Telemarketing: Friend, Not Foe
Many agents feel threatened by direct marketing, viewing it as an attempt to bypass their value-added services. However, most insurance companies have discovered that telemarketing supports the personal selling activities of their salesforces. Telemarketing can even help agents make more money. Unfortunately, agents who embrace telemarketing will frequently use only a small part of its potential. There are several proven applications of telemarketing in the insurance industry, including calling insureds whose policies are about to lapse and making conversions from direct-mail respondents or renewals. Other effective telemarketing applications include: 1. direct mail precall and follow-up, 2. cross-selling, 3. lead generation, 4. introduction of new products, 5. research/surveys, and 6. new product testing. A carefully researched and designed script is essential to the success of any telemarketing program.
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Kurant, Gloria
Full text: [Life Association News] Oct 1988
Programmed For Success
In 10 years, Pacific Insurance Agency (San Diego, California) has grown from a modest operation writing about $3.5 million in premium volume to a state-of-the-art innovator. The agency is geared to reach a premium annual volume of $100 million by the early 1990s. Its success has been credited to a well-grounded and consistently applied marketing philosophy linked to the creative use of automation. Pacific uses its computer system for accounting, correspondence, and claims tracking and to access underwriting and rating information and to track producer profitability. The firm selected Redshaw software for its Wang 2200. The computer maintains a schedule of correspondence with large accounts and reminds the agent to make a sales call each quarter. The only obstacle Pacific experienced with its computer system was early resistance from employees to the changes, because the mental transition was difficult to make.
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Waddell, Jim
Full text: [Insurance Review] Oct 1988
High-Technology Marketing’s Newest Weapons: Demo Disks and Desktop Videos
The demonstration disk, made possible by the personal computer (PC), is a new marketing medium whose potential barely has been tested. For several reasons, the future for demo disks is bright. There are, however, limitations with the new medium, even though the application of demo disks to sales promotion and marketing programs is growing. Major constraints on disk effectiveness include computer illiteracy among the vast audience of those who can benefit from disks and the equipment on which the demo disk is to be used. Major errors in demo disk designs include the failure to: 1. use all the strengths of the technology to convey a creative message, 2. recognize that the disk can accommodate a variety of user interests, and 3. use professional assistance in the in-house preparation of demo disks. Another aspect of the PC and information age revolution is the development of desktop video productions, which are generated on PCs and stored on floppy disks. Case examples of demo disks in use are provided for consumer goods sales, medical products, and banking services.
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Rosenthal, William A.
Full text: [Information Management Review] Fall 1988
Balston Goes Direct
When Balston Filter Products decided to stop relying on distributors and establish a sales and distribution center, it faced several challenges. Because Balston lacked previous direct contact with customers, a marketing strategy was needed to convince these customers to buy direct from Balston. The company asked Milestone Direct Marketing to devise a campaign that would promote the opening of a new office, generate high-quality leads, and gather information for a database. A letter-based package was developed to highlight the benefits to existing customers of Balston’s new sales office, and another was designed for cold prospects. Included in the package was a questionnaire allowing recipients to identify their filter problems. Response was encouraged by offering a note tray and pad, along with a chance to win leisure vouchers with completed questionnaires. The mailing drew a response rate of over 20% and generated 1,800 new business leads.
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Cole, Tony
Full text: [Industrial Marketing Digest] Fourth Quarter 1988
Motivation A To Z
Incentive programs are used for many purposes. For example, advertising specialties, such as caps and T-shirts, augment sophisticated advertising and promotional campaigns by helping marketers focus on market segments. A continuity program is another type of incentive that requires the consumer to continually return to the store in order to get the gift. Retail grocers are heavy users of this type of program, and the gift is usually dishes or cookware. Direct-mail sales can be enhanced with free gifts and sweepstakes. The gift should complement the product being sold. The largest user of direct premiums is the cosmetics industry. Also known as gift-with-purchase items, this incentive increases market share. Trading stamps once were a popular incentive item. In 1969, for example, 75% of all grocery stores offered trading stamps. By 1987, only 8% of the stores offered the stamps. Other types of incentives include event marketing, employee motivation, dealer incentives, and gift certificates.
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Anonymous
Full text: [Incentive] Oct 1988
Marketing To The Military
Consumer products companies in the US are making an all-out marketing assault on the military. The military is a segment of the country that has no recession, no pay cuts, and no unemployment. However, it is a challenge to get through to this segment of the market because military families are very mobile and are almost impossible to reach through direct mail. They do not have their own telephone number if they live on base. In addition, since most military bases are in isolated, rural counties, most broadbased consumer advertising campaigns do not reach them. In order to get through to the military, marketers rely heavily on base newspapers and magazines. Companies can use media consultants like American Passage to place ads in a network of base weeklies covering all or part of the US military community. The military consumer is very responsive to sweepstakes, cents-off coupons, point-of-purchase displays, and sponsored on-site activities.
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Hulin-Salkin, Belinda
Full text: [Incentive] Oct 1988
The Trouble With Direct Marketing
Direct marketing is difficult to identify. If it is viewed as a methodology, marketers are led to think too much in terms of technique and too little in terms of process or structure or to reduce it to a medium or distribution channel. The ultimate growth of direct marketing depends on its potential to integrate advertising, promotion, and distribution sytems through a dynamic, ongoing database of users and potential users. A disregard of how people feel over time toward a company, product, or brand can stand in the way of direct marketing reaching its full potential. Direct marketing is a conceptual approach, not technical or even strategic. It is a view of marketing that involves knowing who the customer is and is not, communicating relevantly with customers, and refining and enhancing the relevance of the communications. The potential of direct marketing will be unlimited if marketers are willing to broaden and deepen their concept of it.
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Rosenfield, James R.
Full text: [Direct Marketing] Oct 1988
Fine-Tune Your Mailing Campaign
Multivariate regression analysis is a sophisticated segmentation method that evaluates relationships between response rates and independent variables such as demographics. Using regression to group responders into segments can take one of 3 forms, depending on the quality of data characteristics available: 1. house file, 2. house file with overlay data, and 3. rented list analysis. Multivariate regression ranks the identified variables in terms of how important they are in determining the response rate of the target audience, and it predicts the response rate of a subsequent mailing based on acquiring additional names with similarly ranked characteristics. The effectiveness of using regression for segmentation will depend on the type of industry, whether any segmentation methods previously were used, and whether the database is a house file or rented list. Statistical software designed for regression analysis and an experienced statistical research analyst also are needed to perform regression modeling.
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Hubbell, William
Full text: [Direct Marketing] Oct 1988
Classified Is The Most Direct
Advertising merchandise for sale in the classified ads is different from a help wanted ad. The latter can be very general while “Something for Sale” advertisements should be very specific. Display classified provides the advertiser with an opportunity to combine image with pitchman-sell. This is effective in a marketplace where the reader seeks the advertiser. There are submarketplaces within the classified marketplace. The copywriter’s job is to attract the attention of readers who belong in the marketplace. Part of the expertise of classified copywriting lies in recognizing who is comprising that marketplace. It must be remembered that classified is the medium; it is not the message, but it dictates the message. The copywriter should think of the classified reader as a generically motivated target who needs comparative arguments.
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Lewis, Herschell Gordon
Full text: [Direct Marketing] Oct 1988
An Hour With The PMG
In an interview, US Postmaster General Anthony Frank discussed the various concerns that are vital to marketers who rely on the US Postal Service. Shortly after Frank took office, new 3rd-class postal rates were approved by the Postal Board of Governors that angered commercial mailers. The volume of 3rd-class did not decline but has leveled off. The Postal Service currently is working on a systemwide mail tracking system that will be used initially on parcels and Express mail. The system likely will be on a bar code basis. Frank would like to see the image of 3rd-class mail upgraded by periodically being the link between the federal government and the public in terms of its messages. Third-class mail could be improved by having more helpful contents. Frank’s objectives as Postmaster General are to extend the interval between rate increases, improve employee relationships, and improve the Postal Service’s image with the American people.
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Hoke, Henry R., Jr.
Roel, Raymond A.
Full text: [Direct Marketing] Oct 1988
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