September 1, 2008
Cover Story
What Downturn?
An economist looking only at direct marketers' online spending patterns might think the country is in pretty good shape. Direct's annual survey of e-commerce...
Features
Get the Word Out Early
If you exhibit at trade shows as part of your business-to-business marketing strategy, you're in good company. About 18% to 25% of the typical B-to-B...
The Power of Prose
Whatever media outlet you frequent, it's likely filled with relentless prognostications of doom and gloom. High gas priceshome mortgage foreclosuresI...
The Independents
Walter KarlEdith RomanDirect MediaWill there be a single independent list firm standing by the time Vin Gupta is done? Good question. Gupta has said several...
Slowdown Lowdown
ParadyszMatera CEO Chris Paradysz has a theory: The list business likes to put itself in a corner, he says. But it's no different from any other business....
Disciplines
Drug Interactions
Open up and say Or pick up a pamphlet in your physician's office. Or type your symptoms into a search engine. Today, pharmaceutical companies are using...
Pint-Sized Platforms
Think your company is too small for a CRM structure? Think again. According to a white paper from CRM software consultancy Vendor Guru, appropriate customer...
Before You Buy
Let us go now, you and I, to a fantasy realm where marketers have blank purchase-authorization slips in their hands. Vendor Guru has outlined five pre-purchase...
Channels
Northern Exposure
With the U.S. economy faltering and catalogers still reeling from last year's severe postage increases, mailers could do worse than consider Canada, the...
Story Selling
To its loyal customers, Philosophy is more than a skin-care products company. It's a lifestyle and an outlook. It's also introspective and reflective,...
No Place Like Home
Rising costs and dwindling budgets are making it hard for business marketers to attend and run events. So instead of going on the road, many companies...
Op-Ed Columns
Better Late
Don Mokrynski did not exactly radiate gratitude when he accepted the DMA List Leaders Award in 2004. It's about bloody time, he said. Then he added: Ben...
All Singing, All Social
This summer a supervillain took over the Internet. His weapon of choice? Social marketing. The musical superhero spoof Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog...
In Defense of Blacklists
A recent horrific tragedy horrific tragedy falling miserably short in describing it, but words really do fail on this one should cause marketers to take...
The Citi Takes a Snooze
Citibank started as City Bank of New York in 1812 and is now Citigroup, the world's biggest financial services firm, with pretax profits of over $20 billion....
A Family Affair
A recent industry event solicitation highlighted a keynote address by the godfather of CRM. Yes, yes, it was an offer one couldn't refuse, lest one sleep...
Branding? OK...If You Own a Cattle Ranch
Among the current hot buzzwords, branding is right up there with metrics and traction. Advertising agencies have pushed the notion of branding as the...
Directions
The USPS' Softer Side
At least one Manhattan letter carrier apparently believes in being kind to the elderly. My wife's eccentric aunt, who resides in an assisted-living home...
Game to Reach the Gals
When one thinks of games and dorm rooms, the mind typically wanders to shot glasses and bottles of cheap hooch. J.C. Penney took a more sober route to...
Hey, Big Givers
Don't panic but don't sit back and do nothing, either. That was one of the key findings of recent research by Convio, Sea Change Strategies and Edge Research...
Articles
Listline
NEW LISTS Addiction Professional Vendome Group has a postal list naming 22,846 subscribers to Addiction Professional magazine. There's also a file of...
Letters to the Editor
WHAT IF In his June Loose Cannon column, Richard H. Levey paints an alarming picture of what would happen if The Wall Street Journal became a tabloid!...
