Direct mail works, but in a targeted, laser-focused approach, hence the importance of a good data-based marketing team. —Dino
Direct Mail
Many Advertisers shied away from direct
mail in the past, fearful of the image it might create or harboring the belief
that direct mail was useful only for low-cost products. but this is no longer
the case, For example, Porsche Cars North America, Inc., uses direct mail to
target high-income, upscale consumers who are most likely to purchase its expensive
sports cars. Porsche developed a direct-mail piece that wa sent to a precisely
defined target market: physicians in specialties with the highest income levels.
This list was screened to match the demographics of Porsche buyers and narrowed
further to specific geographic areas...This creative campaign generated one
of the highest response rates of any mailing Porsche has done in recent years.
— Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications perspective,
George E. Belch & Michael A. Belch
Ogilvy on Direct Mail
One day a man walked into a London agency and asked to see the boss. He had
bought a country house and was about to open it as a hotel. Could the agency
help him to get customers? He had $500 to spend. Not surprisingly, the head
of the agency turned him over to the office boy, who happened to be the author
of this book. I invested his money in penny postcards and mailed them to well-heeled
people living in the neighborhood. Six weeks later the hotel opened to a full
house. I had tasted blood.
From that day on, I have been a voice crying in the wilderness, trying to
persuade the advertising establishment to take direct mail more seriously
and to stop treating its practitioners as non-commissioned offices. It was
my secret weapon in the avalanche of new business acquisitions which made
Ogilvy & Mather an instant success.
— David Ogilvy,
Ogilvy
on Advertising
