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 AdvertisingDirect mail works, but in a targeted, laser-focused approach, hence the
importance of a good data-based marketing team. —Dino
— Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications perspective, George E. Belch & Michael A. Belch
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
