Direct Marketing articles from April 2000

Direct Marketing archives from April 2000

Super Bowl Advertisers Use Vanity Numbers to Increase Response.
April 1, 2000... According to a Response Marketing Group study, every toll-free number offered in Super Bowl XXXIV television commercials used vanity numbers--numbers that translate into words for easy recall. Also 91 percent of the numbers used the 800 prefix....

Contentville.com to Market a Variety of Print and Electronic Media.
April 1, 2000... Later this year, Brill Media Holdings will launch Contentville.com to sell magazines, e-books, traditional books, transcripts, original works, academic treatises, speeches, and archives of articles from thousands of magazines. Consumers will be...

ORB Digital Offers Wireless Ad Tracking.
April 1, 2000... ORB Digital will load ORBit Express [2000.sup.TM], real time ad-tracking technology, into Palm VII Organizers that will be given to qualifying clients and distributed to 50 top marketers in the automotive, financial services, travel and...

Growth in Interactive Sales Rise in the Non-Profit Sector.
April 1, 2000... Direct marketing has played a key role in the U.S. non-profit sector according to a recent study conducted by The WEFA Group. The study, Direct/Interactive Marketing in the Non Profit Sector, provides an analysis of fund-raising segments...

Destroying E-Commerce's "Cookie Monster" Image.
April 1, 2000... Using internet cookies without being viewed as a monster: a discussion of E-commerce's privacy issues. Without responsible actions, this medium can go away as quickly as it came. "--Jerry Yang, founder of Yahoo! When you think about...

Boxes I Have Mailed, Received and Admired.
April 1, 2000... A box can only start the response process--it gets opened and it gets attention. You need other elements inside it, like a letter and a brochure and a reply card, to make sure it does the job. When I used to do a lot of television and radio...

Say "Goodbye" to Static URLs.
April 1, 2000... A new tool is being launched to enable marketers to measure the effectiveness of their print ad campaigns that include URLs. Open up a magazine and look at the ads. While you are at it, skim through your snail mail and open a few of the...

Breaking the Barriers To European E-Commerce.
April 1, 2000... One of the main reasons why Internet use, and therefore the growth of e-commerce, in Europe has lagged behind that of the U.S. has been the high cost of telecom access. Local calls in Europe are not free. Although companies like Britain's...

Is Your Effort To Reduce Call Center Costs Actually Increasing Costs?
April 1, 2000... Automated voice processing systems can decrease inbound call center costs, but more commonly, in the guise of cost reduction, overall costs are either increased, shifted to other departments or go unrecognized. Fundamental to decreasing...

"What We Have Here Is a Failure to Communicate".
April 1, 2000... From the movie, "Cool Hand Luke" The Campbell-Ewald advertising firm in America wrote the Australian Financial Review asking for information in "the market you serve" ending with this sentence, "If this information is available in English...

Cancel Out Objections to Buying, One by One.
April 1, 2000... Your sales letter may not always land in front of your customer or prospect when he is in a buying mood. So how can you anticipate his mood? You can't. Which is why your sales letter should be written as if your customer or prospect is...

High-Tech Shopping Arrives at the Mall.
April 1, 2000... Smart retailers are using new technologies to stem the flow of business to Cyberspace. By some estimates, Internet retail sales are expected to skyrocket in the next five years to as high as $60 billion annually. Despite this, some brick...

Post-it Note Mailings: Tricky as a Weasel, Formulaic as a Sonnet.
April 1, 2000... The post-it package is the real phony thing, one of the great cons in marketing history. Everyone's been fooled by this format at some time or other. "Promise, large promise, is the soul of advertising," proclaimed Dr. Johnson in the 18th...

22nd Annual Caples Awards.
April 1, 2000... This month the first of a two-part glance at this year's Caples Award winners, recognized for their creative solutions to direct marketing challenges. TV--CONSUMER FIRST PLACE (TIE) Title: Let's Light This Candle Creative...

Merge into the Fast Lane of E-Mail Marketing.
April 1, 2000... As the debate over self-regulation or government intervention continues, e-mail marketers can always take steps to be responsible and only target those who are interested in what they have to say. Pending legislation threatens commercial...

Alwaysinstyle.com Provides Personalized Fashion and Style Advice.
April 1, 2000... Always in Style, LLC has launched www.alwaysinstyle.com, a unique consumer service that provides personalized style advice and product recommendations. The new service features the Always In Style Personal Profile, an automated software package...

ePIPO.com Pays Consumers to Surf the Web.
April 1, 2000... Unlike most dot com companies that make consumers pay for services and merchandise, www.epipo.com is now offering Internet users cash for surfing the Web. ePIPO is a permission-based marketing Internet company that pays its members for allowing...

Workers Reduce Stress at Yoga Site.
April 1, 2000... Stress is the curse of modem living. Everyone suffers from it. The question is how to reduce stress without losing valuable time. Internet users now have the answer at The Relaxation Club, a cyber-service at www.wailana.com. "Today,...

Pollen.com Offers Web Sites Free Allergy Forecast.
April 1, 2000... Web sites searching for a new way to appeal to the American consumer market can now add a free, real-time pollen forecast to their sites. The Allergy Alert is an online daily allergy forecast which relies on more than 20 years of historical...

Coollink Partners with Coolofficesupplies.com.
April 1, 2000... Collinnk.com, an online e-commerce marketing solution and Internet Service Provider, has added Coolofficesupplies.com to its growing list of partnerships. Coolofficesupplies.com is offering a low price guarantee on more than 33,000 different...

Agency Action.
April 1, 2000... INFOWORKS APPOINTS HANSOTIA PRESIDENT Behram Hansotia has been promoted to the position of president and CEO of InfoWorks, a strategic marketing consultancy within Rapp Collins Worldwide. He was previously executive vice president of the...

People.
April 1, 2000... VNU APPOINTS WICKERSHAM CEO John Wickersham has been appointed president and CEO of VNU Business Media, Inc., a new entity comprised of BPI Communications, Inc., Bill Communications, Inc., VNU eMedia, Inc., and VNU Expositions, Inc. Named...

AOL and Footlocker.com Form $21.5 Million E-Commerce Alliance.
April 1, 2000... America Online, Inc. and Footlocker.com, Inc., the world's largest Internet and direct marketing retailer of sporting goods, have signed a major e-commerce and marketing agreement. Footlocker.com operates the online businesses for Foot Locker...

Damark to Outsource Select Catalog Activities.
April 1, 2000... Damark International, Inc. will outsource its catalog merchandising and marketing activities and separate its membership and e-services operations. "We are winding down our internal catalog marketing and merchandising activities for...

USPS Reports Slow Growth, Funds Web-Based Information Technology.
April 1, 2000... Even though the U.S. Postal Service has reported a net income of $816 million for the first quarter of fiscal year 2000, M. Richard Porras, executive vice president and chief financial officer of the USPS, stresses that revenues are $306...

Thompson & Morgan.
April 1, 2000... The Thompson & Morgan list of 43,984 twelve month buyers is now available for $80/M. The Thompson & Morgan Seed Catalogue provides amateur and professional gardeners with high quality flower and vegetable seeds. The catalog offers gardening...

Maryland Square.
April 1, 2000... The Maryland Square list of 367,042 twelve month women's shoes mail order buyers is now available for $95/M. Maryland Square offers a collection of business, dress and casual footwear in a wide range of sizes. The catalog includes such name...

Family Publications Subscribers.
April 1, 2000... The Family Publications Subscribers list of 187,492 quarterly hotline subscribers is now available for $65/M. These magazine subscribers spend over $100 for subscriptions to multiple magazines; most are family publications regarding sports,...

NonProfit and Tax-Exempt Organizations.
April 1, 2000... The NonProfit and Tax-Exempt Organizations list of 383,644 total organizations is available for $50/M. This list consists of all non-profit and tax-exempt organizations reporting one dollar or more in annual income to the IRS on their most...

Equipment World.
April 1, 2000... The Equipment World list of 87,880 total subscribers is now available for $105/M. Equipment World serves highway and heavy construction contractors, general building contractors and sub contractors involved in the purchase, management,...

Flashback.
April 1, 2000... Beginning in the early 60s, with such pop art creations as Campbell's Soup Cans, 210 Coca Cola Bottles and Brillo Box (Soap Pads), Andy Warhol spotlighted the increasingly ambiguous relationship between commercial and fine art. Underscoring the...

The Month Of April: '70.
April 1, 2000... Headline: Talking Pictures Are Here to Stay--How About Yours? The Story: "Are you investing enough thought, time, and money in expressive pictures for your advertising?" asks Thomas L. Collins. Noting that two ads with identical headlines,...

The Month Of April: '80.
April 1, 2000... Headline: Five Tested Ways to Begin an Ad The Story: Emphasizing the appeal of powerfully packaged personalities and plots, John Caples suggests that "quoting a famous person" or "telling a story" can strengthen the copy of an ad. Caples...

The Month Of April: '90.
April 1, 2000... Headline: Naughty to Nice The Story: Frederick's of Hollywood, "locked in an aesthetic and attitudinal time warp," reverses "stagnating sales" and "deteriorating stores" by "redressing its retail and mail order operation with a classier...

Survey Finds Offline Internet Advertising Unsuccessful.
April 1, 2000... According to a survey by DiMassimo Brand Advertising (www.dimassimo.com), only six percent of frequent online users said they visited a Web site because of an offline commercial. Also, only 10 percent of frequent online users could name a TV...

Rosenfield Gives Major Gift to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
April 1, 2000... The James and Frederica Rosenfield Foundation has awarded a significant grant to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, becoming a major benefactor of the non-profit consumer program. The grant supports the PRC's operations. "Direct...

Web Site Offers Scholarship Money For Demographic Information.
April 1, 2000... FreeScholarships.com is offering to give away $10,000 scholarships every day for college and graduate school as well as private and parochial school; primarily, marketers and advertisers aiming products at teen-agers and 20-somethings finance...

1999 Retail Sales Reach $3 Trillion.
April 1, 2000... Retailers' high expectations were realized this past holiday season as the industry posted GAF (general merchandise, apparel and furniture and home furnishing stores) sales of nearly $185 billion. That figure represents a 6.9 percent increase...

SmartMail Maximizes Flat Mail Delivery At Cost Savings.
April 1, 2000... SmartMail Services has leveraged a strategic partnership with the U.S. Postal Service to deliver flat mail--First-Class mail pieces weighing approximately 3oz to l6oz, ranging from compact discs and paperback books to enrollment kits and...

New Report Details Internet Direct Marketing Trends.
April 1, 2000... Winterberry Group Inc., a strategic consulting and information services company, has released a new report that examines Internet direct marketing trends: Internet Direct Marketing: 10 Trends for 2000. "Several Internet direct marketing...

Larrick and Jones Honored On XXII Caples Night.
April 1, 2000... Pamela M. Larrick, executive vice president, North American regional director, McCann Relationship Marketing Worldwide, received the Andi Emerson Award at the XXII Caples Night Awards presentation. The award, given by the Board of the John...

Sign-Up Engine Simplifies Online Registration Processing.
April 1, 2000... The Data Center Company (DCC) has launched iSignUpNOW.com (ISUN), the first online registration portal on the market that offers organizations the capabilities to deploy and manage all aspects of running online sign-ups. The portal processes...

Val-Pak to Reach Circulation Milestone of 500 Million Envelopes.
April 1, 2000... Val-Pak, the familiar blue envelope of discount offers and the leader in local cooperative direct marketing, will appear in more North American mail boxes in the next 12 months. The company is on track to reach a new circulation milestone of...

Web Call Back Service Links Online Ads and Interactive Television.
April 1, 2000... RealCall, a pioneer in Web call back and customer alert services, is offering a digital e-commerce callback service for Web sites, Web banner ads, Internet-enabled mobile phones, and interactive television ads that allows businesses to quickly...

Lands End Disappointed With Holiday Sales.
April 1, 2000... Lands End, Inc., has reported that net sales for the eight weeks ended December 24, 1999 totaled $352 million, down 14.6 percent from sales of $412 million during the eight weeks ended December 25, 1998. As planned, during the holiday period...

New Business Solution Boosts Store Traffic and In-Store Purchases.
April 1, 2000... KnowledgeBase Marketing Inc. is offering TrafficMax, a proprietary business solution that increases store traffic and the average size of in-store purchases for new customers. Through enhancement and analysis of a retailers existing customer...

New Report Discusses Effective E-mail Campaigns.
April 1, 2000... * With an estimated 9.4 billion e-mail messages a day crisscrossing the United States, people are struggling to cope with the bombardment of daily e-mails. On the other hand, businesses, hoping to replace direct mail with the cheaper, quicker,...

Credit Cards No Longer Necessary for E-Commerce.
April 1, 2000... In certain West Coast markets, consumers will soon be able to convert cash into Internet spendable cash without using a credit card. Cybermoola, Inc. (www.cybermoola.com) in alliance with Catalina Marketing Corp. will offer prepaid Internet...

Take the Gamble Out of Sales With Sales-Centric Data.
April 1, 2000... While sales-centric data can't paint a perfectly complete picture of each lead, it can certainly draft an outline of the pre-sales situation. The average sales lead is like a scratch ticket--you have to shell out cash, and time, to find...

Information Is Knowledge, Knowledge Is Power, and Power Can Be Frightening.
April 1, 2000... Some people believe companies have power over them because of the information they collect. Privacy!--a hot topic for politicians, the press, and for marketers. Privacy was one of the hottest topics in speeches, lecture sessions, and...

The Second Greatest Offer in the World.
April 1, 2000... A solid guarantee is tangible proof that you're reputable, and it helps to lower the perceived risk your prospects Feel. It was just a plain jane mailer. Cheap yellow paper with black and blue ink. No pictures, only copy. It was from...

Randall Terry's Active Pro-Life, Pro-Family Donors.
April 1, 2000... The Randall Terry's Active Pro-Life, Pro-Family Donors list of 18,716 active charitable and political donors is available for $l00/M and $130/M respectively. Randall Terry is the founder of Operation Rescue, an activist pro-life group, and The...

American Express Publishing Corporation Master File.
April 1, 2000... The American Express Publishing Corporation Master File of 1,625,650 twelve month subscribers/buyers is now available for $90/M. The list consists of the combined and unduplicated active subscribers and buyers of nine American Express...

We've Been Had!
April 1, 2000... Well, I got another jolt this past week while attending The International Direct Marketing Fair (March 14-16, 2000) in Wembley. It was immediately obvious that many changes were in progress as I walked in Sunday to set up our booth. All that I...

Columbia House President Retires.
April 1, 2000... After 34 years with the company, Richard Walter will be retiring as president, chairman and CEO of The Columbia House Company. For over three decades, Wolter has played a leading role in the growth and expansion of Columbia House. He began...

DMA Discourages Establishment of National "Do-Not-Call" List.
April 1, 2000... Participating at a public forum hosted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to review the "do-not-call" provision of the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), the Direct Marketing Association urged commissioners to carefully review the reach of the...

Polk Pins Future on Services for Transportation Industry.
April 1, 2000... Signaling a clear strategic and historic decision to focus on the global expansion of its transportation business, R.L. Polk & Co. has signed an agreement to sell its Consumer Information Solutions (CIS) business units to Equifax for...

New Fears Over Web Shopping.
April 1, 2000... Internet retailers have worked hard to curb consumer fears of credit card number theft, using sophisticated encryption and other high-tech strategies to make online shopping safe. But the industry's security image was recently tarnished with...