MARKETING

1. Define direct marketing and discuss its benefits to companies and customers.

Direct marketing consist of direct connection with carefully targeted individual consumers to both obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting customer relationships. Using detailed databases, direct marketers tailor their offers and communications to the needs of narrowly defined segments or even individual buyers.

For buyers, direct marketing is convenient, easy to use, and private. It gives buyers ready access to a wealth of products and information at home and around the globe. Direct marketing is also immediate and interactive, allowing buyers to create exactly the information, products, or services they desire, than order them on the spot. For sellers, direct marketing is a powerful tool for building customer relationships. Using database marketing, today’s marketers can target small groups or individual consumers, tailor offers to individual needs and promote these offers through personalized communications. It also offers them a low cost, efficient alternative for reaching their markets. As a result of these advantages to both buyers and sellers, direct marketing has become the fastest-growing form of marketing.

2. Identify and discuss the major forms of direct marketing.

The main forms of direct marketing include personal selling, direct mail marketing, catalog marketing, telephone marketing, direct response television marketing, kiosk marketing and online marketing.

Direct mail marketing, the largest form of marketing, consists of the company sending an offer, announcement or other item to a person at a specific address. Telephone marketing consists of using the telephone to sell directly to consumers. Recently, new forms of “ mail delivery “ have become popular, such as e-mail marketing. Some marketers rely on catalog marketing-selling through catalog mailed to a select list of customers, made available in stores, or accessed on the Web. Telephone marketing consists of using the telephone to sell directly to customers. Direct-response television marketing has two forms: direct-response advertising ( or infomercials ) and home shopping channels. Kiosk are information and ordering machines that direct marketers place in stores, airport, and other location. In recent years, a number of new digital direct marketing technologies have emerged, including mobile phone marketing, podcast and vodcasts and interactive TV. Online marketing involves online channels that digitally link sellers with consumers.

3. Explain how companies have responded to the internet and other powerful new technologies with online marketing.

Online marketing is the fastest growing form of direct marketing. The internet enables consumers and companies to access and share huge amount information with just a few mouse clicks. In turn, the internet has given marketers a whole new way to create value for customer and build customer relationships. It hard to find a company today that doesn’t have a substantial web marketing presence.

Online consumer buying continues to grow at a healthy rate. Some 65 percent of American online users now use the Internet to shop. Perhaps more importantly, by 2010, the Internet will influence a staggering 50 percent of total retail sales. Thus, smart marketers are employing integrated multichannel strategies that use the Web to drive sales to other marketing channels.

4. Discuss how companies go about conducting online marketing to profitably deliver more value to customers.

Companies of all types are now engaged in online marketing. The internet gave birth to the click-only dot-coms, which operate only online. In addition, many traditional brick and mortar companies have now added online marketing operations, transforming themselves into click and mortar competitors. Many click and mortar companies are now having more online success than their Click-only competitors.

Companies can conduct online marketing in any of the four ways: creating a web site, placing ads and promotions online, setting up or participating in Web communities or using online e-mail . The first step typically is to set up a website. Beyond simply setting up a site, however, companies must make their sites engaging, easy to use, and useful in order to attract visitors, hold them, and bring them back again. Online marketers can use various forms of online advertising to build their internet brands or to attract visitors to their Web sites. Beyond online advertising, other forms of online promotion include online display advertising, search-related advertising, content sponsorship, alliances and affiliate programs, and viral marketing, the internet version of mouth marketing. Online marketers can also participate in Web communities, which take advantage of the C2C properties of the Web. Finally, e-mail marketing has become a fast-growing tool for both B2C and B2B marketers. Whatever direct marketing tools they use, marketers must work hard to integrate them into a cohesive marketing efforts.

5. Overview the public policy and ethical issues presented by direct marketing,

Direct marketers and their customers usually enjoy mutually rewarding relationships. Occasionally, however, direct marketing presents a darker side. The aggressive and sometimes shady tactics of a few direct marketers can bother or harm consumers, giving the entire industry a black eye. Abuses range from simple excesses that irritate consumers to instance of unfair practices or even outright deception and fraud. The direct-marketing industry has also faced growing concerns about invasions-of-privacy and Internet Security issues. Such concerns call for strong action by marketers and public policy makers to curb direct-marketing abuses. In the end, most direct marketers want the same things that consumers want: honest and well-designed marketing offers targeted only toward consumers who will appreciate and respond to them.