Direct Mail - Products from your post box.

Direct mail: “All types of promotion sent directly to readers or prospective customers using the postal service or using any other private operator. These can include.

1. Catalogs
2. Flyers
3. Folders
4. Postcards
5. Inclusions
6. Reprints
7. Sales letters
8. Self-mailers

Direct response advertising: All forms of advertising designed to obtain an immediate, direct response by mail, telephone, the Internet or personal visit from audience members.”
 

• TV advertisements and infomercials selling products by phone or mail order.
• Newspapers, magazines and other  print media advertisements with send-in or call-in coupon order forms
• Direct mail pieces and inserts soliciting inquiry from the viewers or readers.
• Cards, coupon booklets and mini-catalogs seeking orders for one or more products.
• E-mail messages to computer users

Telemarketing:  is one of the most popular and intrusive forms of promotion. These can become a nuisance but have become part of life. All telemarketing activities can be classified as,  

Outbound calling: Telephone calling by the marketer or marketer’s agent to individual prospects, seeking purchase, subscription, membership, or participation by the call recipient. The focus is on the sellers trying to market the products services.

Inbound calling: Marketers’ facilities and invitations to prospects to call a central location or long distance number or by toll-free, 800 or fixed cost 900 number. Here the focus is on the buyer to solicit and buy the product from the seller.

Internet related: Electronic business – use of the Internet to conduct business activities, Electronic marketing – the use of the Internet to conduct marketing activities.

Electronic commerce – use of the Internet for buying and selling products and services

Electronic media – using the Internet as an advertising medium and a way to disseminate information to consumers

Sponsorship: Ownership of an entire site or page

Banner Ads: A portion of another owner’s page

Pop-Ups: Small windows that appear automatically

Interstitial: Ads appearing while waiting for a page to load

Push Technologies or Webcasting: Automatic or unsolicited message delivery

Links: Hypertext links to other sites, pages or locations

 

Catalog Marketing: Catalog marketing is a specialized branch of direct marketing. The two disciplines share many of the same characteristics. Like direct marketing, catalog marketing is based on interactivity, or one-to-one communication between the marketer and the prospect or customer. Catalogs always include response devices, and catalogers are able to measure the response to any and every mailing they make.

With the coming of the mail order, consumers could get attractive goods and prices whether they lived in the city or in a remote rural setting. The postal system allowed direct-mail companies to operate on a national basis.

With economies of scale working in their favor, mail-order houses could undercut the pricing of local stores. In 1897 bicycles were selling for $75 to $100 and more, until Sears started offering them for $5 to $20 in its catalog. Sears could offer those low prices because it sold thousands of bicycles every week.

Even in India Catalogues were popular with Burlington catalogue being the most famous which was used by consumers to order the latest products.

Direct Marketing - Seedhe Baat Dil se Dil tak (Straight talk - heart to heart)

Direct Marketing is  the total of all activities by which the seller who direct efforts to a target audience using one or more media for the purpose of soliciting a response by phone, mail, the internet or personal visit from a prospective customer. It can be meant as having as few marketing intermediaries as possible between the seller and the buyer.

Traditionally Direct Marketing meant a direct interaction between the buyer and the seller devoid of any marketing intermediary. The best example can be a rythu bazaar (an Indian concept where the farmer comes to the market place and sells his product directly to the end consumer). This way the costs of distribution can be saved and the benefit can be shared between the buyer and the seller. 

The Advantages of direct marketing is that the consumers can be reached selectively, consumers can be segmented, and they can be reached with better frequency. The seller can plan his campaign to be specific and the programs can be made flexible. Timing can be monitored. Programs can be personalized. Direct marketing is more economical and the measurement of effectiveness of the promotion can be quite accurate so that possible interventions and corrective actions can be initiated.  

The disadvantages of direct marketing can be that the image of the direct marketer might not be as glamorous and sweeping as that of a marketer whom used TV, and Press advertising. TV and Press make the marketers appear big and they will be perceived as big companies. Content support in direct marketing might also be difficult as the maker of the product might not be the best person to market it too. That is the concept of different horses for different races come into the picture. Production and marketing are two different ball games and may be the same person might not be the best person for both the jobs.