Direct Marketing
This is an excerpt from the paper...
What's the solution when you're afraid your product is going to be overlooked in a retail store where it will be just one of many items? The answer, use a direct mail campaign. The Pleasant Company's approach is definitely worth looking at more closely, since it provides a really good reason why direct mail should be used by some (and perhaps not by others). What makes this line of dolls so unusual and deserving of more attention than it would get on a retail shelf is the history part of the line of products. Here are not merely dolls for girls to play with, but history lessons to be learned with every one. This therefore is more than a Barbie or a Ken or a Cabbage Patch toy. By using direct mail and/or catalogs to provide information, Pleasant felt that "Direct mail was the best way to sell a relatively complex product line in a softer and gentler voice to girls, mothers, and grandmothers." (McDonald 147) What made direct mail even more of a effective means to sell the product line was that it could provide endorsements by teachers and educators, something that would be impossible, if the line were merely displayed on a retailer's shelf. The fact that not only dolls but also books were part of Pleasant's historical line, made it possible to do two effective direct marketing actions: One, to offer books to libraries for use by children there, and to sell them by direct mail to educators and to create displays at educational conferences. This is a multi-l
. . .
y you at dinner!" Or, "I get so many catalogs, they must destroy whole forests!" And, of course, "Things always look better than they are when it arrives, so it's shoddy merchandise."
Direct marketing has come of age! Now, the problem is proving it with example. Well, for one thing a lot of American consumers have grown up. Even though they still buy cubit zirconiums from that Home Shopping Network, for the most part, consumers are smarter now and they won't accept second best at high prices. They are also pretty well inured to advertising claims. You can't over-promise in direct advertising, and just sending a cheap circular will do for neighborhood cleaners or car washes or super markets. It will not do for respected and respectable firms. Maybe one of the purposes of this book is to point out that you CAN sell quality, even through the mail or on the Internet. You can rely on some of these large firms to be honest, to offer only the best quality, and to give the consumer the best possible buy for the money he or she is spending. But, and this is a big BUT- the marketer has a right to earn a profit. So, the old clichT that "if it's too good to be true, it usually isn't" separates the good guys from the fly-by-night fast-bu
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Shopping Network, Produce Wunderman, Pleasant Direct, Ford Fairlane, Studying Pleasant, PRICE Below, Social Security, Franklin Mint, Christmas Club, Direct Marketing, direct mail, direct marketing, getting people, product line, ford fairlane, direct advertising, franklin mint, getting people spend, christmas club, savings idea, social security, ford fairlane gift, direct marketing age,
Approximate Word count = 2413
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Direct Marketing
|