Direct Marketing

One of the great things about going on vacation is it gives me a chance to look at marketing from the eye of a relaxed consumer, and listen to what other consumers—namely my kids—think about campaigns they see.

During our week in Maine, our eyes were looking skyward when we saw a small plane pulling a banner advertising the $3.99 ham and eggs breakfast special at Rosa Linda’s in Saco, ME.

My seven-year-old son was curious about the ROI of this marketing effort. Or more specifically, he wanted to know (a) what it cost to have a plane fly your message over the beach every single day, (b) why this restaurant wanted people to know what their breakfasts cost, when we always seemed to be closer to lunchtime when the banner flew over, and (c) why did people eat ham for breakfast? more

There are certain physical acts males enjoy. Some of these are focused on striking one inanimate object (baseball, football, golf ball) with another (a bat, a shoe, a club). Others involve consuming items the approximate size of a sports coupe’s engine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan’s_Hot_Dog_Eating_Contest).

Similarly, there are certain physical acts males do not enjoy. A stereotype lumps the hunter-gatherer aspects of shopping into this category, and a new study from Experian Marketing Services affirms this.

more

In a recent study on new movers, marketing services provider Epsilon notes that excluding the actual costs of the relocation itself—the vans, the boxes, presumably the muscle rub that’s needed after carrying said boxes—people who move house spend an average of nearly $1,200 on home furnishings and related products in the 15 months immediately following the move. What’s more, 28% of that total is spent in the first three months.

So if you sell furniture, kitchenware, gardening supplies, appliances, and the like, you probably want to make sure you’re communicating early and often with those movers.

Why, then, isn’t anyone communicating with me?

more

For you futurists out there - well - all I can say is look out because right over the next enormous crest comes the next greatest leap ahead in technology in the form of two internet delivery vehicles - the TV and the mobile device. What’s that? The TV? Absolutely! Follow me here……… more

One recent afternoon, I left my home office to run an errand. There, tucked under my windshield wiper, was a mimeographed flyer.

This was a little unusual. I live in a very residential suburban area—anyone distributing things by hand typically puts them either in the mailbox or tucked inside my front door.

I looked at the flyer—headlined “Mary Kay Award Winners”—and immediately saw a huge missed opportunity.

more

The New York Times recently noted one of the most positive developments for loyalty marketers since platinum stopped being merely a precious metal and became an aspirational adjective. In “Cellphone in New Role: Loyalty Card”, author Claire Cain Miller reports consumers “are increasingly using their cellphones to track their visits and purchases, and receive rewards.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/technology/01loopt.html)

Folks, this is very, very good news, and I don’t just mean for consumers who are going to earn more double decaf skim lattes. The loyalty mechanism cellphones are replacing is, for the most part, punchcards – the buy 10, get one free slips of paper which entirely too many retailers still think of when they consider loyalty marketing.

more