Comments on: Direct Mail: A Premature Obituary http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/drayton-bird/direct-mail-a-premature-obituary.html Business-Building Secrets for Growth-Obsessed Companies Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:28:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Markus Trauernicht http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/drayton-bird/direct-mail-a-premature-obituary.html#comment-795 Markus Trauernicht Mon, 12 Nov 2007 10:46:16 +0000 http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/drayton-bird/direct-mail-a-premature-obituary.html#comment-795 SMS will never die, just because is fills a human need. It was first seen as a rubbish-by-product, a nice add-on feature. Nobody expected it to take off so big. But the benefits are just so practical, catering to human needs. You can drop an appointment without having to make a phonecall. Or just let someone know that you are coming late, without having to excuse yourself via phone. (That is why I turn off my phone half an hour before appointments when I am the driver and could be late to a meeting because of the late party.) You can send an info, without having to consider social etiquette and the niceties / difficulties of smalltalk. Short and fast. You can even send an info and let the other person call you. Giving you a stronger bargaining position, because the other party called YOU. You can think about the wording, that you might mess up if you phoned because you are nervous, irritated, afraid to say the wrong thing or just bad with words. At times it\'s just so much more uncomplicated to send an SMS. Thereby relieving your conscience because you feel you made the necessary phonecall. Just the same with phones (landline) with an attached camera. It never took off, because there was no broad demand for that feature. What woman in her right mind would answer the phone before she finished her styling? There are more benefits in NOT having a videocamera attached that having one attached. Advertising via email and normal post works, because it\'s a medium of communication. Just like the old postal mail, which was invented as a form of communication between real people. Only later is was used for advertising, using a known medium. A known and working medium catering to the human need of communication. Creating a pure advertising media will probably never really work, because there is no demand or need from a market to actively receive advertising. Or would you like to receive advertising SMS all day long? Or stupid marketing messages in a similar media trying to be viral? (Funny movies can be seen on YouTube). I guess that is why mobile marketing is dead from the start, even if it will take the industry years and billions to find out. Its where the web 2.0 comes in so handy. It gives you so many possibilites to evade the advertising. Perhaps it is the reason why so many companies (aside from marketing companies) struggle with making web 2.0 pay. With social networks you can get and give the necessary content, communicate and evade advertising at the same time (perhaps it has become human need to evade advertising?!?). Probably also the reason why so many forums do not work when products can be bought on the same webpage. Have Fun! Regards Markus Trauernicht from Berlin SMS will never die, just because is fills a human need. It was first seen as a rubbish-by-product, a nice add-on feature. Nobody expected it to take off so big. But the benefits are just so practical, catering to human needs.

You can drop an appointment without having to make a phonecall. Or just let someone know that you are coming late, without having to excuse yourself via phone. (That is why I turn off my phone half an hour before appointments when I am the driver and could be late to a meeting because of the late party.)

You can send an info, without having to consider social etiquette and the niceties / difficulties of smalltalk. Short and fast.

You can even send an info and let the other person call you. Giving you a stronger bargaining position, because the other party called YOU.

You can think about the wording, that you might mess up if you phoned because you are nervous, irritated, afraid to say the wrong thing or just bad with words. At times it\’s just so much more uncomplicated to send an SMS. Thereby relieving your conscience because you feel you made the necessary phonecall.

Just the same with phones (landline) with an attached camera. It never took off, because there was no broad demand for that feature. What woman in her right mind would answer the phone before she finished her styling? There are more benefits in NOT having a videocamera attached that having one attached.

Advertising via email and normal post works, because it\’s a medium of communication. Just like the old postal mail, which was invented as a form of communication between real people. Only later is was used for advertising, using a known medium. A known and working medium catering to the human need of communication.

Creating a pure advertising media will probably never really work, because there is no demand or need from a market to actively receive advertising. Or would you like to receive advertising SMS all day long? Or stupid marketing messages in a similar media trying to be viral? (Funny movies can be seen on YouTube). I guess that is why mobile marketing is dead from the start, even if it will take the industry years and billions to find out.

Its where the web 2.0 comes in so handy. It gives you so many possibilites to evade the advertising. Perhaps it is the reason why so many companies (aside from marketing companies) struggle with making web 2.0 pay. With social networks you can get and give the necessary content, communicate and evade advertising at the same time (perhaps it has become human need to evade advertising?!?). Probably also the reason why so many forums do not work when products can be bought on the same webpage.

Have Fun!

Regards
Markus Trauernicht from Berlin

]]> By: John http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/drayton-bird/direct-mail-a-premature-obituary.html#comment-782 John Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:07:18 +0000 http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/drayton-bird/direct-mail-a-premature-obituary.html#comment-782 Brilliant article. Especially ... [QUOTE] What I find rather dispiriting about these debates over the merits of various media is their simplistic either/or nature. They utterly ignore the merits of synergy. What actually works best is a combination of media. [/QUOTE] Thanks for the lesson, John Brilliant article.

Especially …

[QUOTE] What I find rather dispiriting about these debates over the merits of various media is their simplistic either/or nature. They utterly ignore the merits of synergy. What actually works best is a combination of media. [/QUOTE]

Thanks for the lesson,
John

]]> By: David Foley http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/drayton-bird/direct-mail-a-premature-obituary.html#comment-781 David Foley Thu, 08 Nov 2007 08:57:54 +0000 http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/drayton-bird/direct-mail-a-premature-obituary.html#comment-781 Terrific article. The amazing thing about credit card offers is that they keep coming despite a decade\'s worth of response decline. In Canada, ?MBNA\'s \"media\" strategy is 100% direct mail. Capital 1 uses DM extensively as well, although it is interesting to note that the mailings i\'ve received focus on low interest rate benefits and do not refer to the company\'s television commercials (the \"You\'ve Got Banker\'s\" campaign which likens bankers to household pests). While I suspect that the conpany is testing a DM version of \"You\'ve Got Banker\'s\", the fact that the rate-focused control is the control proves that DM has its own set of rules ... and that people who do not understand this will either waste their own or their clients\' money. Terrific article. The amazing thing about credit card offers is that they keep coming despite a decade\’s worth of response decline. In Canada, ?MBNA\’s \”media\” strategy is 100% direct mail. Capital 1 uses DM extensively as well, although it is interesting to note that the mailings i\’ve received focus on low interest rate benefits and do not refer to the company\’s television commercials (the \”You\’ve Got Banker\’s\” campaign which likens bankers to household pests). While I suspect that the conpany is testing a DM version of \”You\’ve Got Banker\’s\”, the fact that the rate-focused control is the control proves that DM has its own set of rules … and that people who do not understand this will either waste their own or their clients\’ money.

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