From EU legislation to permission-based marketing, it seems a new strategy or approach is introduced every month.
While I'm all for adopting new ideas, the direct marketing industry has never really shifted from its core practice. This is essentially the process of identifying the right prospect by acquiring the correct data -- business and consumer -- and matching this data to a particular product or service. So how can this apparently simple process work better? And why, in some cases, does it not work at all?
Often the problems lie in the fact that marketers forget to take a holistic view of the value chain when embarking on a direct marketing campaign. The typical value chain is made up of the following: data, media, production, distribution and delivery and customer response management. Every link in the chain has a potential weakness. By concentrating solely on one link or another without thinking how this might affect the whole process can be of huge detriment to the total campaign.
Let's start by looking at each link in more depth. We all know that data is the key to understanding who the prospects are for a campaign, and understanding their drivers. But data quality has to be inherent in this strategy so that marketers can be sure the data they have is correct especially when it is taken into consideration that 拢163m was wasted on mailings to businesses that have either moved or gone away in 2002.
With an increasingly varied array of media, marketers should also use data to drive their media choice. Which media will deliver the right message to the right people with the best result?
The production -- and the cost of it -- of any given campaign can rely solely on how suppliers are treated. Many are managed on a cost-basis with squeezed margins and very little time to produce. If suppliers are treated more as a "partner" they can work with the marketer to drive value across the chain and take an active role in making the campaign profitable.
Delivery and distribution are a necessity and although not the most exciting part of the campaign can make a real difference to response so need to be monitored, closely controlled and most importantly aligned to the needs of the target audience. But this isn't where the chain ends and often forgotten is the impact fulfilment has on a brand campaign. For example, is the fulfilment house geared up to manage the likely customer response? Are staff fully trained to handle queries and are the call centres staffed at times the customer is likely to call? Even more importantly, is enough stock available to meet the demand?
All these elements need to be in place to deliver a targeted direct marketing campaign. But marketers also need to go the extra mile to ensure it is a memorable one. From car manufacturers who take two weeks to send out brochures to companies who only fulfil 36% of requests, it is the entire process on which the merits of a campaign are judged. In fact, the more marketers start acting like managing directors and not product or brand managers, the more this process will become the rule and not the exception.
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