Direct Marketing articles from October 2000

Direct Marketing archives from October 2000

New Blood!
October 1, 2000... This past summer I went to The Canadian Marketing Association's (CMA), Internet meeting. Their president, John Gustavson, told me this was where the action was. He was right. The conference was a winner. The Direct Marketing Association...

A Direct Marketer's Dozen.
October 1, 2000... These are all techniques and ideas that I've used for my clients. They are presented to you as food for thought, things to consider, and ideas that may spark your own thinking. There was a great TV commercial for Doritos corn chips a few...

Bertelsmann To Acquire CDNOW.
October 1, 2000... Bertelsmann AG will acquire CDNOW in an all-cash offer for approximately $117 million. CDNOW will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bertelsmann e-Commerce Group (BeCG), which was established earlier this year to drive Bertelsmann's global...

Ad Spending To Climb This Year.
October 1, 2000... Advertising spending is expected to climb 9.4 percent this year in the United States, the biggest increase in 16 years, one of the industry's top forecasters said recently in revising his growth estimates upward. Veteran ad spending...

NRF Predicts Moderate Growth For U.S. Economy.
October 1, 2000... The U.S. economy will move toward a more sustainable and moderate growth rate, according to the National Retail Federation's (NRF) Summer 2000 Retail Sales Outlook. NRF chief economist Rosalind Wells sees early, but tentative signs that...

McCann-Erickson Worldgroup Acquires Adair-Greene.
October 1, 2000... McCann-Erickson WorldGroup, one of the world's leading integrated marketing communications networks, has acquired Adair-Greene. Based in Atlanta, but with a national base of clients, Adair-Greene has been recognized as one of the nation's...

Dun & Bradstreet Offers Web Access To Over 15 Million Business Records.
October 1, 2000... Dun & Bradstreet has launched a Webenabled version of its flagship database marketing product, D&B[R] Market Spectrum[TM]. D&B's global database, which is updated more than one million times a day and features information on more than 58...

MyPoints.com Enters $6.5 Billion Coupon Industry.
October 1, 2000... MyPoints.com has launched a new service that enables its eight million-plus members to earn rewards for printing coupon promotions from the Internet and using them toward purchases at more than 12,500 supermarkets nationwide. Entitled "ValuPage...

Online Postage Companies In Trouble.
October 1, 2000... Online postage helps small business owners avoid waiting on line at the post office to buy stamps, but adoption of the new technology has been slow and the much hyped industry has yet to deliver a profit. So far, online postage companies have...

TMX Delivers "TV-Style" E-Mail Ads Without Download Delays.
October 1, 2000... TMXinteractive, a pioneer in digital marketing technology, has launched the world's first "TV-style" e-mail commercial, combining the power of broadcast-quality advertising with the immediacy of e-mail. TMX's X-Mail delivers multimedia,...

American Internet Retailing Market To Grow 75% In 2000.
October 1, 2000... Despite a recent decline in venture capital investment in Internet retail companies, the North American Internet retailing market is on pace to surpass $29.3 billion in 2000, an increase of 75 percent over 1999 revenue, according to the Gartner...

Online Retailers Benefit From Web Ads.
October 1, 2000... Online retailers, who months ago were inundating television in an often-failed attempt to build customer awareness for their brands, are benefiting from increased advertising online, according to a recent Media Metrix study. The...

USPS Tests Viability of E-Mail Services.
October 1, 2000... The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) predicts that by 2003, First-Class mail, now a $35 billion business and its top revenue-producing service, will begin an unprecedented decline because of e-mail and online billing services. Addressing this...

Leading Forest Products Companies Form ForestExpress.
October 1, 2000... Georgia-Pacific Corp., International Paper and Weyerhaeuser Co. have committed funding of $51 million to establish ForestExpress, a global business-to-business electronic marketplace. Four other leading forest products companies--Boise Cascade,...

Alcott+Routon Evolves Into Full-Service Marketing Agency.
October 1, 2000... Direct marketing firm, Alcott+Routon has launched an integrated advertising campaign for KinderCare Learning Centers Inc. that includes a national 1.5 million piece direct mail drop, three 60-second radio spots in 19 markets and a four-market...

Yankelovich Survey Offers Insight Into E-Commerce.
October 1, 2000... Yankelovich Partners Inc. has released MONITOR eTrends, a series of online and offline studies for marketers providing detailed insights into the challenges and opportunities of doing business on the Internet. The first MONITOR eTrends study...

Pitney Bowes Study Identifies Productive Messaging Techniques.
October 1, 2000... Pitney Bowes Inc.'s fourth annual workplace study, "Messaging for Innovation: Building the Innovation Infrastructure Through Messaging Practices," identifies messaging techniques that help workers achieve maximum productivity. The study,...

Amazon.com Posts 84% Increase In Sales, 32% Increase In Losses.
October 1, 2000... For the 2nd quarter, Amazon.com beat Wall Street projections by two cents, losing less money than expected and posting an 84 percent increase in sales over the same period last year. However, the Internet retailer did report a 32 percent...

ADVO's "Have You Seen Me?" Direct Mail Cards Recover 100th Missing Child.
October 1, 2000... ADVO, Inc., has announced that the recent joyous reunion of a 5-year-old Pennsylvania girl with her mother, following an 18-month abduction, is the 100th safe recovery of a missing child resulting from ADVO's familiar "Have You Seen Me" direct...

Fingerhut Losses Hurt Federated Earnings.
October 1, 2000... Federated Department Stores Inc. has reported that unpaid consumer debt in its Fingerhut unit has hurt the company's second-quarter earnings. The resulting losses will reduce earnings before interest and taxes by $150 million, or 43 cents per...

New Partnership Links TV and E-Commerce.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... e-Commerce Solutions (ECS], a leading provider of outsourced e-commerce systems and applications, will create and manage custom-built e-marketplaces for Benedek Broadcasting, a company that owns 22 television stations in small and medium...

Study Ranks Top Buyers In $15 Billion Promotional Products Market.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... Financial institutions are the single largest purchasers in the $15 billion promotional products marketplace, with healthcare institutions following a close second, according to an independent research study for Promotional Products Association...

B2BTalk.org Forms First Online Community For B2B Marketers.(business-to-business)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... B2BTalk.org is offering an Internet community specifically designed for business-to-business (B2B) marketing, communications and public relations professionals. B2BTalk.org serves as a professional, non-profit information resource for marketing...

New Software Facilitates One-To-One Mailings.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... Working to enhance the capabilities of customer loyalty programs, Moore Response Marketing Services (MRMS) is offering MessageMaster, new proprietary software that enables one-to-one, printed communication with customers. The program provides...

New Research Application Offers Real-Time Feedback On E-Commerce.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... Further enhancing its interactive market research offerings, Talk City, Inc. has launched Exit Web, an online research application designed to provide real-time feedback before, during and after purchasing an item on the Web. A recent Forrester...

Sales Rise For Spiegel Group.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
October 1, 2000... The Spiegel Group has reported sales of $267.6 million for the five weeks ended July 1, 2000, as compared to sales of $267.1 million for the five weeks ended July 3, 1999. For the twenty-six weeks ended July 1, 2000, total sales increased 8...

Lycos To Deliver Online Content Anywhere There Is a Phone.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... Lycos, Inc. and Quack.com, a pioneer in voice-based delivery of Web content, will launch the first voice-accessed destination that delivers the content and services of a major Internet portal. The new voice portal will provide users with free...

No Testimonials? No Problem! How To Build Unbeatable Credibility With a Little Creativity.
October 1, 2000... Don't worry if you haven't kept track of those testimonials. In part four of his four-part series, the author explains how to be credible without them. Here's a typical phone conversation with a client during the research phase of a direct...

Genuine Photos Pulled Me In, Truthful Words Made Me Respond.
October 1, 2000... The beauty of simple advertising... In the late part of 1997 when I wrote "Write to Sell" for Direct Marketing magazine, it was a time when I was being bombarded with weak advertising. Perhaps it was because of the holiday season and...

The 21st Century's Most Loathsome Mailing Piece (So Far).
October 1, 2000... Not too many direct mail pieces give you the creeps, but the author has found one, all the way from the other side of the globe. The most loathsome mailing piece I have seen thus far in the 21st Century hails not from egregious England, nor...

Untangling the Web.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... "The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together." Shakespeare, "All's Well That Ends Well" AUTHOR'S NOTE: How do you explain, understand and make sense out of the Internet and Web sites of this fast growing medium? ...

Peddling Your Wares On the Web.
October 1, 2000... Some see Web marketing as tough terrain, but here is one company that is riding smoothly into the future. In the Beginning... It started as a hobby--a quest to learn how bicycle frames are made and build one that best fits a woman's...

Diving Into the Online World.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... No matter how you decide to enter the world of Internet marketing, making e-business work means tying effective direct marketing to product fulfillment, customer service and retention. Entering the online retail world can be a tricky...

The Marketing Value of Environmental Stewardship.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... Get in front of a trend that will be shaping our society for the next 50 years--re-engineer your organization, so what you are producing is not at the expense of our children's health and welfare. I recently went to a conference called "The...

Integrating Online and Offline Marketing Successfully.
October 1, 2000... While many companies still view their online and offline efforts as separate entities, savvy marketers are slowly realizing that success comes through integration. Once upon a time...not long ago...direct marketers became excited about the...

Avoiding the Killer Curve.
October 1, 2000... How to maintain momentum in business and not become a casualty of "the curve." In spite of 19th hole braggadocio about rising sales figures, bottom line results and upcoming prospects, businesses do stall and stagnate. Streamline.com was a...

BECOMING PART OF THE SOLUTION.
October 1, 2000... When a new technology rolls over you, you're either part of the steamroller or part of the road. --Stewart Brand, The Media Lab 1987 Stewart Brand's observation was about technology but it could just as well have been about any new...

Cardstore.com Offers Private Label Card Store Solution.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... Combining Internet technologies with state-of-the-art digital printing and direct mail fulfillment, CardStore.com provides a new revenue channel for online businesses and an integrated solution for one-to-one marketing. The company offers...

eLUXURY.com Indulges the Luxury Lifestyle.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... eLUXURY.com is offering a community of luxury brands and services as well as editorial content on the luxury lifestyle. Through eLUXURY, consumers have access to more than 60 of the world's most prominent brands--many exclusive to the...

WANTads.com Acquires CollectingNation.com.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... Fortifying its online auction and classified advertising holdings in the collectibles niche, WANTads.com has acquired the nation's top-rated collectibles auction community, CollectingNation.com. Both Web sites will be operated independently and...

Senada.com Facilitates Corporate Event Planning.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... Senada.com has launched Senada.com Professional, an event planning tool that enables professionals to create, send and manage branded invites and RSVPs. Event planners can send out invites in minutes by simply choosing a quick card, branded...

New Site Offers Free Online Education.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... FreeEdu.com (web.freeedu.com) is developing a roster of courses to eventually serve a user population from kindergartners through adults. The site aims to meet the needs of a diverse population including students seeking professional business...

Birthday Express.com and Sears Portrait Studio Form Partnership.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... Birthday Express.com and Sears Portrait Studio have partnered to promote each other's products, services and special offers through print, online and in-store display vehicles. Sears Portrait Studio will print a Birthday Express.com exclusive...

Distributedmedia.com Targets Healthcare Market.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... DistributedMedia.com's new subsidiary, DMC HealthMedia will install Sight & Sound [TM] microbroadcasting systems in common areas of healthcare facilities such as waiting rooms, lobbies, cafeterias and physician and employee lounges. This will...

DM People.(direct marketing)
October 1, 2000... LILLIAN VERNON NAMES PRESIDENT The Lillian Vernon Corporation has promoted Kevin Green to president. Previously, he served the company as executive vice president of merchandising, marketing and Lillian Vernon Online. In this new position,...

The Month Of October.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2000... In the News: "Joe Frazier Becomes Official World Heavyweight Boxing Champion." Headline: Ideas In Mailer Must Be Identified By Consumer The Story: Columnist Murray Raphel contends that in terms of goods sold, "the most successful ideas...