Direct Mail Marketing: Does It Really Get Past The Front Door?

[By Sarah Faglio]

It seems logical that sending mail directly to someone's doorstep would be an effective means of direct marketing.  However, recent technological advances and the inundation of advertisements sent directly to people's homes has made them ineffective.  Junk mail or advertising mail is often thrown away by its recipients who do not bother to read what service or product the advertisement has to offer.  Also, with the rising costs of postage and cost of printing the advertisement, this direct mailing method is more expensive than its technological alternative. 

Junk mail makes up a large assortment of advertisements sent directly to peoples' home or business.  It consists of advertising circulars, catalogs, postcards, coupons, applications and other promotional items sent to homes or businesses.  However, it costs a company money to print the advertisements, develop address lists, purchase postage and develop the advertisement.

Not only is junk mail costly for marketers, but it is also very unproductive with many of the advertisements not even being read by recipients.  The average American adult receives 41 pounds of junk mail each year. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, about 44% of junk mail is throw away without being opened or read.  People have become so inundated with advertising mail that they cannot or care to go through all of the pieces of junk mail that they receive, which leads them to just throw most of it out.

Junk mail recipients have become so annoyed and irritated by unwanted advertisements that laws have been put into place that allow them to opt-out.  In response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling Rowan vs. Post Office Department, applicants have the opportunity to obtain a Prohibitory Order issued by the United States Postal Service.  This allows people to stop non-governmental organizations from sending them mail and demands that these organizations remove the consumers' information from their mailing lists.  This order blocks marketers from sending advertising mail directly to peoples' home or business.


Direct mail marketing seems like a practical idea, since you are putting advertisements directly into a recipient's hands by sending it straight to their home or business location.  However, new technology, such as e-mail seems to be more productive than direct mail for many reasons.  These reasons include it being cheaper, analytics that allow you to track if an e-mail is opened or if they click on included links and people who volunteer their e-mail addresses are looking forward to your advertisements and welcome them.  With direct mail, you are unable to measure ROI since you do not know, in most cases, if the recipient bought your product or service because of the advertisement.  Also, with e-mail being free to send and with many people using the Internet to research a product or service, direct mail seems to be an ancient way to get a potential customer's attention.

SPAM: Seeing People Avoid Marketers

[By Sarah Faglio]

When e-mail first started being used by the public, it was seen as a convenience by many who wanted to stay in touch with people, whether it be business or personal.  It was favored over direct mailing since it was free and the message was instantly sent to someone's inbox. This new means of sending messages allowed companies to share updates or sales to customers instantaneously as well as not having to spend money on postage and paper for direct mailings.  Customers would opt-in to these company e-mails by willingly providing their e-mail addresses.  However, many companies send unsolicited e-mail messages to consumers, better known as SPAM.

The first SPAM e-mail was sent on ARPAnet (or the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, the network of government and university computers that preceded the Internet) on May 3, 1978 by Gary Thuerk to all 600 ARPAnet members.  He was a marketing manager for Digital Equipment Corp. that wanted to publicize open houses that would be unveiling the company's latest computers.  More spammers have arisen since 1978, clogging users' e-mails with messages that they are uninterested in.  According to the Message Anti-Abuse Working Group, the amount of SPAM e-mail was between 88-92% of e-mail messages sent in the first half of 2010.

There are a number of ways that people avoid SPAM mail, in addition to filters put into place by e-mail administrators.  E-mail accounts now have mail filters that not only allow users to organize incoming mail into different folders but directs all SPAM mail to a designated folder separate from the inbox.  These users may automatically delete a marketing message or avoid them completely by unsubscribing to them - blocking any further e-mail messages.

Despite its annoyance, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 declared SPAM to be legal as long as it adhered to certain specifications.  The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act required the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to stand by rules that prohibited the sending of unwanted commercial e-mail messages (messages whose primary purpose is to advertise or promote a commercial product or service).  These detailed rules also restricted the sending of unwanted commercial e-mail messages to computers.  It prevents states from enacting stronger anti-spam protections and prohibits individuals from suing spammers.  However, in the same month that the act went into effect, less than 1% of spam e-mails sent to U.S. users' inboxes actually adhered to the rules of the CAN-SPAM Act.

 Spammers collect people's e-mail addresses without them knowing or voluntarily providing it. They get e-mail addresses from chatrooms, websites, customer lists, newsgroups and viruses that harvest users' address books and are sold to other spammers.  When consumers voluntarily provide their e-mail addresses, this shows that they are both interested in your company and will therefore not delete your messages since it is wanted and anticipated.  By focusing your e-mail campaign to a targeted audience, you are preventing wasteful mass sending of SPAM e-mail to uninterested users.

Telemarketing: Is Anyone Picking Up Anymore?

 [By Sarah Faglio]

Telemarketing is a means of direct marketing where salespeople call people in an effort to persuade them into buying their products or services.  This type of cold calling occurs when these sales people call people who were not expecting to be called.  Robocalls, or "automatic telemarketing," use voice broadcasting of recorded messages with an autodialer and a computer to deliver prerecorded messages to people's phones.  These calls are either placed from a company office, a call center or from home.  They also send messages through other forms of electronic marketing such as e-mail or fax,which is also considered spam mail.  Telemarketers call consumers to access their needs and motivate them to make a purchase from their company.

Call recipients are identified in a multitude of ways, such as past purchase history, previous requests for information, credit limit, competition entry forms and application forms.  Phone numbers are also purchased from a company's consumer database, association members, telephone directory or public list.  Telemarketers acquire these lists with the intent of finding people who are likely to purchase their product or service.  Techniques include surveying, or polling, the company's prospective or past customers to access consumer satisfaction with their product or service.

In the past few years, people started to get so annoyed with these calls that they purposely tried to avoid them.  Caller-ids on phones have let people view who is calling them before they pick it up.  This allows people the opportunity to ignore any calls from numbers they do not recognize as an effort to avoid speaking with a telemarketer.  In 1991, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA),established by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), restricted the use of automatic dialing systems, artificial or prerecorded voice messages, SMS text messages to cell phones, and the use of fax machines to send unsolicited messages.  In 2004, the National Do Not Call Registry, managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), gave U.S. consumers the opportunity to limit the telemarketing calls they receive.  Those who register are not allowed to receive calls from telemarketers (except from certain  non-profit organizations) from both interstate and intrastate callers.  This prevents commercial telemarketers from calling those who are on the registry, reducing the number of unwanted phone calls to consumers' homes.  In addition, many U.S. states have created "Do Not Call Lists" that allow people to add their numbers to a list that telemarketers are not permitted to contact.

Telemarketing has always been a nuisance to consumers, by calling them unexpectedly and interrupting their daily lives with products or services they may not be interested in.  As a marketer, you want to target your audience with more efficiency as a way to not waste valuable resources on non-customers and reach out to those who are potential customers.  In a society with caller-ids and Do Not Call registries, telemarketing has become a less valuable marketing strategy for companies.

Radio Advertising: Is Anyone Really Listening To You?

[By Sarah Faglio]

Radio transmission began in the late 19th century, when physicists started looking at how variations of electric current could be projected through space in the form of radio waves.  In 1896, Guglielmo Marconi received the world's first patent for his invention of a system of wireless telegraphy, which sends wireless communications over long distances.  Wireless telegraphy eventually led to the development of the widespread use of the radio. Radio broadcasting began in the early 20th century, with KDKA being the world's first commercially licensed radio station in 1920.  


Radio is available in AM and FM stations in commercial broadcasting, non-commercial educational public broadcasting and community radio.  Commercial broadcasting can be heard by audiences through portable radios, cars, online, satellite radio, and mobile apps.   

Radio broadcasting originally began without paid commercials, but as the communication medium's outreach grew and the cost of operating a radio station became significantly expensive, radio advertisements emerged in 1922.  These advertisements take the form of commercials, sponsorship/endorsement mentions and banner ads, except in the case of satellite radio that is substantiated by paid subscriptions from its listeners.  

Arbitron reports on radio audiences and provides ratings data of specific cities, to allow advertisers to select a specific segment of the listening audience and purchase radio airtime based on that target demographic.  According to a September 2011 report from Arbitron, radio has added an additional 1.7 million listeners since September 2010, aged 12+ tuning in on an average week.   The number of listeners aged 12+ listening to the radio each week has reached an estimated 241.4 million, representing 93% of the population aged 12+.  This growth in radio listeners is largely attributed to young demographics, with a growth of 80,000 listeners aged 18-34 since September 2010.  

However, despite this growth in radio audience, there are new technologies and public responses that have led to the Top 10 Drawbacks to Radio Advertising:

1. Messages are strictly audio and therefore have no visual support.
2. Listeners may "channel surf" to avoid having to listen to commercials.
3. "Ad clutter" prevents one ad from standing out from the others.  Multiple exposures are usually necessary for the message to be remembered.  
4. "Commercial clutter" is an excessive amount of non-program content, where the number of commercials sometimes irritates listeners to a point where they change the station or turn off the radio completely.
5. Messages are short and fleeting, making it difficult to attain listeners' attention as well as provide sufficient marketing messages.
6. Advertisements can only sell one idea (or product/service) at a time.
7. Messages cannot be reviewed by the listener, so if they did not hear a part of the message, they may be unable to react or follow-up.
8. A lack of "track-ability" in the advertisements prevent marketers from evaluating the effectiveness and reach of the message.
9. The ads have no tangible reference for listeners to go back to and look up the marketing message.
10. Many listeners who find ads to be annoying or intrusive, simply turn off the radio entirely due to their frustration of listening to these type of advertisements.  

Due to these disadvantages of radio advertising, a trend toward fewer commercials is arising, such as "commercial-free hours."  In addition to these perceptional drawbacks of listening to radio commercials, portable media players such as MP3 players and iPods, allow people to listen to music that they have compiled on their own.  These portable devices allow listeners to play a song of their choosing without having to listen to any advertising commercials.


While the number of radio listeners has increased, the effectiveness and reach of advertisement commercials has subsided.  What used to be a valuable medium of reaching a target audience,  has turned into a place where advertisements are avoided and may unproductive in its efforts.  With the ease of portable media players, radio stations are avoided all-together.

Television Advertising: Should You Be Investing In It?

[By Sarah Faglio]

Throughout the century, television has made a large impact on how the public receives information.  TVs have been commercially available since the late 1920's, which eventually led to it becoming commonplace in homes throughout the country.  For viewers, it has become a top source for entertainment and news.  But, for companies, it has become a target for advertisement placement, or commercials.  

By analyzing viewership of particular programs, companies are able to pinpoint when and what their target audience is watching.  From this information, they are able to place their commercial advertisements during these programs as an effort to successfully reach their audience. 

With the prevalence of  television usage in U.S. households, throughout the years, companies have used this medium to their advantage by creating and airing advertising commercials that are shown directly to their target market.  Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems that determine the audience size and composition of viewers of a chosen program.  In its 2012 Advance/Preliminary TV Household Universe Estimate, The Nielsen Company estimates that 114.7 million households will have a TV in 2012.  This estimate is actually a decrease from the 115.9 million households with a TV in 2011.  This report also notes a decline in the estimated percent of U.S. households with a T.V. of 96.7% in 2012 from 98.9% in 2011.  The State of the Media Trends in TV Viewing, produced by the Nielsen Company, successfully outlines the current 2011 trends in television.

According to Nielsen data, U.S. television advertising spend in 2010 reached $69 billion.  This is an incredibly high amount of money to spend, despite new technological advances that have entered the market, damaging the effectiveness of TV advertising infiltration reach.

The videocassette recorder (VCR) became a mass marketed product in the late 1970's.  VCRs allowed viewers to record programs and watch them at a later time.  With control over tape speed, viewers were able to fast forward the commercials and only watch the program.  However, in the early 2000's, the VCR declined with the introduction of the DVR as a popular consumer format for playback or prerecorded video. 

Digital video recorder (DVR) products, ReplayTV and TiVo were first introduced to the public in 1999.  They were more convenient than VCRs and allowed viewers to pause live TV, replay scenes, view a program before its completed and set and record programs.  The product also allows viewers to skip commercial advertisements completely.  According to Nielsen data, DVR penetration increased by about 4% in the last year, rising from 35.7% of TV households with DVRs in February 2010 to 39.7% in February 2011.

With the rising cost of commercial advertising, the decreasing number of TVs in households and the increase in the use of products that allow viewers to skip commercials, the traditional use of television advertising is becoming less of a productive and viable investment for marketing.