Increased media fragmentation has brands turning to multiple agencies to get a single message across to consumers

By: Lekan Oguntoyinbo

As media channels fragment, so do the architects of the campaigns designed to utilize those channels. Where once companies allowed a lone agency to develop and execute a campaign across numerous media channels, a growing number of businesses are now using multiple agencies to cultivate various aspects of the same campaign.

Take, for example, recent moves at Turner Sports, which provides sports programming and entertainment for a wide range of fans. In expanding its offerings for stock-car racing enthusiasts, Turner Sports has worked to calibrate marketing pitches made on a recently developed Web site for car enthusiasts with a catalog that offers assorted racing paraphernalia.

Traditionally, this would mean the brand turning to a single agency to help craft the message. But as new portals emerge, brands are finding that many of the traditional agencies aren’t doing the same quality work as, say, smaller, newer shops. As a result, brands like Turner are now using multiple agencies to drive its messages home.

In Turner’s case, the company farms out work on the racing Web site to Datran Media, a New York digital marketing solutions provider. Meanwhile, it’s in-house marketing team develops the catalogs. In some instances, a third agency may be brought in to handle TV or mobile media.

Though this “multi-agency” model isn’t completely new, the trend appears to be picking up in recent years. Many forward-looking brands have realized that not all agencies are equally equipped to handle the new channels. Sure, a major marketer may know traditional outlets such as TV, but may not have the chops to do great digital work. And the smaller boutique agencies may come up with great marketing ideas for new media, but may find themselves lost navigating the particular challenges of, say, direct mail.

Meanwhile, the company also uses select direct marketers to help fulfill its strong commitment to mail.

“My philosophy on direct mail is, don’t get thrown away,” says Norman Miglietta, director of marketing and advertising of new media for Turner Sports. “The second is to get them to open it up. The third is to get them to take action. We offer three different ways for them to do this. They can go online, call an 800 number or fax in an order.”

As a result, many companies are now seeking specific expertise in a channel.

“We are not a traditional ad agency,” says Sean O’Neal, chief marketing officer of Datran Media. “We don’t just offer media planning and buying. But we offer a capability that most ad agencies don’t – inbox marketing capability.”

Verizon Reaches Out to Small Businesses

By: Frank S. Washington

It’s no secret that big companies often don’t do well when making overtures to small businesses. In many instances, their outreach efforts fail not because big businesses don’t have anything worthwhile to offer but because major marketers aren’t very good at holding the attention of small entrepreneurs.

But a recent, award-winning campaign by Verizon did indeed capture the fancy of many small businesses - and earned some notice from the big boys, too, for both its effectiveness and its simplicity.

In fall 2006, the telecom giant began sending out a test mailing of direct mail pieces that bore a striking resemblance to an all-too-familiar office-supply staple - the interoffice envelope. Verizon targeted 11,851 small businesses with the envelopes, which featured the words “INTERNET NOTICE” stripped across the top and the crossed-out names of fictitious previous recipients. A final “name” - “Cable User” - was unobscured, a cue for business owners to “cross out” their cable provider and switch to a high-speed digital subscriber line (DSL) provided by Verizon.

The envelope was accompanied by a cover letter - with the heading “For Speed, For Features, For Price … Verizon Business DSL” - that was signed by Verizon small business marketing director Marquita Carter.

In an interview, Carter explains that Verizon officials settled on the three-month “Interoffice Envelope” campaign after tests suggested its simple familiarity stood a strong chance of cutting through the promotional clutter that confronts many small businesses.

“The iconic look of an interoffice envelope - who’s going to just toss that out?” asks Carter rhetorically. “We tested this approach and got some really strong results. It bettered our control number by 30 percent.”

Carter says a test is part of every direct mail campaign at Verizon. The company sends out two or more different pieces of direct mail and measures which one generates the most calls and conversions to sales. The responses are benchmarked against the control campaign, which is the best campaign from the last direct mail cycle.

How Combe Inc. used an integrated campaign to promote its new hair rinse

By: Paula Andruss

When consumer products manufacturer Combe Inc. wanted to stimulate trial of its Just For Men hair color product, the White Plains, N.Y., company sought a cost-efficient way to deploy a free sample offer to convert potential customers into actual users.

But reaching men who are predisposed to trying a hair color sample can be tricky, and mass-media channels were not delivering the return on investment the company was looking to attain.

So Combe turned to some unique market research to identify the brand’s optimal prospects, as well as the best way to reach them. After testing several vehicles, the company executed a highly targeted direct mail free trial offer that met its goals and budget in ways that most other media simply couldn’t match.

Selling men on a more youthful look is a challenge for Combe, says Shel Smith, partner at Toronto-based target marketing consultancy Twenty-Ten Inc., the agency that helped execute the mailings. Men, Smith points out, have to be of a certain mindset to be open to trying a hair dye.

“They were looking for a very specific consumer,” says Smith. “It was a man between the ages of 35 and 54 who felt his graying hair was holding him back, either at work or in his romantic life. He had a weak perception about his looks and truly believed he was disadvantaged by graying.”

To reach this group, Combe enacted a multimedia marketing effort that included direct-response television, direct mail and advertising in magazines such as Sports Illustrated and Field & Stream.

Smith has particularly high praise for the impact of direct mail on the Just For Men campaign. “Unlike television, which is very much about brand image, direct mail lets you communicate a lot of information,” he says. “With the trial offer of Just For Men, it allowed Combe to not only physically deliver the sample; it also let them explain to men how to use it and how to follow though with the program.”

An update from a few green marketers we mentioned last year

“How do we continue to work on sustainability from the heart?”- Greg Owsley

“Nobody’s hired us saying, ‘You’re the green designer, that’s why we want you.’”- Edith Graves

By Elaine Appleton Grant

In the months since Deliver® published its first green issue, companies have turbocharged their attempts to become more environmentally responsible. But their efforts to create and promote eco-friendly products have become increasingly fraught with dilemmas.

Deliver checked in with four marketers concerned about sustainability to see how the marketing environment has changed since last August.

Our panelists were Edith Graves, marketing director of Eason Associates, a Washington, D.C., design firm whose clients include Clark Construction Group, which just completed the first LEED Silver Certified baseball park in the nation, and Greg Owsley, chief branding officer of New Belgium Brewing in Ft. Collins, Colo. Last year, Owsley had just kicked off a campaign called “Follow Your Folly” that encouraged consumers to save local rivers from pollution and to commute by bicycle.

We also talked with Ian Yolles, vice president of brand communications at Nau Inc., an eco-friendly apparel maker headquartered in Portland, Ore., and David Zucker, a corporate social responsibility expert and partner with New York PR firm Porter Novelli.

Deliver: Give me an update on your green marketing efforts.

Owsley: We just measured “Follow Your Folly.” We had a 30-percent increase in people’s awareness that we’re a company that strives to be more sustainable. When we started, less than 10 percent of consumers knew this.

The attendance at Tour de Fat, our bicycling event, doubled in most towns. The messaging last year was so strong that the bike could be the vehicle that leads us out of global warming! In each of the 11 towns, we had one person turn over their car keys and title and give up their car for life. We’re doing a documentary on that.

Graves: We’re on the speaker circuit, talking to designers, printers and end users about [greening their printed materials]. A lot of our clients have sustainable philosophies, but they haven’t thought about the paper they’re using.

We always offer the client three eco-friendly paper selections. Once our clients understand these papers’ properties, they want them. They may or may not cost more, but it sends a powerful message to their audience.

We’re booming right now and we feel fortunate in the current economy. I have to attribute it to something - maybe the sense of goodwill from our yearlong green campaign? Nobody’s hired us saying “You’re the green designer, that’s why we want you.” But it certainly hasn’t hurt our business.

Deliver: David Zucker, are you seeing any major changes in how clients are approaching the eco-friendly story?

Zucker: It’s a time of reckoning: People are confronting the complexity of the communication challenge. They are struggling with how to tell consumer audiences a clear story about the environmental responsibility of any given product.

On the one hand, consumers are motivated to purchase more environmentally friendly products. The dilemma is how to know whether any given product is truly environmentally friendly? The information is so complex that to tell an accurate story becomes very challenging.

For instance, the assumption about food miles early on was simplistic: The message said “local is better.” But that’s not always the case. In Europe, consumers would assume that buying locally grown roses rather than imported ones would be better from a carbon standpoint. In fact, researchers found that roses grown in Kenya had less of a footprint because of the difference in growing processes.

But are consumers going to take the time to sift through that level of information to make purchase decisions, or will they be frustrated and ignore some of this information and go back to old habits?

Deliver: Ian and Greg, are you struggling with this complexity?

Yolles: We are. In trying to think in an iterative, thoughtful way about sustainability, every day we’ve been faced with a multitude of decisions. So we introduced a new section to our Web site, “Grey Matters,” to bring full transparency to the complexity of the decisions we’ve made.

Owsley: For every sustainable move you make, it’s only slightly more pro than it is con.

For us, company growth means more jobs, more of our sustainable practices in our territory, but it also means more fossil fuels under our beer.

We try not to use the term “green marketing.” If green means lessening your impact, well, marketing means increasing your sales. Those are at odds. It’s also a classically American response to a crisis: We’ll shop our way out of global warming. We’re not quite sure that’s the complete answer. How do we continue to work on sustainability from the heart?

Graves: All of these paper companies are promoting green design and printing, and I know it is from the heart. These are 200-year-old companies with deep respect for the woods. The more they work to preserve them, the better for their companies. Paper companies now can provide documentation and certification of their eco-friendly practices. And printers and clients need to know to ask for it. The demand creates the supply. Eventually, this will be the norm.

Owsley: To me, the disclaimers are what’s so key to any long-term green messaging. You have to admit to the failings while you also tout the successes. We’re doing that on our aluminum-can 12-pack. [We're saying that] cans are only a little better than bottles; this won’t make us green, this will make us only slightly greener.

Yolles: There’s an enormous amount of greenwashing going on. I have some faith that over time people will be able to separate authenticity from marketing spin. We’re in the digital age. Everyone is a filmmaker, everyone has a blog, so they’re instantaneously publishers and journalists. So in this world, there is a level of transparency and also the ability for stories to be transmitted very broadly, very rapidly, and that’s completely unprecedented. In the digital world, there’s a persistence of memory, and so the notion of what you do and how you do it is more important than ever before.

Deliver: The Direct Marketing Association recently strengthened its ethics guidelines to require that its members notify customers of their ability to opt out of mailings in every commercial solicitation. Will this Commitment to Consumer Choice measure hurt or help your efforts to promote eco-friendly activities?
Owsley: We don’t deploy direct marketing. Yet if these guidelines could alleviate a lot of the ecological burden - as well as the marketing clutter - of junk mail, it might become a medium we’d consider.

Deliver: Interesting! So you’d see it as a more ecologically friendly alternative and one potentially worth pursuing?

Owsley: Only if direct mail were truly cleaned up of the clutter that makes going to the mailbox a chore and allowed us to deliver nice surprises to consumers who would most appreciate them. I still think the tactile experience mail brings is special, but largely the consumer perception these days is “turn off the faucet.” If that changes? Yeah, we’d be interested. We’d probably send something like our postcards, which we call “post-coasters,” that could have a life after being a mail piece.

Keep your marketing eye-catching, not eye-rolling

By: Steve Cuno

We recently ran across this gem on a bank’s Web site: “To us, [our city] is not a ‘market’ … While some banks are looking to make a profit, we want to make a difference, one person at a time.”

Perhaps, somewhere, someone was moved by this copy. All we were compelled to do, though, was ask how anyone could write such palpably self-serving drivel. Of course, we also already knew the answer: palpably self-serving drivel is beguiling. It charms and distracts while it infests copy. The bankers who approved that copy probably believed it. They had no clue that customers stumbling upon the line would either ignore it or, worse, roll their eyes and say, “Oh, come on.”

That reaction is no small matter. It signals that you’ve wasted your budget on words that accomplish nothing, insulted your target market’s intelligence and stripped credibility from your message. When that happens, you’re no longer marketing. You’re publishing noise that is easily tuned out.

To protect against the beguilement of self-serving drivel, we highly recommend applying what one shop calls the “Oh, Come On!” Test, a do-it-yourself diagnostic procedure designed to help keep your marketing free from cynicism-inspiring contaminants.

It consists of three quick steps: 1. Slip into your market’s shoes. 2. See if your copy strikes a chord - or makes you say, “Oh, come on.” 3. Be honest with yourself about your reaction.

That third step is the hardest. Many advertisers truly believe their product is the “world’s best” and expect you to believe it, too. This makes us think of a scene from a movie we really like, in which the lead female character describes her male counterpart as the planet’s rudest person. He responds by calling her accusation silly, mainly because she couldn’t possibly know everyone on the planet. True, of course - and the national advertiser’s claim that it makes “the world’s most excellent pickle” is equally as silly.

Some advertisers try to foist on us claims that, while technically true, are still far-fetched. If you’re a national mortgage company sending out direct mail that is “introducing a new way to save,” don’t expect recipients to bother looking for a unique savings plan. At this point, most consumers know it’s just another offer with a zero percent intro rate and that they “save” by transferring balances from interest-accruing cards to the “new” card. Their response: “Oh, come on.”

Then there are advertisers who forget to back up their claims. They’ll say, “We put customers first,” without bothering to shop their own stores, step up training or better screen employees.

Generous application of the “Oh, Come On” Test early and often can help rid your marketing of such embarrassments - leaving room for substantive copy points in their place. Best of all, the test is a simple, effective reminder that, no matter how much a marketer may believe a claim, the bottom line is whether consumers buy it.

Steve Cuno is the chairman of RESPONSE Prospecting & Loyalty Strategies and author of The Fallible Gut: A Marketer’s Guide To Surviving Intuition.

September issue named winner of “Best of 2007″ online survey

“Green” took home the gold recently as our eco-themed September issue of Deliver was voted the most popular in our “Best of 2007″ online readers’ poll.

The Deliver “green” issue, which focused on how environmental concerns are affecting direct marketing, only barely beat out our May ‘07 issue, earning the top spot by a mere two votes. Readers who voted for the “green” issue in the poll, which was conducted on delivermagazine.com, said in online comments that they appreciated its relevance and boldness.

“I also really loved the fact that they even listed companies that produce ‘green products’ that offices like ours can start using to help in this very important cause,” wrote a reader identified as ‘Stacie.’ “Thanks for producing such a great magazine. Keep up the great work!”

Another reader voted for the September issue because both he and his clients value their green marketing efforts. “This issue provided some great ideas and resources, and it did a great job of showing how good ‘green’ can look!” he added.

The December issue (No. 6) earned the third-highest vote total, followed by our July issue (No. 3) that focused on loyalty programs. The March and November issues (Nos. 1 and 5, respectively) tied for the remaining votes in the survey.

Here’s What Readers are Saying…

Deliver received 712 unique comments from readers participating in our “Best of 2007″ magazine poll. Here’s a sampling of what they had to say about last year’s six issues …

Issue No. 4

“I have been trying to convince my office to go green for a while now. When this issue showed up, and everyone in the office had it on their desk, more people started joining in on my quest to convince our boss it needed to get done. We now have a recycling program and have reduced the amount of paper we use for printing.”
- Ruben

“OK, I am probably going to sound cliché here, but it was the green element that captured me with this issue, and I’m not just talkin’ crayons. With all the hype over the past few years about sustainability and going green, the temptation is certainly there for companies to claim a green status but not really follow through. With the September issue, you really did walk the walk. Thanks!”
- Jessie

“This was a great issue embracing the cutting-edge issues fostering green technologies. Living the green dream using recycled paper and environmentally friendly inks showed that you embrace that which you present. How can you not love this issue!”
- John

“It is difficult to select only one favorite! Each issue featured value and creativity … and after all, isn’t that what mail is all about. I was particularly fond of the ‘green’ issue. The articles captured my interest enough to share with others and I found myself reading the issue twice. Deliver magazine is a remarkable publication and is an asset to marketers in all industries. Keep ‘em comin’.
- Peggy

“This issue was so comprehensive! It covered the challenges and benefits of going green and offered insight on issues from marketing and operations to finance. Not only was the issue about going green, the magazine itself was produced conservatively - preventing literally tons of natural resources from being wasted in the process.”
- Justin

The following readers commented on other 2007 Deliver issues:

Issue No. 1
“Insightful, relevant articles for the ever-evolving digital age. Truly an issue (and publication series) marketers can utilize for the best in DM practices. Keep up the great work!”
- Ryan

“Love at first sight! It’s the issue that hooked us and set a standard of excellence. And it became the most dog-eared issue as we passed it around. The digital tech article made us all stop and reconsider reinventing everything.”
- Mark

Issue No. 2
“As a direct marketing professional with a specific interest in direct mail, I LOVED the piece on Stacy’s Pita Chips sending samples to people named Stacy. Brilliant! I work for a company called The News & Observer and I tried to replicate the promotion, but couldn’t find anybody in the country named The News & Observer. Oh, and let me stroke your egos a little more and say that your creative team is outrageous. You should drug test all of them for performance enhancers. Best trade magazine I’ve read.”
- Scott

“This was the first issue I was exposed to in my new role, and it couldn’t have come at a better time! As a company finally getting its hands around making the most of our direct mail campaigns, this issue was the catalyst we needed to make some important changes. It really did ‘deliver.’”
- Colleen

Issue No. 3
“This is my favorite issue because it has a LONG, LONG shelf life! Here we are in 2008 and I am STILL using the tips and tricks from the customer loyalty program article ‘Keep the Faithful’ and the helpful ‘Nuggets of Wisdom’ in all of my marketing and communications initiatives.”
- Chris

“The loyalty issue was insightful and well timed. My company began introducing our clients to the concept of loyalty programs over 20 years ago, and today they are more exciting, more dynamic, more COST effective, and more relevant than ever. Bravo!”
- Barbara

Issue No. 5
“The direct marketing issue was fantastic. As a marketer in today’s ever-changing world, where the consumer is bombarded with a million messages and media at once, it is essential to keep up with the trends. I loved the information contained in this issue - especially with regard to the importance of the Web.”
- Anita

“This magazine has been essential in developing our printing company into a full-service communications group. I use the case studies to drive home the direct marketing techniques that our clients should be thinking about. They are also helpful with our internal efforts to differentiate us from the competition.”
- Paul

Issue No. 6
“The ability to position your message to both the mainstream audience and groups within the mainstream are critical to every aspect of marketing. Issue No. 6 provided provocative ideas that I have incorporated into my messaging strategy. I loved all the issues (with Issue No. 3 ‘Loyalty’ a close second).”
- JeanAnn

“The December 2007 issue of Deliver is my favorite issue because it focused on a subject near and dear to my heart, communication. All too often, marketers forget how to effectively communicate with clients both internally and externally. Thank you for reminding us how it is we should be doing our jobs most effectively.”
- Chantelle

By: Steve Cuno

Branding has become the hot marketing topic of the new millennium. Advertising agencies have taken to calling themselves “branding agencies.” New books and magazines about branding sprout daily. Marketing talk everywhere centers on the brand.

Yet amid the babble, there’s little agreement about what constitutes a good brand. Some marketers equate the brand with what the rest of us call “corporate identity” consistent visual presentation. Others equate it with a catch phrase, like any number of news outlets offering news “you can use.” Still others default to awareness and recall: If a sizeable market sample can regurgitate your product name unassisted, you have “brand equity.”

We think these definitions fail to get to the crux of a strong brand. To demonstrate why, we invoke the memory of the high school class nerd. This person dressed consistently geek-like, repeated ad nauseam a catch phrase like “cowabunga, dude” and still springs readily to mind, by name. If consistent visual presentation, a catch phrase and high recall scores make a solid brand, then the class nerd is rock-solid. But a brand should also sell and you may recall that the nerd was usually the last pick in gym class and rarely went on dates. Seen in that light, the nerd may symbolize a brand, but not a useful one.

Marketing history brims with its own nerds. Consider a domestic car that was named after the founder’s son and was an utter market failure, a soft drink formula change that was recalled when it sparked protests and, more recently, a popular beer campaign that amused us all with its insights about manliness but was pulled when sales plummeted.

These products remain fresh in consumer minds. You may even be able to picture the logos and recall the taglines. If a consistent look, tagline or top-of-mind awareness makes a brand, then each of these failures was a branding success. But a brand isn’t any of those things. Your brand isn’t what you promise. Your brand is the net effect of your values, consistently delivered at every point of contact.

Thus a high-end department store has become known for over-the-top customer service and upscale decor without a tagline like “Great service, real marble floors.” A bookstore chain is known for its comfortable atmosphere where bookworms thrive on helping you find obscure titles without a word to that effect in advertising. And a burgeoning coffeehouse has become a hangout without ever advertising, “The Place to Hang Out.” These marketers have built their brands by having values and living them.

If you want to capitalize on your brand, you should work on your logo, tagline and noisemaking last. Start by defining your values. A few months ago, Deliver magazine ran a story about a global toymaker that has aligned its values with its brand messages and consistently delivered through direct mail and other outlets. They are as good an example as any of why brands have to define their values above all. And once you do, make sure you deliver on them online, on the phone, in the store, and face-to-face with vendors and employees as well as customers. Do that, and your brand will speak for itself. Then, when people remember your ads, they may actually believe what you claim in them and perhaps even buy from you.

Steve Cuno is the chairman of RESPONSE Prospecting & Loyalty Strategies and author of The Fallible Gut: A Marketer’s Guide To Surviving Intuition.

Social and political organizations across the spectrum are using direct mail to promote their agendas

By: Eddie B. Allen Jr.

Three years ago, they began returning home from far-flung war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq, bodies maimed, spirits as stout as ever.

And the veterans who would eventually found the Wounded Warrior Project in Virginia also returned home ready to take up a new struggle, this one to ensure quality living conditions for other injured troops coming back home.

They decided that one of the best ways to enlist support was to let people around the country learn about the soldiers’ stories. To this end, the Wounded Warrior Project launched a simple but impassioned direct mail effort to help solicit donations and other forms of support.

The group began sending out letters from veterans to clients, hoping to translate national sentiment toward returning troops into concrete backing. It worked. Today, helped greatly by its direct mail campaigns, the Wounded Warrior Project generates about $14 million a year and boasts more than 175,000 regular donors.

“We get them to respond by telling them a story,” says Geoff Peters, president of Creative Direct Response, a direct mail marketing company that represents the Wounded Warrior Project and about 100 other clients. “Usually, the story involves someone who’s been helped by one of the clients.”

Cause-oriented marketing has become the tool of choice for advocacy agencies of all stripes, from publicly funded institutions to consumer affairs groups. Frequently the strategy of non-profits, various combinations of direct mail and Web communications have buttressed the platforms of organizations with limited staffs and often with no publicity or advertising budgets. Gone are the days of phone calls, handbills or demonstrations as the only options for social organizations looking to mobilize supporters.

Peters, a direct mail expert, says a multi-channel approach has arisen among social groups at a time when many critics thought direct mail would be obsolete.

“People have predicted the demise of direct mail marketing for over 25 years,” points out Peters. “The first time was when the fax machine was invented. The second time was the Internet. If you look at the history, what happened was they all used direct mail to get people to go to their Web sites.”

Dimensional mail has emerged as a key to reaching out to the executive class

By Lekan Oguntoyinbo

Two years ago, Kaiser Permanente embarked on a difficult campaign: persuading C-level executives at several major corporations to switch health care providers. To seize the attention of the key decision makers, the company kicked off the campaign dubbed “In the Company of the Greats” by first mailing out baseballs encased in Plexiglas and embossed with the names of the targeted executives.

Along with the mailings, the campaign spun stories of brilliant, daring leadership decisions that altered the course of history. One mailing featured the legendary baseball general manager who, 60 years ago, broke the Major League’s color barrier by signing the first African-American player. The second mailing contained a paperweight that included a quote from the woman executive widely credited with turning around one of the world’s largest printing-equipment manufacturers. The campaign was bold, charming and effective, generating numerous leads for the health care provider as well as additional requests for the glass-encased baseballs.

“I’m not going to get an appointment with a CEO by offering him a glow pen,” says Spyro Kourtis, president and CEO of the Hacker Group, which devised the Kaiser campaign. “I’m either getting the appointment by offering something substantial or by offering some information of value to his company.”

And Kourtis echoes a number of his peers. Dimensional mail, also known as lumpy mail, remains the medium of choice for many business-to-business marketers looking to capture the attention of key decision makers.

“The difference between flat mail and dimensional mail is that dimensional mail gets opened more,” says Harvey Hirsch, president and owner of DigitalDimensions3, a Lyndhurst, New Jersey, direct marketing firm that specializes in business-to-business marketing. In fact, according to the Direct Marketing Association, dimensional mail produced an average response of 4.66 percent in 2005. In contrast, the DMA reported, postcard mail had a 1.59 percent response rate. B-to-B direct mail fared only slightly higher with a 2.05 percent response rate.

“My philosophy is, if it looks like a sales pitch, you’ve failed,” adds Hirsch. “We put the wow factor’ into direct mail.”

Not all personalized or dimensional mail uses lumps or bulges to get the point across, of course. Perfect Image, a printing company in Atlanta, used bright-red cloth envelopes to augment its message with one of its clients, a major retailer that had hosted a vendor fair. The envelopes, sprinkled with white stars, presented a very personalized message that was well received and appreciated. Delivering timely, focused printed pieces that communicate for their clients makes Perfect Image a valuable partner. This presentation showed that “we cared about their business” and according to Lynn Stafford, the customer relationship manager of the company, “it played a small part in Perfect Image’s business with that retailer increasing threefold in one year.”

Toymakers are using direct mail to buttress innovative brand marketing geared toward girls

By: Frank S. Washington

Girls rule.

Sure, some adolescent boys might disagree but when it comes to some of the most effective and immersive marketing experiences currently being developed for younger consumers, there’s no question that female adolescents and pre-teens are a demographic that cannot be ignored. In recent years, several leading toy brands have come up with far-reaching multichannel marketing campaigns that have consistently proven girls to be a valued and influential audience.

Among these brands, few have been more successful in marketing to girls than doll manufacturer American Girl, which specializes in a line of dolls with period themes. Founded in 1986, American Girl started with just a mail-order catalog promoting three dolls (Kirsten, Samantha and Molly).

Since these initial direct mail efforts, the company has exploded. American Girl has sold 117 million books and 13 million dolls. And it continues to be a major player in direct mail: Its catalog ranks as one of the top 25 consumer catalogs in the country; its American Girl magazine has a circulation of 650,000 and receives 10,000 pieces of reader mail every time it is published.

Along with the products that continue to be promoted in the American Girl catalog, the company’s Web site, americangirl.com, gets 23 million visitors each year. More than 20 million of them visit “Fun for Girls,” the editorial section of the site. The company also boasts proprietary retail stores, “American Girl Place” and “American Girl Boutique and Bistro,” the newest boutique/bistro having opened in Dallas this November.

“Our brand has always been more than just a collection of toys,” says American Girl spokeswoman Stephanie Spanos. “Young girls have a deep, emotional connection to our product lines, which has allowed us to create meaningful experiences around them, elevating us to a lifestyle brand.”

At its 40,000-square-foot flagship stores in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, 19 million visitors have experienced what American Girl describes as “experiential retail.” In addition to purchasing dolls and accessories, girls can eat brunch and lunch and enjoy afternoon tea or dinner at the American Girl Cafe. There’s also a theater featuring live productions based on the American Girl books, including The American Girls Revue, as well as a participatory performance for younger girls, Bitty Bear’s Matinee: The Family Tree. Packages include parties, a day at the store, a late night at the store and a chance to be a “Star for a Day.” Special events include things like A Great Day with Grandparents, Doll Hair Salon Spectacular and cooking classes for girls.

American Girl has deployed a host of marketing techniques from direct mail and event marketing to word-of-mouth and e-mail to create a full-service experiential retail environment that visitors can see as an extension of an American Girl “lifestyle.”

Marketers who specialize in promoting brands to young consumers underscore that, even in an age when young people are hooked on the Internet, direct mail remains the most effective way to carry on an ongoing conversation with them.

How many of these leaps in marketing logic do you make?

Mistaking an argument for proof Despite elegant arguments that stress causes ulcers, the culprit turned out to be a bacterium. The argument that creativity is the key to advertising success is no less elegant, and no closer to the mark.

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc (”After this, therefore because of this”) It’s tempting to assume that what happened first caused what happened next. But before you conveniently decide that the new ad campaign made sales go up or down, consider what else was going on. Sometimes weather has an effect.

Anecdotes as conclusive Many police officers “know” from personal experience that crime increases under a full moon, but actual records show it isn’t so. Beware basing marketing decisions on anecdotes, even from reliable sources. Stories aren’t evidence.

Stereotyping No, more men won’t buy your industrial product if you put a sexy woman in your ad. Before assuming how a given population will act, test and watch.

God of the gaps Ancient humans filled in their knowledge gaps by chalking up the unexplainable to everything from the stars to the gods. Marketers do that when they automatically credit high sales to their pet god of the gaps (advertising, location, dress code, accounting, you name it) and blame low sales on their pet scapegoat (advertising, location, dress code, accounting, you name it).

All or nothing Vaccinations don’t work on everyone, but they work on the vast majority, so we’d be foolish to halt them. It would be equally foolish to stop a successful ad campaign because of a few complaints or to continue an unsuccessful one because of a few compliments.

Self-serving research There’s only one correct answer to, “Do you like my new haircut?” The point of research should be to discover, not to get people to say what you want to hear.

Sneaky biases Remember those police officers who correlate crime with lunar phases? They are inadvertent victims of hindsight and selection bias recalling cases that confirm and overlooking those that don’t. Biases sneak up on the best of us. When you’re tempted to recall what all successful marketing campaigns have in common, resist. Consult the data instead.

Inventing objectives after the fact Sometimes ad campaigns are deemed “successful” for a result that wasn’t in the plan. “Sales fell, but the campaign won three awards” works only if the original goal was to win awards regardless of sales.

Confusing correlation and causation Ask any economist: Correlations are often mere coincidence. I knew an advertiser who was convinced that ads with her photo in them outsold ads without. The correlation was valid, but the photos weren’t the cause. The other ads had weaker headlines and ran in off-target publications. Dig deep before deciding what causes what.

Steve Cuno

Click here to read more about how marketers can avoid gut-driven decisions.

Four reasons why your gut may not be as infallible as you think

If you think your gut defies the odds and is right most of the time, I’d suggest four possibilities that might explain your perceived infallibility: disqualification, incomplete information, tossing coins and reading clues.

Disqualification is the tendency to embrace what confirms and overlook what contradicts. People whose guts are right “most of the time” often forget or disqualify the times they were wrong.

Incomplete information is another problem. In some organizations, saying the boss was mistaken is career-limiting, so news of failures never makes it to the top. Information fails to surface for other reasons, too. If you feel, but can’t verify, that your advertising produces sales, you really don’t know if your ads are working or not. You just think you know.

If your gut really is right most of the time it’s possible you may be a lucky coin flipper. As one author has observed, if you flip a coin long enough, you will encounter short streaks. On average, he notes, you’ll flips five heads or tails consecutively once in every 32 sequences of five tosses. If your gut really has been right most of the time, beware: The next toss may betray you.

It’s also possible that, instead of having an infallible gut, you’re adept at reading clues. Now, you may say, “Fine. Call it gut intuition or reading clues. Either way, I’m never wrong.” But retrospect makes it hard to distinguish clue-reading from whimsy. Did your gut tell you a job interview went well or were you attuned to the interviewer’s positive clues? And reading clues is subject to error. The brightest people misread clues, fail to see clues or see non-existent clues.

You may read clues well. But don’t bet your marketing budget on it.

Steve Cuno

Click here to read more about how marketers can avoid gut-driven decisions.

Direct mail perks up online traffic and sales

Many alarmists decry the rapid rise of the digital world. They say that “virtual reality” is in serious danger of replacing “actual reality.” Well, we’ll leave such big-picture speculations to the futurists, but at least in one respect the digital world is in no danger of replacing the real world.

Online media in particular are no imminent threat to traditional media. In fact, for certain applications, the former may enhance the latter. According to the 2007 Multi-Channel Direct Mail Study by comScore, direct mail recipients are almost two times as likely to make a purchase from a retail Web site as those who only receive an Internet communication. In other words, people may be increasingly comfortable with making purchases online, but when it comes to finding out what’s available for purchase, and where those items are for sale, there’s nothing like a real live direct mail piece.

The results are even better for catalogs. More than two-thirds of catalog recipients visited the catalog’s companion Web site, and that traffic resulted in a 163-percent increase in sales over those who did not receive a catalog. What’s more, catalog recipients on average buy more items (4.1 versus 3.2) and spend more money ($88 versus $69) than do non-recipients.

According to the study, catalogs are especially useful for jump-starting holiday shopping: Catalog recipients were significantly more likely than non-recipients to shop for holiday gifts online. Apparently, they appreciate the convenience and flexibility of online shopping, but they also like to have something concrete in their hands to browse through. Nearly 60 percent of online shoppers said that they enjoy receiving catalogs: More than a mere convenience, catalogs represent a chance to browse at the recipient’s convenience, to immerse oneself in brand interaction and to make shopping decisions without the rush of crowds and the annoyance of traffic.

In this age of media proliferation, marketers are quickly discovering that old and new media work best in conjunction with each other. Far from replacing traditional marketing avenues, digital channels represent an opportunity to make previously existing media even more effective than they already were. And the same goes in the reverse direction: direct mail pieces, catalogs in particular, improve the effectiveness of online sales initiatives. The combination of the two creates a potent combination for robust e-commerce sales.

Home-and-garden cable network HGTV is flowering thanks to a carefully cultivated multiplatform strategy

By: Lara Jensen
When HGTV launched in 1994, there was some skepticism about the need for a television channel that airs nothing but shows related to homes and gardens.

Today, the cable network reaches 93 million U.S. households and is in the midst of an aggressive marketing expansion that could see the HGTV brand popping up everywhere from mobile phones to stores nationwide.

However, as statistics continue to show a decrease in the amount of time consumers are spending in front of their TVs, HGTV isn’t the only media brand wondering where its future growth will come from.

“As we look forward, we’re tapped out in [traditional] distribution,” says Lori Asbury, senior vice president of marketing, creative and brand strategy for HGTV. “So in order to grow our audience, we need to grow our reach.”

With this goal in mind, HGTV has initiated an aggressive multiplatform strategy that may include ongoing direct mail efforts, the launch of two broadband channels - HGTV KitchenDesign and HGTV BathDesign - and the creation of a marketplace section on HGTV.com where home and garden manufacturers can display their products. “Everywhere that we can touch the consumer is where we want to be,” Asbury says.

HGTV is owned and operated by Scripps Networks, which also owns and operates Food Network and Fine Living, among other media outlets. Scripps Networks is a division within the E.W. Scripps Company news empire.

Currently, HGTV also puts out HGTV Ideas magazine in partnership with newspapers in 23 markets around the country. While some of the papers distribute the magazine as inserts in their pages, others mail it directly to subscribers.

To further broaden its reach, HGTV is pursuing content distribution deals with various Internet and mobile providers. There are also numerous licensing agreements in the works for HGTV-branded merchandise.

Asbury says the goal is to create a “holistic” brand experience, with consumers accessing HGTV on their TVs, the Web and mobile phones and everything circling back to the TV at some point: “Any way that we can allow people to access the brand means we’re enhancing the brand.” Plus, a strong multiplatform brand offers both the potential to drive ratings and a way for the sales force to package HGTV to advertisers.

There’s another reason HGTV wants to plaster its brand everywhere: Competitors “are coming after our category,” Asbury explains, adding that this is why HGTV needs to reach out to consumers, offer the category in as many touchpoints as possible and be the experts in the category.

Another critical area of focus for driving growth at HGTV is the Web, Asbury says. Already, the company operates a companion Web site, HGTV.com, that dominates the online home-and-garden category with 5.2 million unique visitors each month.

“The Internet is the biggest platform for reaching the masses,” Asbury says. It’s also “the quickest and the easiest place for people to go.” And this explains why HGTV is spending over $1 million in interactive media to market Design Star, a new reality TV series in which designers compete to win their own TV show.

The Internet is also “where most of the deals in terms of repurposing our content are being pursued,” Asbury says. The challenge the Internet poses for HGTV and other traditional media companies is significant: How do they derive revenue from online content? “We believe our content has real value, so the goal is not to give away the content, but to sell it,” Asbury says.

However, “HGTV isn’t saying ‘If we can’t monetize it, we won’t do it,’” insists Asbury. Having a multiplatform brand is just too important, given today’s media landscape. But for the network to consider a deal to offer its content online for free, there would have to be some promotional or marketing value in it.

Multiplatform doesn’t just mean giving consumers more ways to watch and read HGTV content, either. Asbury wants to bring the brand into retail, similar to what Food Network is doing with its own line of branded kitchen products, tableware and linens. That line debuts this fall.

Few TV brands have been able to establish a presence for themselves at retail through licensed product. HGTV is currently pursuing “a bunch of different brand extensions,” Asbury says. She adds that the goal of any deal with a retailer would be to make consumers feel more connected to the brand by creating an in-store experience where they could find useful tips and knowledge related to their homes and garden. In turn, she hopes the branded products would drive business back to the network. Asbury expects to announce an arrangement with a major retailer some time this year.

Asbury reiterates that the network is also keeping direct mail in the mix and suggests that HGTV may even expand its mail efforts. “We may bundle direct mail into a bigger campaign in the future,” Asbury says.

Diversification is an age-old strategy and one that HGTV believes can give it a boost during one of the roughest periods television marketing has ever experienced. As Asbury puts it: “If you don’t have all this, you’re dead.”

The Latino population is expected to increase by 126.4 percent between 1990 and 2011, compared to a 15.4 percent gain for the non-Hispanic population over that same time.

According to a 2006 report, the majority of Latinos in the United States 66.8 percent are of Mexican ancestry. Latinos of Central American ancestry are the next largest group, making up about 9 percent of the foreign-born U.S. Latino population.

The U.S. Latino population’s purchasing power was estimated at $212 billion in 1990 and $700 billion in 2005, and is now predicted to grow to more than $1 trillion by 2010, according to studies.

U.S. Latino buying power was greatest in California, where it stood at more than $214 billion as of 2006. Latino buying power in the state is expected to grow to $307.98 billion by 2011.

The Latino ad industry is outpacing all other sectors of advertising and is now a $4 billion-plus industry.

Corporate spending in Latino market advertising is now more than 5 percent of marketing budgets, up from 3.6 percent in 2000.

Sources: The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies; 2006 Selig Center report The Multicultural Economy; Synovate’s 2006 U.S. Diversity Markets Report

Computer and video games are the new testing ground for marketing messages

By: Lara Jensen
Fun and games have become serious business these days for a growing number of marketers who are turning to computerized games to drive customer engagement and brand awareness.

In the early days of computer and video games, brands were fairly minor players. Occasionally, virtual versions of well-known cars and airplanes may have surfaced in certain popular titles, but there was scant else in the way of identifiable marketing.

Those days are gone. Marketers’ interest in games, both online and console-based, has exploded in recent years. And - if the millions of ad dollars now being poured into this still-evolving platform are any indication - the big brands are not playing around.

Clothiers, beverage makers, restaurants, media conglomerates - all are part of the throng of companies pushing their products through the pixels and polygons of video games. As a consequence, the games - some of which have been combined with direct mail promotions - are producing results that may already rival the impact of some traditional media.

“We’re seeing product- and brand-recall levels for games that are unheard of in classic media,” boasts Justin Townsend, CEO of IGA Worldwide, an in-game advertising network that specializes in in-game product placement. Townsend and others contend that the recall levels are high because the active participation most games demand makes the images and messages more memorable.

Generally, there are two types of electronic entertainment: console games, which can be played on devices such as the Microsoft Xbox 360, and online contests - known as “advergames” - which are played on PCs and feature a brand-marketing component.

One of the most successful campaigns kicked off during the Christmas holiday last year when a major fast-food chain created three games for the Xbox 360. The games sold 3.2 million copies and helped drive sales and traffic to the chain’s fast-food outlets and its Web site. In addition to being heavily promoted in-store, the games garnered a significant amount of press attention, including reviews in many gaming publications and Web sites, as well as mentions in mainstream publications.

Even as some marketers have blended video games with a Web strategy, others have used direct mail as a prominent part of successful gaming campaigns. Last fall, for instance, game developer Traveller’s Tales teamed with LEGO Systems to promote the video game “LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy” in the autumn, winter and holiday editions of LEGO catalogs.

The catalogs also plugged the company’s loyalty program, LEGO BrickMaster, which costs $39.99 annually and includes five LEGO models that arrive by mail; six LEGO BrickMaster magazines; a two-disc CD-ROM featuring a mini-movie, behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the world’s largest LEGO minifigure scale model, and video game demos; coupons; and a ticket to LEGOLAND California.

As marketers acknowledge the spending power of religious groups, more big brands and big churches are working together to get their messages out

By: Tanya Irwin
Last fall, as troupes of superstar singers were spreading the Christian gospel at a series of church concerts throughout the country, the Chrysler Group was working closely with the tour to disseminate a little good news of its own.

In Chrysler’s case, the message was about the upsides of its new Aspen luxury sport utility vehicle, which the carmaker hoped to introduce to black Christian audiences throughout the sold-out concert tour. The tour, which wound through seven cities, played solely in the super-sized “mega-churches” that have begun popping up nationwide, with the singers’ messages - and Chrysler’s - being broadcast in sanctuaries seating anywhere from 4,000 to 18,000 attendees.

At each stop, the Aspen was featured prominently at pre-concert events, and churchgoers were urged to sign up for test drives. The sign-ups helped Chrysler target a strong list of potential African-American buyers, many of whom the carmaker later reached out to through direct mail and e-mail.

“We consider it to be a success,” says Carrie McElwee, Chrysler Group brand marketing senior manager, of the concert tour. “It got the brand in front of African-American consumers in a place where they meet and feel comfortable. We were trying to go where the audience is, rather than ask them to come to us.”

And Chrysler’s not going alone. Increasingly, major brands are becoming more comfortable using big churches and Christian religious events as springboards for direct marketing efforts, emboldened by the prospect of tapping into the lucrative spending power of the avowedly faithful. Click here to read about how churches themselves are reaching out through direct

There are about 270,000 religious congregations in the United States with a combined annual revenue of $80 billion, according to a February 2007 report from First Research Inc. Slightly more than 50 percent of Americans belong to a religious organization. Christianity is the largest faith in the United States, with the largest denominations being Catholics (about 25 percent of the population) and Baptists (16 percent). And while other faiths also have attracted corporate dollars, Christianity is the key focal point for most marketers.

Likewise, many churches are more willing to enter into corporate partnerships than in years past. For instance, Greater Grace Temple in Detroit, which served as one of the stops on the concert tour, also maintains partnerships with an international bank and a global soda manufacturer. The bank recently sponsored a back-to-school festival at the church where children received free backpacks bearing the bank’s logo. And the beverage maker donated a large passenger van to the church to ferry senior citizens after church members bought nearly 14,000 cases of the company’s soda.

Savvy churches are using direct mail to spread the Word

By: Tanya Irwin

Churches used to build their membership through word of mouth. Increasingly, savvy congregations are taking that approach up a notch by getting the word out via direct mail campaigns.

And while many smaller churches often do their own marketing, the larger churches are turning more often to professional marketers to help them add to the flock.

Gina Manlove, vice president of John Manlove Church Marketing, in Pasadena, Texas, says her company has done business with thousands of churches in recent years, helping craft and hone messages about a host of issues, from the arrival of a new minister to outreach to non-Christians.

“What we do is unique to each church and its needs,” says Manlove, whose company began as a business-to-business marketing company. It opened its church-marketing division in the 1990s after noticing a lack of good-quality marketing materials for churches.

She says Manlove Marketing (johnmanlove.com), which has worked with about 5,000 churches over the years, uses direct to create a brand-oriented design for each church. “Direct mail is beneficial only when it is effective,” Manlove says. “Being effective means using a brand-driven strategy. Many marketing companies focus on the cost per card. With that approach it is easy to make inexpensive direct mail cards. Instead, we measure the cards’ ability to actually increase church attendance.”

Of course, some churches still prefer to reach out to members and potential members on their own, and there are several marketing agencies that specialize in church-related materials. For example, church-marketing.com, which focuses primarily on direct mail, offers online marketing tutorials, design services, card printing services and mail shop services.

But whether the marketing is done by their members or by professionals, Manlove says, many church members remain uncomfortable with the idea of “marketing.” Manlove, however, has an answer for the skeptics: “A beautiful direct mail piece is just another way of knocking on someone’s door.”

We got advice from church officials with marketing experience about some of the considerations that marketers who want to work with church groups should keep in mind

DO:

DO ask, “What does the church need?” rather than “What can I sell them?”

DO acknowledge a church has a self-interest and that is often to “grow.”

DO acknowledge that a church leader has needs - the need for time being the most prominent.

DO meet them on their turf (their Web sites, their events, their publications) rather than in the general marketplace.

DO focus on growing churches. Growing churches are in motion, have active congregations and funded budgets.

DO use relationships already established between your executives and churches. Like any other business relationship, it doesn’t hurt to use an “in” that’s already naturally there. If someone in your company is a member of a church, they will know the programs and what might be the most logical fit. And the church will be much more trusting and comfortable with someone they already know.

DO find some common ground between what you hope to accomplish as a marketer and what the church’s goals are. For example, many churches engage in community outreach programs. If you can help them bring services to their community that are relevant and needed, the relationship will work much more effectively

DON’T:

DON’T focus on your product. Focus on the solution it provides to churches and church leaders.

DON’T assume a church needs your product. Research their needs and interests first.

DON’T depend on a single touch in a single medium. Multiple touches across online, print, and in-person channels will yield the greatest results and branding impact.

DON’T confuse a church attender with a church leader. Active leaders (paid and volunteer) are the decision makers and influencers who will bring the greatest return for your investment.

DON’T forget to tailor your message - and test it with actual church leaders before sending it out. Use the right words!

DON’T be afraid to try again. Your program might not be right for one church, but it may be right for another. Large urban churches have different programs than small churches. They are often more receptive to marketing messages.

Promoting products through bloggers should be done with care and common sense

By: Lauren Gibbons Paul

Last year, Andrea Rosso was searching for novel ways to promote his family’s winery, Mankas Hills Vineyard of Fairfield, Calif. Having just released a new blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot in 2004, the Rossos needed a quick, effective way to spread word as far and as wide as possible.

When Rosso finally settled on a strategy that mixed direct mail and the Web, he decided against simply building his own Internet site, as some competitors were content to do. Instead, he turned to others’ sites - enlisting wine bloggers nationwide to help him promote the wine, which he named Amelie after his daughter. Thus began the “Amelie 2004 for Bloggers” program, which became so popular that tasting samples of Mankas Hills wine (along with a promotional letter and tasting notes) were soon going to any adult blogger who requested it - regardless of the blog’s subject matter.

The program became a hit, and Rosso says that his willingness to venture beyond just wine blogs - an unorthodox marketing practice few other vineyards have attempted - introduced Mankas Hills to broad and diverse audiences.

Rosso estimates that he mailed out about 100 Mankas Hills packages to bloggers - all participants were 21 years old or older - who asked for the wine, assuring them that they didn’t have to write about the wine unless they wanted to. “It got onto some other blogs on other topics, such as politics,” says Rosso. “It started getting onto MySpace and LiveJournal and then it really spread out to other communities.” Ultimately, Rosso says, the program raised the brand’s profile and boosted sales by 100 percent before it ended in September 2006.

Still, for all the success that companies like Mankas Hills Vineyards have had with bloggers, there are also plenty of brands that have stumbled in their own attempts. Take, for example, the case of the near-ubiquitous computer and software manufacturer that mailed out laptops featuring its new operating system to bloggers, only to be accused of bald-faced attempts to manipulate them. The big brand’s blunder was spectacular, the message from the blogsophere unmistakable: Play at your own risk because norms that apply to old-school journalists may not count here.

Influential bloggers, like reporters, don’t appreciate any perception that they can be bribed. Though most bloggers are not trained journalists, they still tend to feel the only obligation they owe is to their audience. So while they may very well accept a free product - unlike their newspaper and magazine counterparts, who are generally strictly prohibited from accepting gifts from story sources or subjects - they may still ignore, or even trash, the product on their sites.