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 
