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The Evolution of Direct Marketing: From Flyers to Facebook
- 1. The Evolution of Direct Marketing: From Flyers to Facebook Teri Wiegman MCDM Com546 May, 31, 2011
- 2. Late 1800’s– 1980’s Mid to Late 1800’s 1980’s – Early 2000
- 3. Supervening Need: Speed
- 5. “I Can’t Hear You….”
- 6. Name: Beth Smith Gender: Female Phone: 555-555-5555 Email: female@runner.com Age: 25-30 Interests: Runner Geography: Lives in Seattle Reads: Runners World
- 7. Credits Presentation By: Teri Wiegman UW – MCDM 546 Spring 2011 Photo Sources Rubber Duck (slides 1 & 5): http://istockpho.to/rubberduckshades Chalkboard (slide 2) http://istockpho.to/chalkboardstickies Train (slide 3): http://bit.ly/liUshr Salesman: http://istockpho.to/50sSalesman Times Square: http://bit.ly/istocktimessquare Database: http://bit.ly/bluedatabase Movie Clip http://bit.ly/movieadvertisingagencyfuture References Winston, B (1998). Media Technology and Society. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Hardin, G. (1968). The Tragedy of the Commons. Science, Vol 162, 1243-1248. Levitt, T. (1960). Marketing Myopia. Harvard Business Review, 138-149
Editor's Notes
- First let’s put a definition to “direct marketing” so that everyone understands the context of the direction I have taken with my topic. Direct marketing is “a sub discipline of advertising with emphasis on Measurable results (e.g. responses) from it’s intended audience regardless of medium (which is also referred to as “channels). It is “interpersonal” in nature, meaning the message is intended specifically for you, vs. a “mass audience”. It often has a call to action and a measurement goal and for those you marketers out there, it’s all about “leads” – how many people responded that could potentially buy. Examples include direct mail, online (e.g. like email), infomercials, telemarketing, etc. Other names for it might include database marketing, 1:1 marketing, lead generation marketing and direct response.
- What I will talk about is the evolution of mass communications, leading up to interpersonal communications, in the context of marketing. Because at the root of direct marketing is “advertising” it is important that we first understand the evolution of advertising.While my paper touches across a broad time period, my benchmark is the early 1900’s, which marks the age of consumerism when large corporations began embracing print advertising
- Using Winston’s theory on supervening necessity, we look at the social necessities that were taking place during mid century 1800 and the technology that was developing.For example, while the railroad service provided a DELIVERY MECHANISM for the postal age, it was really about how the spread of the railroad service increased the SPEED in which people could transport information. People began imagining and considering how they might regularly communicate with people they could not see and trains provided a solution to this social problem of speed.So now people could converse with people at a distance – this set the stage for the advertising market. There was now a need for campaigns to inform western markets about the availability of products that were manufactured in the east. And of course the printing press made this dissemination of information with “words on paper” possible (newspapers, magazines, posters, flyers, etc.)
- In the context of advertising, the evolution of print took place in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s as advertisers were trying to find new ways to have their messages be more visually appealing. This led to advertisers seeking out state of the art mass communication technologies, and resulted in such disruptions as lithographers taking over the role of typesetters because they could provide more innovative printing solutions to advertisers.We can establish that radio for commercial purpose, really came into play in the early 1900s. For advertising purposes, World War I brought about the supervening necessity of radio advertising. After the war “consumer credit” became available so advertisers were seeking ways in which to advertise such items as cars and household appliances. As advertisers sponsored such programming as baseball games and drama programming, they were for the first time able to put some consideration in reaching a specific “target “ audience (men + soap operas). Now things could be seen and heard.TV was invented in the 20’s, but really didn’t became available to the masses until the 50’s, when it was more affordable. What spurred the revolution from radio to TV was again, associated with the war. During the war a lot of money was put into the radio industry, which resulted in facilities and workers specializing in electronics. After the war, something needed to be done with these resources. Pent up consumer demand led to more advertising and television offered a visual medium in which advertising could now to seen, heard and watched.Up until now all of this is considered mass media marketing, with the exception of advertisers ability to target customers based on program viewership, which is still considered mass marketing.
- As we move into the “future”, which I’ve stated begins in the 1980s, mass communication has caused mass message overload. Like to Garrett Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons”, advertising messages have become the commons. Because when it comes to our minds, like the environment, consumer attention to communications is a limited and shared resources. As advertisers compete for consumers share of mind, consumers tune out and it becomes more difficult to have any impact with advertising. How many people experience this?Like Theodore Levitt’s Marketing Myopia article (Harvard Business Review) – advertisers need to focus on consumers needs rather than on selling products. So as a marketer sending out more messages to more people doesn’t sell more products. So…consumer message overload is a social force in transforming marketing. This marks our turning point to the development of interpersonal communications, or direct marketing…
- Advertisers needed ways in which to drive relevant and meaningful messages to specific consumers. So at this point the focus needed to be on “share of customer” vs. “share of market”. And at the root of technology enabling this is the database. Through a well developed database, marketers can tap into this consumer information and develop messages that they can personalize and target their audience more effectively.For example, if you couple a database application with digital printing, you can develop a direct mail that depicts a woman running by the Space Needle to promote a marathon event in Seattle, and send only to female runners living in Seattle.I don’t get deep into today’s technologies, but of course the internet is the most disruptive technology of today’s times in driving interpersonal communications. Facebook can track and aggregate members browsing behavior on any site that contains their own share-enabling widgets, regardless of whether the uses shares the page’s content. This allows FB to use this aggregated data to inform the type of ads a consumer sees when returning to the social network.
- In conclusion – technology has brought forth an evolution transformation in the way we communication with each other and in the way advertisers communicate with us. Looking forward, consumers will be in control, and advertising agencies, “heads up”…if you want to stick around, you need to start looking at things differently.