Journal of Interactive Marketing

Direct marketing is being used more and more often to support, rather than take the place of, salespeople in the field. However, when new techniques are not properly introduced, many salespeople reject them, either because they fear being replaced by the new methods or because they feel inadequate about their potential effectiveness in the operations launched. The present study shows how certain characteristics of the salesperson and certain organizational measures can increase the salesperson's perception of both role clarity (the part played by direct marketing in the company strategy) and task clarity (the direct marketing skills of the sales staff).

Improving direct mail response rates generally may be accomplished by two alternative approaches: 1) target selection and 2) optimization of direct mail characteristics. We propose a conjoint analysis-experimental approach to simultaneously implement target selection and design optimization. Target selection is, in our approach, induced by the “opt out” function of the reply card. In an empirical study for a charity institution, we show how the optimal design of a reply card can be derived and how the reply card can be used for target selection purposes. The results from both approaches are used to derive profit implications.

This paper discusses a nonparametric approach for segmentation analysis that does not require a priori knowledge about the true response rate of the segments in the list, other than classifying a segment as being either good, marginal, or bad. Drawing on the binomial distribution, three major issues involved in the segmentation approach are discussed—determining the sample size of the segment in the test mailing, recommending or rejecting a segment from the rollout mailing, and determining the regression-to-the-mean (RTM) effect for projecting the rollout response rate. Detailed tables are presented to help implement the results for practical applications.

Mail order companies continue their development in Europe, often operating simultaneously in different countries. Both globalization efforts and liberalization from public monopolies can be observed. Logistics and cross-border organizations play a key role, as does consideration of market specifics for each country.

Reader information service cards (“bingo cards”) have been used by magazines as a positive sales tool and by advertisers to generate large numbers of prospects. A study was conducted in four stages to determine the frequency of bingo card use among consumer magazines, fulfillment performance related to information requests, and policies and opinions of advertisers and magazines regarding bingo cards. Less than 8% of all consumer magazines include bingo cards. Advertisers’ response to requests for information via bingo cards tends to be very slow, if they respond at all. Yet survey results indicate that both magazines and advertisers tend to view bingo cards quite positively.

Relationship management is becoming more important in direct marketing. Measuring the strength of relationships is important, since relationship strength can be used as a segmentation variable. However, in measuring relationship strength, usually one or more behavioral indicators are used (e.g., the R/F/M formula), so that these indicators measure customer quality instead of relationship quality, which is mainly determined by customer perceptions. This paper shows some preliminary results of a relationship audit, which is dependent on customer attitudes towards the relationship.