Blog: direct marketing

Showing blogs: 1–9 of 9

Increasing Marketing Complexity Demands Smart Outsourcing

Mar 23 2011

In an article in the Harvard Business Review a few years ago, Gail McGovern and John Quelch argued that outsourcing marketing can lead to better quality and lower costs. They were arguing this primarily in the context of analytics and direct marketing, since most companies did not have in-depth expertise within their organizations to scale and manage these functions effectively and efficiently.

Marketing and Innovation: A Tale of Two Companies

May 13 2010

When most people talk about innovation, they are often referring to the development of new or improved products, a la the iPad. However, innovation with regard to processes and entirely new business models are often much more impactful. Famous examples of this are the lean manufacturing techniques pioneered by Japanese companies, the supply chain revolutions led by Dell and Wal-Mart, offshore support and development driven by Indian oursourcing companies such as Infosys and online retail shopping experiences from Amazon, e-Bay and myriad smaller online retailers. Innovation in marketing can likewise help to transform businesses.

It's All in the Delivery

Jan 7 2010

It's Friday night. If your household is like mine, this occurrence is synonymous with pizza and a movie, typically enjoyed in the comfort of our own home. Combining our infatuation with this magical combination of dough, tomato sauce, cheese and you-name-it in conjunction with the visual stimulation of a good flick somehow makes everything right.

Not too long ago, our pursuit of this objective involved a well-defined, perfectly timed-out process: order the pizza by phone, drive to the video rental store, select a movie, pickup the pizza, and return home with the spoils. But we live in a time of great change, when we constantly have to adapt, altering our routines to maintain, or even improve, the overall experience and perceived benefit.

Let customers control how/what/when when they hear from you

Dec 29 2009

One of the most annoying aspects of the customer experience does not have to do with the shopping experience but with the communication experience. A constant refrain we hear from customers across the board (whether in B2B or B2C situations) is that they get too many calls or emails but often do not hear when there is relevant news that they are truly interested in. On the other hand, a surprising (and dismaying) number of marketers still measure their productivity by the sheer volume of outbound communications (email, direct mail, calls, touches, etc.) rather than by the quality or even the relevance.

Requiem for the NCDM?

Dec 15 2009

I attended the recent NDCM (National Center for Database Marketing conference) in Las Vegas last week, after a gap of many years, the triggering event being the fact that I was on a keynote panel being moderated by David Frankland of Forrester Research. Attending the event after this multi-year hiatus and, particularly, on the tenth year anniversary of a keynote address I had given there after I had started Quaero in 1999, I was struck by the changes in the conference over the years. It is, to state the obvious for those who have been attending for many years, much smaller than it used to be. I would guess a fourth or even a fifth of the size that it was ten years ago. When you consider the fact that there used to be two NCDMs a year at that time versus just one this year, that is quite a precipitous fall. Given the revolutionary changes in marketing over the past ten years, one would have expected quite the opposite. The NCDM has always been focused on the technology aspects of direct marketing and technology has been the driver behind many of the changes in marketing in recent years.

Good Data Hygiene Never Goes Out of Style

Jul 22 2009

"Data hygiene - the art of keeping a direct mail database clean and up-to-date - could prove to be the most irritating buzzword of 2001. But, it could be key to the success of direct mail printers."
-"Data hygiene to be your 2001 buzzword," Printing World, January 8, 2001

So, what is data hygiene? The term "data hygiene" simply refers to a set of procedures for keeping a name-and-address database in good shape. This usually involves:

Ensuring the database doesn't contain duplicate records (thus, the terms "dedupe" and "merge-purge").
Maintaining the addresses in the U.S. Postal Service's standard format to ensure "deliverability" (by "scrubbing" and "parsing," which are other industry terms).

Digital vs Direct Marketing

Jul 20 2009

In my previous blog, I had written about how digital marketing spend will increase in 2009 and beyond. So how does this affect marketing organizations? This blog is part one of a two-part series on the divide between Digital and direct marketing and what are tactics to bridge the gap.

Will hard times spur innovation?

Jul 13 2009

Based on what I observe with many of our clients these days, particularly the ones that are hurting the most, I wonder if "hard times bring forth innovation". Clients in multiple industries seem more open to considering new ways of doing things, perhaps because the same old same old is simply not working anymore Or is it perhaps because they are so desperate, they will try anything? Actually, having spent some time with senior marketing executives as well as general managers, I think the smart ones see an opportunity to actually use these hard times to execute on ideas they have had for some time - so it may be a case of not letting a crisis go to waste.

Meaningful Personalization Gone Wrong

Jun 17 2009

Those of us involved in the business of direct marketing understand the importance of meaningful personalization and targeted messaging. Unfortunately, that personalization and targeting can have negative consequences due to poor data hygiene, bad list choices and errors in programming. Some of these consequences include poor ROI, damage to customer relationships and a tremendous waste of marketing dollars.

Here are some examples of what I am talking about.

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