Direct Mail Essay -- GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

Direct Mail "Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it." Stephen Leacock Philosopher extraordinaire "Really good direct mail works like picking your prospect up by the ankles and shaking him until all the money falls out of his pockets." Matthew Samp Direct Mail Copy & Graphic Design As consumers, we are often bombarded by different types of advertisements each day. Whether it’s by television, newspaper, or billboards, advertising has reached us one way or another. Yet, a majority of the ads that we encounter are often meaningless and uninteresting mainly because of the fact that these ads are meant to reach a certain target audience. This perception seems to change, however, when we look inside our mailboxes, pick-up our telephone, and even check our e-mail. We often ponder how marketers know that we have a pet snake, own a certain kind of computer, or even wear 70’s clothing. That is because every time we purchase products such as: electronics, computer software, and other products, direct-mail advertising is in the air. Every time we send those warranties and registration forms back to the manufacturer; as consumers we are often unaware that we are sending information about ourselves that will be used as; statistical, personal, and informative data for future marketing purposes. Thus, marketers and advertisers know what kinds of products to target us with. Although direct-mail, or as we call it â€Å"junk-mail†, somehow finds its way to our homes and businesses, it can be considered as a convenient way for us to shop without having to leave the house, since as consumers, we are often pressed for time. In order to understand direct-mail advertising, we will be discussing this unique medium in a broad spectrum of subjects and then give an example of a company that successfully used direct mail advertising. Among the subjects we will be discussing are: what direct-mail advertising is, the historical development of the medium, different methods and types of mail, the future of direct-mail advertising, and the internet’s use of the medium for visual communication. Direct Mail Direct-mail advertising is a form of medium used by direct marketers; it is the most personal and selective of all media. Th... ...etting e-mails from the companies that we visit or interested in. As a matter of fact, some of the largest commercial sites on the World Wide Web have agreed to feed information about their customer ¹s reading, shopping and entertainment habits into a new and improved database system that is now tracking the moves of more than 30 million Internet users, recording where they go, and what they read, often without the user ¹s knowledge. This agreement by participating Web sites is primarily used for direct-advertising, it promises to deliver precise, direct, and personalized ads, specifically for that target user. Eventhough this is said to be an invasion of privacy, many of the powerful commercial sites are using, selling, and distributing these consumer behaviors and informations to numerous retailers, advertisers, and marketers for direct-advertising use. Many advertising and marketing experts believe that direct-mail online is only in it ¹s early developmental stages. As an evolving mass medium, online direct-mail advertising is wh ere radio was in 1920, where television was in 1950, and where cable was during 1970. All of these, you may have observed, are now universal.