Direct marketing

An interest rousing advertisement in the press entices you to dial a toll free number for more information on a great looking proposition. You find it hard to hold your curiosity and go ahead with making a call. At the other end, you hear a friendly voice who, with cultured interactive skills convincingly enumerates the virtues of the offer, impressing on you that it was customized by their firm to fulfill critical user needs. And the telemarketing executive would further point out reasons for you to consider the offer, laced with some never-before value appeals. At the end of briefing, you are reasonably impressed and convinced on the worth of an exploration on the offer and you respond to the stimuli for an interface with the firm's executive at your convenience. This is a typical case of direct marketing process in action.

In simple words, direct marketing is any contact your business makes with existing or potential customers in order to generate sales or to raise awareness. Those who are in business, at some stage of promoting the trade, engage into the act of direct marketing, whether business to business or business to consumer, the usefulness of direct marketing has proved unquestionably. In today's competitive scenario, even the traditional multi channel marketers of FMCG products have laid adequate emphasis on direct, one to one contacts with the prospects, either for retaining high value customers or to use the process for widely energizing trials from non users of the brand. The secret of success lies in understanding the nuances of this delicate exercise and the imagination and grit to make the process work for the enterprise.

The following example of Domino's will give you an idea about how to successfully use direct marketing:
Domino's entered the developing country market only post 1996. But they have been extremely successful by using direct marketing effectively. Domino's, have used the direct marketing strategy to reach out to customers. Their advertisements initially showed the telephone numbers of their different outlets and promised to deliver hot fresh pizzas at customer's doorstep in 30 minutes. Today there are several food chains, consumer product companies and service organizations that are using the direct marketing strategy for effectively reaching out to their customers. direct marketing is gaining importance, especially in urban markets and has emerged as an alternative form of marketing. Brands like the orange cellular phone services have been built through an effective use of direct marketing tools.