Direct marketing involves sending targeted marketing materials like catalogs and mailers directly to consumers to promote products and services. It relies on databases of customer information and contact details to address specific marketing messages to audiences. The key benefits are targeting customized messages, affordability, and measurability of responses. However, challenges include the risk of annoying customers with intrusive tactics, low response rates, and potential legal issues around privacy and data protection. Some also see direct marketing practices as unfairly taking advantage of customers or invading their privacy in some cases.

1. Unit 5 Direct Marketing

2. Direct Marketing
• A form of advertising in which physical
marketing materials are provided to
consumers in order to communicate
information about a product or service. Direct
marketing does not involve advertisements
placed on the internet, on television or over
the radio. Types of direct marketing materials
include catalogs, mailers and fliers.

3. Features
• A Set of Database:A database of names
(prospects, customers, businesses, etc.), often
with certain other relevant information such as –
contact number/address, demographic
information, purchase habits/history, company
history, etc., is used to develop a list of targeted
entities with some existing common interests,
traits or characteristics. Generating such a
database is often considered part of the Direct
Marketing campaign.

4. • Addressing the Listed Customers:Marketing
messages are addressed directly to this list of
customer and/or prospects. Direct marketing
relies on being able to address the members
of a target market. Addressability comes in a
variety of forms including email addresses,
phone numbers, Web browser cookies, fax
numbers and postal addresses.

5. • Direct Action Related:Direct marketing seeks to
drive a specific “call to action.” For example, an
advertisement may ask the prospect to call a free
phone number, mail in a response or order, or
click on a link to a website.
• Specific Emphasis:Direct marketing emphasizes
trackable, measurable responses, results and
costs from prospects and/or customers –
regardless of medium. Direct marketing is
practiced by businesses of all sizes

6. Benefits of direct marketing
• Targeting: You can send specific messages to particular groups of
customers and potential customers based on demographics and buying
behaviour. The more targeted your campaigns, the more successful they
are likely to be.
• Personalisation: Reach your audience with a personal touch. Direct mail
or email can be addressed to a specific person, and even include details
like past orders. A phone call can engage a customer in conversation to
start building a relationship with your business.
• Affordable: Tactics like email marketing or leafleting can be very cost
effective. Most direct marketing will be more cost effective for SMEs than
mass media advertising campaigns.
• Measurable: If your marketing messages ask the recipient to take a
particular action or use a specific voucher code, you can easily track the
success of campaigns. This can help you plan future campaigns.
• Informative: You can deliver detailed information on your products,
services and prices unlike other forms of advertising.

7. Challenges of direct marketing
• Intrusive: Many people find direct marketing annoying and intrusive. This is
especially true of telemarketing and door-to-door sales. Some people
dislike marketing mail and consider it to be 'junk mail'. If consumers find
your marketing tactics annoying it can create a negative brand association
and make them less likely to buy. This is more likely with less targeted
campaigns.
• Environment: Using leafleting or paper-heavy direct mail campaigns can be
bad for the environment. To avoid this, and any negative impact on your
brand image, use recycled materials or try email campaigns.
• Low response rates: direct marketing response rates tend to be around 1-
3%.When you reach a consumer who isn't interested in your products of
services, it wastes money and they are likely to find it irritating. Use more
targeted lists as opposed to sending out mass messages to minimise this.
• Competition: It can be hard to make your messages stand out when the
recipient receives high number of marketing emails or direct mail.
• Cost: Tactics like telemarketing and direct mail may have high financial and
resource costs.
• Legal issues: There are laws relating to privacy and data protection in

8. Public and Ethical Issues in Direct
Marketing
• Irritation: Many people find the increasing number of
hard-sell, direct-marketing solicitations by phone,
television, and e-mail to be a nuisance.
• Unfairness: Some direct marketers take advantage of
impulsive or less sophisticated buyers. Television
shopping channels and infomerciab—extended-length,
direct-response commercials that appear to be
television shows demonstrating or discussing a
product—may be the worst culprits. They feature
smooth-talking hosts, elaborate demonstrations,
claims of drastic or short-time price reductions, and
easy purchasing to capture buyers who have low sales
resistance.

9. • Deception and fraud: The Federal Trade
Commission receives thousands of complaints
annually about scams and frauds. Some direct
marketers exaggerate claims about products
and performance, some political fundraisers
use questionable gimmicks such as envelopes
that resemble official documents, and some
nonprofit organizations pretend to conduct
surveys when they are actually trying to
identify donors.

10. • Invasion of privacy: Critics worry that
marketers may know too much about their
customers' lives, and that they may use this
knowledge to take unfair advantage.