaxation, home and garden, news and issues, or just about anything else. subject.
Chapter 17 Direct and Online Marketing: Building Direct Customer Relationships 503
Despite these sad statistics, email can be the best direct marketing medium when used correctly. Meanwhile, his direct mail and catalog business may be managed by direct marketing professionals, while his website is developed and managed by an outside Internet company. Connecting direct marketing channels to each other and to other media has become a top priority for marketers.
Ernst & Young takes a decidedly integrated approach to its online, email and other direct marketing. To ensure that Ernst & Young's direct marketing messages are well integrated, representatives from each marketing discipline meet on a regular basis. The direct marketing industry has also faced increasing concerns about privacy bars, and online marketers must deal with Internet security issues.
Invasion of privacy is perhaps the most difficult public policy issue facing the direct marketing industry right now. For example, in an effort to build consumer confidence in direct shopping, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) - the largest association for businesses practicing direct, database and interactive marketing, with more than 4,800 member companies - has a "Privacy. Direct marketing introduced". consists of direct connections with carefully targeted individual consumers to both obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting customer relationships.
Direct marketing is also immediate and interactive, allowing customers to create exactly the configuration of information, products or services they want and then order them on the spot. These advantages for buyers and sellers have made direct marketing the fastest growing form of marketing. The main forms of direct marketing include personal selling, direct mail marketing, catalog marketing, telephone marketing, direct television marketing, kiosk marketing, and online marketing.
Regardless of the direct marketing tools they use, marketers must work hard to integrate them into a cohesive marketing effort*. It needs this database for customer relationship management and for direct marketing of new products and services. The direct marketing industry has also faced growing concerns about invasion of privacy and Internet security issues.
Such concerns call for strong action by marketers and public policy makers to curb direct marketing abuses. Direct Mail Marketing 484 Web Marketing 499 Direct Marketing 480 Internet Advertising 500 Direct Response Television Internet Marketing 493 .
