From Direct Mail to Direct Response Marketing

Abstract

This chapter illustrates the transition of direct mail to direct response marketing to today’s direct marketing is unique. The brilliance of TV advertising has been developed about as far as it can go. It has evolved into an extraordinary new human language all its own. For advertisers who have a product with a broad enough appeal and big enough budget, it can be unmatched for effectiveness in creating excitement and desire. The creative challenge posed by individualized marketing is to find ways to recreate the same values of a good conversation in the advertising communications, and to find opportunities to do so. During the ’80s, direct marketing as a concept spread from the direct order marketers [mail order] such as the book and record clubs, to the banks, the airlines, the hotels and other service companies, and finally to many manufacturers and retailers.