even lure the sleaze merchants and the scam artists away from 900-numbers.
A shopping-at-home boom emerged in the American economy along with the rapid development of catalog sales in the direct marketing industry. Advances in communication technology led to the development of the development of the telemarketing concept which rapidly is changing the face of the direct marketing industry. Almost any item one can imagine is available through some form of direct marketing. Both goods and services are included in the product offerings. Increasingly, Americans like shopping at home--and marketers are out to make the process easier.
Shopping at home takes several forms. Responding to catalogues is one major way to shop at home. Shopping by computer is another way. Telemarketing, however, holds the promise to dominate the field. Telemarketing is a method of marketing that combines characteristics of both telephone selling and direct mail selling.
The telemarketing method generates from two to five times the initial response sales as does the direct mail method when used alone. The improvement over straight telephone selling is even greater. The combination of characteristics created a potent new marketing method. Telemarketing has been used with great success by major organizations, such as MCI, GTE, and Sears. As the American economy continues to evolve, an ever increasing array of products and services are being sold through the use of telemarketing programs.
Marketers who adopt to technology and provide multi-portal access to customers will have great advantage over those who do not. Marketers who fail to embrace changes in how customers are reached and in the ways in which individual customers access the information they want likely will find themselves falling by the wayside. The new marketing system focuses on the concept of how customers access information. Thus, pressure is placed on marketers to provid...