Direct Marketing articles from February 2000

Direct Marketing archives from February 2000

Down Under!
February 1, 2000... It all started about two years ago. I was called to see if I would help a delegation of marketers, from Australia, tour some "direct marketing companies in the Tri-State area. What a simple task, I thought to myself, as the gentleman first...

Strong 2000 Ad Growth Forecasted At Painewebber Conference.
February 1, 2000... Recently at Painewebber's 27th Annual Media Conference, advertising guru Robert Coen forecasted advertising expenditures for the year 2000. In light of the upcoming Olympics, Presidential elections and census, Coen, senior vice president,...

Reader's Digest Welcomes Sweepstakes Legislation.
February 1, 2000... The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. said that it welcomes legislation passed by Congress that will establish additional standards for the use of direct mail sweepstakes promotions. "We welcome the legislation passed, which we believe is...

UAccess Program Brings Permission Marketing To the Phone.
February 1, 2000... UAccess has devised a way for marketers to speak to their customers without interrupting them. Consumers call 1-800-UAccess to hear short, customized, messages about offers and promotions that interest them; and they can call when they find it...

Starmedia and FAO Schwarz Offer Toys Online to Latin America.
February 1, 2000... StarMedia Network (www.starmedia.com) and FAQ Schwarz (www.fao.com) have agreed to bring FAO Schwarz' unique and trend-setting merchandise for kids to StarMedia Networks online community of Spanish-speaking users. As part of the agreement, the...

Business Women Drive Consumer Purchasing.
February 1, 2000... Business women are the primary decision-makers in their households fully two-thirds or more of the time when purchasing a variety of goods and services for their homes--such as telephone services, television/cable services, and insurance...

Government Targets Telemarketing Fraud.
February 1, 2000... Consumers in approximately 120 million homes have received a printed warning to stay away from scams that bilk them of $40 billion each year. Top government and business officials have renewed an effort to educate consumers about telemarketing...

R.R. Donnelley Expands Online Services and eBook Business.
February 1, 2000... R.R. Donnelley Online Services, the Internet solutions group of R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company will offer magazine publishers ePublish--a cost-effective and scalable Web solution to help them extend and enhance their brands online, as well as...

1999 DMA Survey Reports 221 Percent Growth in Catalog Web Sales.
February 1, 2000... A Direct Marketing Association survey of October and November 1999 sales for U.S. catalog retailers reveals a 221 percent sales growth on catalog Web sites and a 22 percent growth in print catalog sales, compared to the same period in 1998. ...

Seminar Highlights Direct Mail Fund-Raising Strategies.
February 1, 2000... The "Direct Mail Fund Raising" seminar presented at the LINSFRE 1999 Philanthropy Day, highlighted past strategies of successfbl fund-raising direct mail campaigns. Speakers Maiy A. McCaffery, CERE Mary McCaffery Associates and Greg Demetriou,...

Mypoints.com Sees Increased Transaction Volume.
February 1, 2000... MyPoints.com (www.mypoints.com), a developer of Internet direct marketing and loyalty infrastructure, has experienced a 46 percent increase in transaction volume and has surpassed the five million member mark. In October and November 1999,...

Resource Marketing to Study E-Experiences.
February 1, 2000... Continuing with their e-commerce investigation of the online shopping experience (called Analyst Watch that began in 1997) Resource Marketing, Inc. has evaluated over 45 leading e-commerce sites to determine the best practices for...

New Company Aims To Revolutionize Consumer Direct Marketing.
February 1, 2000... A new company is revolutionizing the way advertisers reach consumers with their messages. Acting as a matchmaker between consumers and advertisers, MoneyForMail.com collects personal information voluntarily from consumers, then pays them cash...

InfoUSA.com Offers Free Private Label Directory Databases.
February 1, 2000... InfoUSA.com is offering free private label directory databases of 12 million businesses and 195 million consumers for any business that requests the service for their Web site or Intranet, More than four hundred companies have signed up...

Experian Expands Database Designed for Publishers.
February 1, 2000... Experian's CircBase database has expanded to 226 publications and 81 million subscribers. Designed specifically for publishers, the database combines active and expired subscriber records with Experian's demographic information. CircBase is...

Januz Passes Away at 60.
February 1, 2000... Lauren(ce) Robert Januz of Lake Forest, Illinois passed away on November 12th, 1999. He was 60 years old. He was president of Januz Promotional Advertising Group and a marketing consultant to the direct marketing and advertising specialties...

Sprint Offers New Promotional Tools.
February 1, 2000... Working to help companies acquire and retain traffic on their Web sites, Sprint FonPromotions has launched the Sprint WebFoncard--a prepaid phone card delivered instantly online via the Internet or email. Sprint FonPromotions offers the...

DMDNY Names Conference Chairman.
February 1, 2000... George S. Wiedemann, Chairman and CEO of Grey Direct Marketing Group has agreed to serve as general chairman for Direct Marketing Days in New York's 35th Annual Marketing Conference and Exposition to be held May 22-25, 2000 at the Hilton New...

CADM To Host Chicago DM Days 2000.
February 1, 2000... The Chicago Association of Direct Marketing (CADM) will host Chicago DM Days 2000 on February 24 and 25 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, Chicago, IL. The theme for the conference is "The Teams. The Times. The Technology." On the...

Softlink and Targitmail Offer Multimedia E-Mail Marketing.
February 1, 2000... Softlink, Inc. and TargitMail.com have entered a partnership agreement to deliver multimedia e-mail messages to customers of TargitMail.com's direct e-mail database services. Companies using TargitMail's opt-in database for their e-mail...

Mail.Com and Juno Launch Web-Based E-Mail Service for Juno Subscribers.
February 1, 2000... Mail.com, Inc. a leading global provider of Internet messaging services, and Juno Online Services, Inc., a provider of Internet-related services throughout the United States, has launched Juno WebMail(SM), a Web-based e-mail service powered by...

Moving Forward Globally[ldots]But First A Look Back.
February 1, 2000... At first glance the experience of American direct marketers in the global arena in the 90s might seem to be very mixed. Periods of excessive optimism have too often been followed by some success but then disappointment. In fact, the record and...

Polk City Directory Launches E-Commerce Site.
February 1, 2000... The City Directory business unit of The Polk Company, publisher of more than 1,100 directories covering more than 10,000 communities in the United States and Canada, is offering an Internet channel available to customers 24 hours a day at...

Netmarquee Offers E-Glossary of Internet DM Terms.
February 1, 2000... "E-Words: A Glossary for the Online Direct Marketing Revolution" is now available online from NetMarquee, Inc. "With the explosive growth of Internet direct marketing we realized a need to provide easy access to the new vocabulary defining...

The Market Driven Organization.
February 1, 2000... Understanding, attracting and keeping valuable customers, by transforming your organization into a market-driven one. (Part two of a two-part installment.) This month the author continues the discussion of how to develop a market...

Driving Moms to the Web.
February 1, 2000... Successful cataloger and retailer, The Right Start, launches a new campaign to drive moms to rightstart.com with impressive initial results. As we all know, direct response television spots are always selling something. You're told to call...

Closing the One-to-One Loop.
February 1, 2000... For direct marketers, the next Web is here and it's print. In terms of excitement, marketing refrigerators and washing machines hardly registers any "wow" points. Yet what Whirlpool Corporation, a manu-facturer of consumer appliances, is...

How To Select The Right Copy Style For Your Direct Mail Package.
February 1, 2000... The greatness of our world lies in its diversity. Other customs, thought patterns, and ways of communicating. In direct response advertising, diversity thrives. In fact, without it we would be unable to fine-tune the art of persuasion. ...

"Here's To You, Mr. Robinson[ldots]".
February 1, 2000... Or: Everything You Wanted to Know About Direct Mail[ldots]In 60 Minutes The phone call was from a woman who saw me do a direct mail seminar and went like this: "Hi, I'm interested in doing direct mail for my business. Would you mind...

The Direct Marketing "Experience".
February 1, 2000... Most products have become commodities and can be purchased from any company. What matters now is the "experience" that you offer your customers to keep them coming back. You're at a restaurant on the Champs Elysees', just finishing off a...

Millennium Madness and 99 Curmudgeonly Resolutions for Direct Mail Success.
February 1, 2000... Just in case you've forgotten some of the direct mail basics, here are some tools for direct mail success to keep handy. "But it's not the millennium!" I was standing in the grocery store with my wife. She was insisting that we buy a...

A Postmodern Mutation: Fund-Raising Sweepstakes.
February 1, 2000... In what seems to be a Millennial boomlet, the two most theatrical forms of direct mail have combined into a sort of postmodern mutation. I'm talking about fund raising and sweepstakes, an alliance heralded by no fewer than nine mailings...

Database Management for Marketers.
February 1, 2000... What follows is a modern fact-based marketing process which suggests how business intelligence (BI) technologies support that process. From this background, guidelines for the requirements for a marketing database can be derived. Database...

16 Ways to Keep a Business "Online".
February 1, 2000... "There are no more power elites," wrote Manuel Castels in The Information Age. The implications are painfully obvious. For example, IBM pulls its PCs out of retail venues because its no longer considered profitable business. The Wall...

Marketing To the Mass of Marketers.
February 1, 2000... Ezines and e-mail newsletters are branding marketing experts. Virtually any marketer wishing to establish an Internet presence needs a regular, reliable means for communicating with Web site visitors. A solution favored by many is a regular...

PlanetVeggie.com Launches All Vegetarian Cyber Superstore.
February 1, 2000... "Vegetarianism is the only way to preserve the health of mankind and planet earth in the new millennium. The meat-based diet of the West has caused untold destruction to the health of the people and the planet. And unfortunately, now the rest...

CarePackages.com Reinvents Old Time Practice Online.
February 1, 2000... For between $10 and $40, consumers can log onto CarePackages.com and send one of more than 50 ready-made care packages that celebrate such events and occasions as summer camp, dating and business deals. And, moreover, consumers can custom craft...

LowerMyBills.com Offers Consumers Free Bill Comparison Service.
February 1, 2000... LowerMyBills.com is the first Internet site where consumers can compare and lower their bills in 18 different categories of unavoidable monthly bills. By using its services, which are free for consumers, the company says it can save the average...

eWarrantyCard.com Simplifies Collection of Warranty Card Information.
February 1, 2000... eWC Information, Inc. is offering eWarrantyCard to make the collection of warranty card information easier, faster, and more efficient for the consumer and manufacturer. Free for the consumer and available online, the consumer accesses the...

Tower Hobbies.
February 1, 2000... The Tower Hobbies list of 215,704 last 24 month masterfile buyers is now available for $85/M. The Tower Hobbies catalog offers over 18,000 quality radio controlled models, kits and accessories. Ninety-five percent of these hobby enthusiasts are...

Mitsubishi Electronics Buyers.
February 1, 2000... The Mitsubishi Electronics Buyers list of 556,870 consumer electronics buyers is now available for $80/M. These buyers have spent $500 plus to purchase high-end TVs, Web TVs, HDTVs, DVD and VCR players and complete home theatre equipment. They...

International Auto Parts.
February 1, 2000... The International Auto Parts list of 14,975 twelve month catalog buyers is available for $90/M. These automotive enthusiasts have purchased a variety of products needed to restore and maintain their Italian sports cars. The International Auto...

InfoUSA.com Small Business Opt-In E-Mail Database.
February 1, 2000... The InfoUSA.com Small Business Opt-In E-Mail Database of 200,000 total registered users is now available for $400/M. These users have opted-in to receive e-mail from companies targeting entrepreneurs and small businesses. The InfoUSA.com Web...

ActiveWeb Developer.
February 1, 2000... The ActiveWeb Developer newsletter list of 2,600 subscribers, trials and expires is now available for $500/M. ActiveWeb Developer is a 16 page independent monthly newsletter for high-end Web developers who use Microsoft's suite of Web tools,...

Care-A-Lot Pet Supply Warehouse.
February 1, 2000... The Care-A-Lot Pet Supply Warehouse list of 48,269 twelve month buyers and paid requestors is now available for $90/M. This catalog offers quality products for dog, cat, bird, ferret and rabbit owners. These pet owners are interested in...

Conservation & Wildlife Group.
February 1, 2000... The Conservation & Wildlife Group list of 394,000 active subscribers is now available for $75/M. This list is comprised of subscribers to such outdoor publications as Maine Fish and Wildlife, Massachusetts Wildlife, Texas Parks & Wildlife,...

Financebase International from FOW Ltd.
February 1, 2000... The Financebase International from FOW Ltd. list of 83,576 managing directors and senior level executives is available for $340/M. This list is composed of key decision makers in the world of financial derivatives. The database is drawn from...

Bookstores Database.
February 1, 2000... The Bookstores Database of 34,290 bookstore executives for $66/M and 26,688 bookstore locations for $60/M is now available. This compilation lists huge bookstore chains as well as small neighborhood and specialty stores. Selections such as...

Agency Action.
February 1, 2000... MURTHA AND FROEHLICH PROMOTED Roberts Communications, Inc. has promoted William Murtha to president and Edmond Froehlich to vice chairman and CEO. Murtha was previously senior vice president for Roberts and Froehlich was executive vice...

People.
February 1, 2000... INFOUSA HIRES MOHANTY AND FERRIS InfoUSA.com has appointed Prabir Mohanty as Chief Technology Officer and Jeff Ferris as vice president and general manager of infoUSA's Reseller Group. Most recently, Mohanty was senior strategic marketing...

Spiegel Reports November 1999 Sales.
February 1, 2000... Spiegel, Inc. has reported net sales of $276.9 million for the four weeks ended November 27, 1999, a 2 percent increase from sales of $270.3 million for the same period in 1998. For the 47 weeks ended November 27, 1999, net sales were 2.398...

USPS and China Post Expand Relationship.
February 1, 2000... Postmasters General William J. Henderson of the United States and Liu Liqing of the Peoples Republic of China have agreed to expand cooperation between their two postal services. The agreement calls for the posts to improve existing services...

USPS Celebrates the Century With Commemorative Stamps.
February 1, 2000... "Celebrate The Century," is the largest Commemorative Stamp Series ever issued by the United States Postal Service (USPS) to commemorate the entire 20th century. Since the program's inception in January 1998, 3.5 million Americans have...

Shop2u.com to Accelerate Growth Plans.
February 1, 2000... Shop2u.com, the first company to deliver personalized catalogs over the Internet using e-mail, has entered into an agreement with a group of investors to provide $4 million of financing through private placement. The private placement is...

58k.Com Attracts Commercial Printing Industry.
February 1, 2000... Commercial printing jobs posted on the 58k.com Web site have attracted five of the nation's top eight printers as well as many medium-sized printers. Printing buyers and many Fortune 500 corporations throughout the country are posting a variety...

Primedia Builds Presence on Internet.
February 1, 2000... Working to expand and broaden its Internet presence, Primedia, Inc. has launched Web sites likeApartmentguide.com--a site for apartment renters--that had 1.35 million visitors in November, 1999 with an average user session of 10 minutes....

Flashback.
February 1, 2000... Advertisers have long invited us to express ourselves through what we buy: "If I have one life, let me live it as a blond," "See the USA in your Chevrolet, America is asking you to call," "The choice of a new generation." The concept of...