MAIL ORDER, DIRECT MARKETING, AND DATABASE DIRECT MARKETING
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• Which department “owns” the computer: Accounting? Order processing? Estimating? Direct marketing? What is the pecking order? Most systems generate data through order entry. Access to that information and to computer time for its analysis is critical to databased marketing. • What can the computer do? That is, what is its capacity for receiving, analyzing, and acting on each piece of information? If your sales efforts involve 1,000 different items, how much time and capacity are involved if you want access to everyone who ordered any single item? Any one of 100 different categories? Twenty-five categories? Can the computer do the same for prices? Frequency of orders? Any combination of these? Can it add, remove, and correct data quickly and easily? Can it protect data? What are its limitations, and how does it fit into today’s state of the art? Note that your computer is not involved with lists you purchase for mailing but only with supplying in-house lists and handling responses. Purchased lists go directly to a mailing service. • A Note on Style: Go back and reread the preceding two paragraphs—not for content but for style. Note the many short sentences and sentence fragments. See how question marks emphasize the need for answers and action. Mentally remove those question marks, and substitute commas. You’ll have an instant demonstration of the need to keep it simple. What You Really Have to Know
INSIGHT 27 Limit your data to information you are likely to use. Robert Kestnbaum’s widely accepted FRAT formulation suggests Frequency, Recency, Amount of purchase, and Type of merchandise or service as the key components. For psychographic components, consult professional help . . . but get a firm price quotation before you begin.
Determine what you must know, store, and be able to manipulate by computer to improve sales. What would you do with different kinds of information if you had it? Differentiate between “nice to know” and “vital for improved performance.” Your computer will, if instructed, endlessly store expensively gathered information you thought you wanted but didn’t know what to do with once it arrived. Before you ask for it . . . 1. 2.
Determine what will be done with any information once you have it. Be open to and welcome unasked-for information, unwelcome information, and inconclusive information. They can be as important to your marketing as actual sales. Believe the numbers . . . but in addition to getting just the facts, consider whether it makes any difference to also know “why.”