Evaluating the success of Direct Marketing strategies

The modern business environment is characterized by intense competitiveness and business organizations have to constantly reengineer their internal processes in to build and maintain a competitive edge . However efficient internal processes will be valueless unless the needs of customer relationship management are met effectively . In this respect , the marketing programs that a business organization undertakes are particularly relevant in terms of generating awareness about the products and services and then translating the awareness into actual purchases by influencing customers ' decision-making patterns (cited in Aaker , 2004 . The two objectives of raising awareness

and converting awareness to purchases cannot be met unless targeted marketing programs are developed . Developing targeted marketing programs demand substantial investments which much be recouped . Therefore monitoring the results of marketing programs is extremely important . Unless these programs are generating the targeted level of response , the management of the organization has to cut spending in current marketing immediately and devise new strategies . This reasoning applies in evaluating the success of direct marketing strategies (cited in Bildstein , 2008

Direct marketing provides the operational framework through which direct relations with customers may be built and maintained (cited in Aaker 2004 . Because of the high level of competitiveness which characterizes the current business environment , customers have a wide array of choices in making their purchasing decisions . Therefore it is more important now than ever for business organizations to tailor the messages of their marketing programs to the particular needs of the targeted customer segment . This process of tailoring messages to the particular characteristics of different consumer segments is facilitated under the direct marketing framework . Under this framework , sales representatives are in direct contact with clients . Therefore any questions that clients might have are answered immediately . However response to direct marketing campaigns is limited because they require consumers to spend extra time and effort in going through the contents sent to them . Yet the investments required to launch a direct marketing campaign are quite high (cited in Bildstein , 2008 . For this reason , the management of a business organization has to rigorously evaluate the profitability of launching direct marketing campaigns

A widely practiced strategy in launching this type of marketing program is to do a test run initially (cited in Dess , 2007 . Data collected from the test run will provide an indication of the level of response to be expected if the direct marketing campaign is launched . If the level of response is judged to be too low , then the management has to revise its procedures of selecting the right consumer segment . Because the costs of implementing direct marketing programs are high and because direct marketing programs usually generate a very low percentage of response it is critical that the right consumer segment be selected (cited in DeBevois , 2008 . In this regard , the management of the business might want to conduct a survey which will determine the geographical demographic , behavioral and psychographic characteristics of different consumer segments . In this case , research is based upon primary sources of information . However there are also secondary...