Direct Response Marketing

Direct response is a form of distribution as I’ve mentioned above. The reasons for its growth and success are lack of personal services in self-service stores and supermarkets, problems of car-parking and road congestion near shopping centres, popularity of credit and charge cards.

Today the variety of means by which 'armchair' shopping can be conducted are only limited by the ability of modern mail order traders to conceive yet another technique of what is now called direct response marketing. We have moved a long way from the mail-order bargains of the popular press or the mail order club catalogues, although both still exist. It is now a sophisticated business extending rapidly into the realms of alternative television, micro-computers and videodisc catalogues. At the same time, traditional media continue to be used, but this does now include commercial television, as with recorded music producers. The largest single user of direct response is insurance.

Direct response has become a very substantial area of agency business, conducted either by specialist agencies, or by specialist subsidiaries of well-known agencies. A major reason for the expansion of direct response marketing has been the demand from clients for 'accountable advertising' where they can measure the response in enquiries, sales leads or sales.

From small black and white ads in the popular press to full-colour, full-page ads in the weekend colour supplements, a huge variety of goods and services arc sold off-the-page. Most hobby and enthusiasts magazines carry ads offering goods by post, from foreign stamps to computer software. The business pages offer unit trusts, and even the popular papers offer life insurance, motor-car and private hospital insurance. Correspondence courses have long been sold this way. Even the sale of shares is conducted by prospectuses published in The Times and Financial Times.

A number of commercial and non-commercial organisations sell from catalogues which may be advertised in the press and on TV or sent to regular customers, members or donors, or direct mailed against selected mailing lists. Such catalogues are usually distributed annually or seasonally, but some are issued more frequently. They may be for specific products or services such as garden seeds, bulbs or roses; foreign stamps or coins; fashion goods; wines; pipes; or perhaps tour holidays.

There are two kinds of clubs, those for club agents who enrol a circle of members, with the agents earning commission on the sales; and clubs for individual members who usually undertake to buy a minimum number of books, records, cassettes or CDs a year. Some airlines operate mail order clubs for passengers.

The first group enrol agents by means of ads in the women's press and in family magazines like TV Times and Radio Times. The reader should note the special wording of the application coupons in these ads. Particular information is requestedsuch aswhether the applicant has a telephone, and there is generally an age limit and perhaps geographical limits.

Also television, telephone and teletext may be used as the method of distributing. Advertisers quote the Teledata (ВНР) number to make enquiries or order goods. It is a 24-hour personalised telemarketing service, making it unnecessary for customers to mail coupons and for advertisers to handle them. All the sales information is held in a computer. For example, an advertisement for the Hyundai Stella 1.6 motor car, concluded with: 'phone Teledata 071-200-0200 for a brochure and the name and address of your nearest dealer'. The teledata receptionist gives the addresses of the nearest dealers, and note the caller's address in order to send the brochure, and asks where the advertisement has been seen and the make and year of the caller's present car.

Electronic mail is a system whereby mail is received on a Telex or non-Telex computer terminal with a modem which permits a print-out on a printer. This system is limited to recipients who have the necessary receiving equipment. But the growth of such office facilities is making electronic mail a viable direct response medium especially since there is the interaction facility to respond directly and quickly.

Direct marketing relies on trust. Customers have to send money in advance and do not see the goods until they arrive. That is why this form of trading is less common in developing countries. In Britain, the Mail Order Protection Scheme means that customers are protected by the publishers who do not wish to receive complaints from readers.

In Britain there are many laws which could concern the direct response marketer, and some may be of general application wherever the goods are sold. To these may be added the common law of contract. Most of these laws apply to off-the-page direct response, some apply to all forms of direct response marketing.

Exhibitions

I. Importance of exhibitions

Exhibitions are popular throughout the world and have a long history, originating with old trading markets such as the 'marts' in what are today Belgium and the Netherlands, where British merchants sold their wool and woollens in the fourteenth century. The exhibition developed into the show attended by either the trade or the general public. London for many years became a major exhibition centre, to mention only the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Wembley Exhibition of 1924, and the Festival of Britain in 1951. In recent years the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham has rivalled London although many events are held at Olympia, Earls Court, the Horticultural Halls and the Barbican Centre in the City.

Throughout the world there are major exhibition centres, often government supported (unlike Britain!), the chief ones in Europe being Frankfurt, Basle and Milan. Many exhibitions are nowadays held in the Gulf states, an indication of the need to develop their emergent economies. Permanent trade exhibition centres exist in developing countries such as Malaysia and Nigeria.

II. Types of exhibition

Public indoor

Usually held in specially built halls, the public show is based on a theme of public interest such as food, the home, do-it-yourself, gardening or holidays and travel.