Direct Marketing articles from December 1997

Direct Marketing archives from December 1997

Direct marketing on a shoestring.
December 1, 1997... The "Direct Marketing on a Shoestring" Award Show is the one and only award show that honors great work that was done under difficult, or even impossible, conditions. The Echoes, it's not. It's not even the Gong show. But for the last eight...

Annual DMA conference focuses on interactive marketing. (Direct Marketing Association)
December 1, 1997... Interactive marketing is at the forefront of every marketer's strategy today. This year's 80th Annual Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Conference and Exhibition held recently at Chicago's McCormick Place focused on the shrinking global...

Success in 1998: fourteen ways to keep your business booming.
December 1, 1997... If everyone else is doing well, the major challenge is how to pull ahead of the pack. Here are 14 ways to become more successful that can help companies gain a competitive advantage. Becoming accustomed to a growing economy is easy and...

Resolve! With an explanation mark! ... a story of how one direct marketer is doing it right in Brazil.
December 1, 1997... Direct marketing is a booming business in Brazil. At the USA Direct Marketing Association Annual Conventions, the country outside North America with the most attendees each year is Brazil A couple of years ago at an advertising congress in Sao...

Building and maintaining customer value with advertising structured around your database.
December 1, 1997... The main goal of the program was "to spend time reaching the best customer on a consistent basis." They wanted to use customer shopping history and customer preferences information from their database to enhance communication with Mercantile...

Utilizing database marketing to solidify your business niche.
December 1, 1997... Having a database with all of his customers' information in it enabled Ratner to concentrate on the people who were loyal to his business and focus on keeping them that way. Dave Ratner, founder and owner of Dave's Soda and Pet City, is a...

The role of content management in a digital production environment.
December 1, 1997... The main goal of the program was "to spend time reaching the best customer on a consistent basis." They wanted to use customer shopping history and customer preferences information from their database to enhance communication with Mercantile...

"I want my MVT" drive marketing results with multivariable testing techniques.
December 1, 1997... The best marketing tactics build the artistic energy and drive it to the customer like a lightning bolt to the ground. Marketing is both art and science - creative insight drives the emotional message, while tactical effectiveness drives the...

A little traveling music, please.
December 1, 1997... The percentage of small businesses that do some type of direct marketing is still in the low double digits. One of the reasons for the slooowly growing change is that people do not want to change. There's a classic old time vaudeville routine...

Customer-focused marketing: key to fiscal success.
December 1, 1997... No matter how lofty our intentions, the sad fact is that within the traditional way of doing business, there really has been no good strategy to reconcile truly personal attention to "markets of one" with the need for the economies of scale...

Business-to-business database marketing: the future is now!
December 1, 1997... Business-to-business database marketing has evolved into a $1.3 billion dollar industry, representing 20.6 percent of total business-to-business direct marketing expenditures. In recent years, business-to-business marketing has become the...

Strong creative strategies reinforce the brand promise. (brand management)
December 1, 1997... Today's environment of change and choice demands consistency and clarity. The brand and the creative expression of the brand should provide a consistent "personality" across the mix. If you want to deliver strong creative concepts, then you...

A stick and red feathers: how to trigger the "yes" response. (direct marketing)
December 1, 1997... A group of psychologists have demonstrated that you can, with a high degree of reliability, produce a "yes" response to almost any request if the request is presented in the right way. Getting people to say "yes" is the ultimate goal for any...

How to buy a great mailing list.
December 1, 1997... You can make lots of mistakes in direct mail, but nothing is as bad as mailing to the wrong list. Poor list selection is the worst mistake you can make. Thank God, the worst that can happen to you in direct marketing is you lose money. I mean,...

Little Demmert. (Jean Demmert Hoke) (Editorial)(Obituary)
December 1, 1997... Jean Demmert Hoke. She left this world on Saturday, October 18 at 9:03 a.m. after 75 wonderful years on this earth...55 years as this reporter's loving wife, business counselor, companion and cheerleader. She succumbed to Alzheimer's Disease...

Marketing In The New Year.
December 1, 1997... I see some changes on the horizon for 1998. The big one will be the proposed sales tax agreement that will effect mail order merchants. A front-page article in The New York Times on November 6, 1997, claimed that the Voluntary Collection...

LETTER TO THE EDITOR.
December 1, 1997... There Is A Humble Servant In The Post Office Dear Hank: Here's a true-life story that I thought you would be interested in hearing about. With the zillions of letters, packages and paper that are pushed through the national postal...

The DMA's Plans For A Voluntary Collection Agreement Muddled By The New York Times Article.
December 1, 1997... A front page story in The New York Times made reference to an announcement to be made by "officials of the biggest states and a trade group for the mail-order industry." The article said the announcement would concern an agreement between the...

Will All Roads Lead To Microsoft?
December 1, 1997... Recently the newspapers have beein giving a lot of coverage to the Justice Department's investigation into whether Microsoft is violating a 1995 court order prohibiting it from making anti-competitive licensing agreements that require personal...

Will Spamming Get Worse Before It Is Curtailed?
December 1, 1997... A "Technology" report in The New York Times discussed the growing problem of spamming (the unsolicited commercial e-mail that is sent in automated bulk mailings to electronic mailboxes of Internet and on-line services subscribers). The...

Toshiba And Warner Home Video Launch Joint Marketing Campaign.
December 1, 1997... Toshiba and Warner Home Video kicked off the largest joint marketing campaign ever launched by a hardware and software manufacturer for an entertainment product. "DVD is a brand new home entertainment product with unprecedented sensory...

Otto Versand And QuelleFocus On Asia.
December 1, 1997... Two of the world's largest mail order companies, German-based Otto Versand and Quelle, have announced plans to enter the Asian market, particularly in China. Otto Versand plans to bolster business activities in Asia as part of its efforts to...

France Taxes Catalogs And Company Magazines.
December 1, 1997... The French government has adopted an amendment to its 1998 Finance Bill setting a 1 percent tax on free catalogs, prospectuses, direct mail and newspapers published for a specific brand or company, reports European correspondent Michael York...

Cross Border Incentive Promotions Give Rise To Problems In Europe.
December 1, 1997... The European Commission recently considered the implications of key infringement cases under German and Belgian law which restrict the use of premiums including Air Miles and American Express. These companies offer their cardholders a bonus in...

Japanese Respond To AIG Campaign.
December 1, 1997... American International Group (AIG) said that its direct marketing of auto insurance in Japan has been well received. "The initial response has been very positive, well above our projections, AIG Chairman Maurice Greenberg said of the campaign....

AOL Expands E-mail Controls.
December 1, 1997... America Online announced that it is expanding its Mail Controls section from just filtering e-mail to giving its members the ability to eliminate certain addresses, among other controls. With the expansion in Mail Controls, members can...

CDMA Amends Ethics Code To Combat Unwanted E-mail.
December 1, 1997... The Canadian Direct Marketing Association (CDMA) says it will amend its code of ethics in an effort to stem the huge tide of "junk" Internet messages being sent to Canadians. The association says it will require its members to seek the consent...

Visa USA Teams With Unisys To Test Visa Cash Cards.
December 1, 1997... Unisys Corporation and Visa USA announced an implementation package to allow financial institutions to conduct in-house trials for Visa Cash, Visa's stored value system, which holds and processes money in the form of electronic data. Under...

The DMA Releases "Best Practices In Interactive Marketing" Study.
December 1, 1997... A new Direct Marketing Association (DMA) "Best Practices in Interactive Marketing" study found that direct marketers gain new customers, make ordering easier for existing customers, and save money when they integrate a site on the Internet into...

American Express Teams With Mall Operators.
December 1, 1997... Shopping mall operators Taubman Centers Inc. and Corporate Property Investors (CPI) said they have formed a five-year marketing alliance with the American Express (Amex) company. The agreement calls for 40 CPI and Taubman malls in seven states...

Publishing Powerhouse Forming Through Merger.
December 1, 1997... Reed Elsevier, publisher of academic and trade journals, is combining with Dutch publisher Wolters Kluwer in a deal that values Wolter at about $7.8 billion. The new company, Elsevier Wolters Kluwer, will have operations in North America,...

Skymall's In-Flight Catalog Goes Online.
December 1, 1997... SkyMall, Inc., an in-flight catalog company, officially launched another segment of its electronic commerce initiative by going live on the Web with www.skymall.com. The site showcases products offered in SkyMall's print catalog and will serve...

Harsher Penalties For Fraudulent Telemarketers.
December 1, 1997... The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved a bill that calls for harsher penalties for people convicted of using fraudulent telephone sales pitches. Violators will now have to forfeit any money or assets obtained through fraudulent activities...

Direct Marketers With Web Sites Now Top 80 Percent.
December 1, 1997... New research by the Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) reveals that 83 percent of all direct marketers now have Internet/World Wide Web sites; 81 percent plan to increase their investment in new media over the next three years, and 86...

DMCNY Silver Apple Awards Presented.
December 1, 1997... The 13th Annual Silver Apple Awards, sponsored by the Direct Marketing Club of New York (DMCNY), were presented recently at an awards luncheon at the Grand Hyatt in New York City. Seven individuals received Silver Apples at this year's...

Nat Ross Retires From NYU.
December 1, 1997... Nat Ross has announced that he will retire from New York University's School of Continuing Education after 30 years of service. Ross founded a lecture series on direct marketing in 1967, which over 4,000 students have attended over the years,...

Postmaster General Settles Case By Paying Fine.
December 1, 1997... The Justice Department recently said that Postmaster General Marvin Runyon has agreed to pay a $27,550 fine to settle a financial conflict of interest investigation involving a plan to put soft-drink machines in post offices. The civil...

Rate Commission Agrees To Small Delay In Rate Case.
December 1, 1997... Describing the postal rate case as "disorganized, incomplete and opaque," the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers (ANM) reports that it has asked the Postal Rate Commission (PRC) for a "stay" in the proceedings. The ANM explains that non-profits are...

BOG Authorizes Loan.
December 1, 1997... The Postal Board of Governors (BOG) has authorized the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to borrow up to an additional $1.7 billion to finance capital investments aimed at service improvements in Fiscal Year 1998. "By managing our cash and debt more...

The DMA Supports New Postal Financing Legislation.
December 1, 1997... The Direct Marketing Association believes the U.S. Postal Service needs greater financial freedom to better manage its fiscal health and has called on members of the U.S. Senate to pass newly-introduced legislation that grants the Postal...

Direct Marketing On A Shoestring.
December 1, 1997... The "Direct Marketing on a Shoestring" Award Show is the one and only award show that honors great work that was done under difficult, or even impossible, conditions. The Echoes, it's not. It's not even the Gong show. But for the last...

Annual DMA Conference Focuses On Interactive Marketing.
December 1, 1997... Interactive marketing is at the forefront of every marketer's strategy today. This year's 80th Annual Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Conference and Exhibition held recently at Chicago's McCormick Place focused on the shrinking global...

SUCCESS IN 1998: Fourteen Ways to Keep Your Business Booming.
December 1, 1997... If everyone else is doing well, the major challenge is how to pull ahead of the pack. Here are 14 ways to become more successful that can help companies gain a competitive advantage. Becoming accustomed to a growing economy is easy and...

Resolve! With An Explanation Mark!...
December 1, 1997... A Story Of How One Direct Marketer Is Doing It Right In Brazil Direct marketing is a booming business in Brazil. At the USA Direct Marketing Association Annual Conventions, the country outside North America with the most attendees each year...

Building And Maintaining Customer Value With Advertising Structured Around Your Database.
December 1, 1997... The main goal of the program was "to spend time reaching the best customer on a consistent basis." They wanted to use customer shopping history and customer preferences information from their database to enhance communication with Mercanlile...

Survival For The Little Guy Utilizing Database Marketing To Solidify Your Business Niche.
December 1, 1997... Having a database with all of his customers' information in it enabled Ratner to concentrate on the people who were loyal to his business and focus on keeping them that way. Dave Ratner, founder and owner of Dave's Soda and Pet City, is a...

The Role Of Content Management In A Digital Production Environment.
December 1, 1997... The main goal of the program was "to spend time reaching the best customer on a consistent basis." They wanted to use customer shopping history and customer preferences information from their database to enhance communication with Mercantile...

"I Want My MVT" Drive Marketing Results with Multivariable [Testing.sup.TM] Techniques.
December 1, 1997... The best marketing tactics build the artistic energy and drive it to the customer like a lightning bolt to the ground. Marketing is both art and science--creative insight drives the emotional message, while tactical effectiveness drives the...

A Little Traveling Music, Please.
December 1, 1997... The percentage of small businesses that do some type of direct marketing is still in the low double digits. One of the reasons for the slooowly growing change is that people do not want to change. There's a classic old time vaudeville...

Customer-Focused Marketing: Key To Fiscal Success.
December 1, 1997... No matter how lofty our intentions, the sad fact is that within the traditional way of doing business, there really has been no good strategy to reconcile truly personal attention to "markets of one" with the need for the economies of scale...

Business-to-Business Database Marketing: The Future is Now!
December 1, 1997... Business-to-business database marketing has evolved into a $1.3 billion dollar industry, representing 20.6 percent of total business-to-business direct marketing expenditures. In recent years, business-to-business marketing has become the...

Strong Creative Strategies Reinforce the Brand Promise.
December 1, 1997... Today's environment of change and choice demands consistency and clarity. The brand and the creative expression of the brand should provide a consistent "personality" across the mix. If you want to deliver strong creative concepts, then you...

Lands' End Masterpiece Emerges From Avalanche Of Catalogs.
December 1, 1997... Throughout my long career, I must confess, I've been repeatedly wrong in feeling that there is just too much mail, and predicting that at some point it has to implode. I guess there's not, and I guess it won't. The New Year is coming,...

A STICK AND RED FEATHERS: How to Trigger the "YES" Response.
December 1, 1997... A group of psychologists have demonstrated that you can, with a high degree of reliability, produce a "yes" response to almost any request if the request is presented in the right way. Getting people to say "Yes" is the ultimate goal for...

How To Buy A Great Mailing List.
December 1, 1997... You can make lots of mistakes in direct mail, but nothing is as bad as mailing to the wrong list. Poor list selection is the worst mistake you can make. Thank God, the worst that can happen to you in direct marketing is you lose money....

COPY TALK.
December 1, 1997... There must be something in the air. It seems everyone wants to sell products through the mail these days. They are sure they can ramp-up a mail order company and instantly claim riches. However, it is never quite that easy. Your product(s)...

AOL TO ACQUIRE COMPUSERVE IN THREE WAY DEAL.
December 1, 1997... America Online (AOL), the country's largest on-line service is buying Compuserve Corporation through a deal with Worldcom Inc., the nation's fourth largest long-distance phone company. Worldcom will first acquire Compuserve for nearly $1.2...

PMG RUNYON CREDITS USPS FOR TAKING CHARGE DURING UPS STRIKE.
December 1, 1997... At the National Postal Forum recently in Boston, the Postmaster General Marvin Runyon praised the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for successfully stepping in to keep the countries parcels moving during the 16-day UPS strike. "Last month, thanks to...

The Merchandise Sales Rule Includes Internet Sales.
December 1, 1997... Legal Outlook [1] has commented frequently on the Mail Order Merchandise Rule [2]. We, in the industry, always refer to it as the "Thirty-Day Rule." This is the most important rule governing our business, so reviewing it again in context is a...

Paul T. Carringer Joins Badertscher Communications.
December 1, 1997... Paul T. Carringer recently joined Badertscher Communications as vice president of business development, announced Steve Badertscher, president and creative director. In addition to directing the business development activities of the...

Ray Gillette To Head New DDB Unit.
December 1, 1997... DDB has announced the establishment of a new unit to be called Beyond DDB, which will be headed by Ray Gillette, who will serve as president. The unit will encompass all of the agency's communication activities beyond traditional advertising...

McClure Group Names John J. Elliott To Head New DB Marketing Program.
December 1, 1997... The McClure Group has announced the addition of John J. Elliott as senior vice president for database marketing, a newly-created segment of The McClure Group. Elliott brings his expertise in direct response marketing to McClure from...

Miller Hogan Promoted To Vice President At Bader Ruder & Associates.
December 1, 1997... Miller Hogan has been promoted to vice president, marketing services director at Bader Rutter & Associates, Inc. Hogan has been with Bader Rutter since 1985, first as an account supervisor and most recently as a group supervisor in the...

DM PEOPLE.
December 1, 1997... BUSINESS SERVICES AZ Marketing Services (Cos Cob, CT (203) 629-8088) has promoted Theresa Horn and Mary Ellen McGarry to senior vice presidents of the company's list brokerage division, 1-800-FLOWERS (Westbury, NY) has announced the...

Little Demmert.
December 1, 1997... Jean Demmert Hoke. She left this world on Saturday, October 18 at 9:03 a.m. after 75 wonderful years on this earth...55 years as this reporter's loving wife, business counselor, companion and cheerleader. She succumbed to Alzheimer's Disease...