ANSWERS TO DIRECT MARKETING QUESTIONS

The Amex Mail Order Catalog is an interesting concept of how to weed out potential mail order recipients who may not reply or order. The fact that Amex decided on a number of criteria from which to cull its list of 500,000 potential customers makes good economic sense. While many direct mail offers seem to get a response of maybe two or three percent, when sending out an expensive catalog, one has to raise the potential response. To do so, takes some careful digging. This means it requires more than buying a prospect list from a vendor, or using census data.

While the eventual list was based on household income, age of household head, his (or her) gender, and PRIZM classification (McDonald 378), surely there had to be other characterizations, inclusions and elimination of names. It would have been interesting to expand this section to include some of the preparations and the decisions on why these four formed the basis for the list of 500,000.

For example, if the head of household is female, one has to wonder if it means she has less time for shopping, and would like the convenience of ordering from a catalog. The annual household income would provide some insight into whether this is a working mother, someone living on alimony and child support, or whether there was wealth as the result of someone's bequest or other inheritance. I for one would have liked to see another criterion added: job. Was this a wo

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, attached that week or month. QUESTION THREE: One line in Wunderman's book stimulates me. "The only thing that counts is results" (Wunderamn 64). At first, that sounds easy. Of course, the more you ponder this statement the more you realize that in order to get results you have to (1) accept a challenge, (2) think through a creative scheme that complements the client's product or services, and, if you're convinced that it is the right approach, don't let the pessimists at the executive's meeting-room table discourage you. In reading the book it is easy to think, or be fooled into believing, that all it takes is an idea and that it's all downhill from there. Here is the way this book- and, especially that single statement made me sit up and accept some responsibility for my career. The first thing Wunderman's career and life lessons affect me is to be prepared. To know, as that popular Country and Western song says: when to hold 'em, and when to fold 'em. That often means taking the time to try out various approaches. One cannot be too anxious to present the first idea that comes into your head, and think you've solved any and all problems. I can remember his experience at TIME and MONEY magazines, where they went out
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Approximate Word count = 2436
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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