At that Mecca of consumer advertising in the US, people have given it a cute name, junk mail. In India, where it has just made its debut, they are still overawed by the novelty of it all to give it an epithet yet. Direct marketing is as nice a jargon as any in the high flying world of advertisement. It too sounds cute though in a different word from junk mail.
The idea is only catching on in this country: so one supposes the official' nomenclature will stick till you get flooded by all those 'direct- appeal’ printed stuff coming in through your letter box and you are ready to throw up your arms and exclaim, much like the Promise mother. 'Oh, no! Not another' very special offer!
But jokes apart, won't you be thrilled to bits to receive special attention, via a personal letter out of the blue, say from British Airways telling you tantalisingly that a Secret Agent is watching you! Now why on earth a BA agent should be keeping an eye on you telling you to please wait till next week. The sender will be at your service in catching the agent red handed. There's the carrot of a reward too. A sales gimmick, no doubt. You may not care a fig. Or you might be an Air France devout. But mind you. BA has picked you with much care. They know you are part of the jet-set and the aim of their letter is to win you over to their side. Not every company is to discerning. Some pick their targets from even the telephone directory. And there are others who use a better yardstick. Exclusive clubs, hotel lists are happy hunting ground for these companies always on the lookout for the elusive customer.
Actually, it could he the school register of your child also. It all depends on the product or service on offer. Sometimes the companies can go to ridiculous lengths. Last month my four year-old son became the target of this marketing novelty. He received a direct mail from Leo Mattel offering him a Christmas discount on any Leo toy. I don't see how else, except from the nursery school he goes to, the company could have picked up his name and our home address. But there was my four year old son proudly holding on to the letter. He can barely read his name, but that did not matter. He is not yet of that age when he can take purchase decisions in my family, even of stuff of his need. But I must admit Leo managed to clinch a sale. I still feel rather sheepish about it, since it wasn't my son but me who took the decision to buy an exorbitantly priced Leo toy, too pricey even after the Christmas discount.
Junk mail or not, I've been taken in by the ad novelty. I'm sure there are thousands of other people who also fell for it. So you see what I mean, it is novelty that counts. This must have been the case even in the US in the early days of 'direct marketing'. Novelties work as long as they are novelties. When they cease to be so, direct mail becomes junk mail. Witness the US.
Even the mildest suggestion that what the ad people in tandem with their client companies are perpetrating on the unsuspecting, upwardly mobile Indian consumer through the direct marketing approach is a junk mail culture. It brings forth a spirited defence from R Shridar of O&M Direct Marketing: "Test marketing via direct marketing is the best mode for 100 per cent accurate response. And direct mail is not the same thing as direct marketing but only a part of it." The distinction is important. Yet in the same breath, Shridhar says "direct marketing is any activity as a result of which the customer responds directly to you or vice versa.
Whatever the definition, what India is witnessing is a veritable boom in direct marketing of products and services, and not just for the limited purpose of test marketing of new products. The Leo story told above is a case in point. In a purely sales drive, how effective direct marketing is, is a matter open to debate. We see today, a whole array of products and services — from airline seats to banking, being sold through the mail. Be it Fedders Lloyd, the air-conditioning and refrigeration company offering extra warranty at no extra cost only through its direct mail target customers. But that's open only to the first 500 customers who respond to their direct mail offer. Most companies. egged on by their advertising agencies, try this very very old trick playing on the psychology of the gullible. Playing on sentiments, making you feel very very special indeed. It does a lot of good to your ego. It does a lot of good to the companies' coffers as well.
Without exception, the sales-man's stick is hidden behind the carrot of a price cut directly on the first purchase, lower rates on repeat purchases or a through the draw of lots, and what have you. For example, the Astral direct marketing from Hindustan Levers. The soap was launched in Hyderabad where not more than 10.000 women were recipients of an envelope containing details of the offer along with cake of the soap. It's a weighty campaign, literally. The cover brings home a number of pamphlets and unfolds the product gradually. Not until you have gone through a good part the written words that you realize that they are selling a soap. Much like a slow striptease. At the end of it all is the great titillation a prize to be won, trip on the Palace on the Wheel. But this is not through a draw lots. You have to work hard for that. Like answer questions so as why you feel Astral is 'really out of the world’, or why you think 'it is the best soap in the world’. And then describe Astral in no more than 15 words. So after all, it is the same silly old game of conning you into buying something you may have no felt need for.
Others are, of course, not as subtle as Hindustan Lever or British Airways. Brooke Bond for one. Its pamphlets mailed to companies. Brooke Bond is trying to promote the culture of coffee vending machines in offices. You won't have the tea boy or the coffee boy handing you your morning cuppa. Instead, imagine the prospect of getting your favourite brew out of a nozzle at the bottom of an impersonal machine. And be content with drinking out of a disposable plastic or paper cup. The curious thing about the Brooke Bond offer is that no money is to be paid by the customer-company for the vending machine. Only the coffee or tea is to he paid for at the end of each week. Obviously, Broke Bond is depending on bulk sale of coffee or tea, in volumes that will cover the cost of the machines as also the recurring expenditure of maintenance. Electricity charges are your headache. One more advantage, and thank goodness for that: the machine comes with an attachment, a vendor in flesh and blood. So you have your coffee boy after all, as also the pleasure of barking back at him if the brew is lousy.
Direct marketing through direct mail is not such a novelty in India really. Reader's Digest has been doing it for decades with remarkable success. It is only lately that this ascertaining and marketing aid has been hyped to new highs. Over the past few years a number of major advertising agencies have established specialised direct marketing divisions. The first to come up was O&M Direct in 1987. In its wake have come Market Links of Lintas and Trikaya Grey Direct. Others like HTA and Response also plan to join the direct marketing band wagon soon by flouting separate subsidiaries for the purpose. Still others like MAA Communications and Ulka have been into this business for quite some time though they have no separate divisions for this. They do it as part of their mainline business, refusing to give it a new name.
Direct marketing differs from direct mailing. In a singular ray, the target customers are carefully chosen. As the trends in India have emerged, this is being done mainly for high-profile to the high-income bracket. Usually, direct marketing involves personal visits by company representatives to the homes and offices of the target customers. Evidently, direct marketing has worked wonders, at least for some of the companies. Business of the advertising agencies is on the run. O& M Direct has 28 clients, Trikaya Grey Direct boasts of 14. Market Links has a large number but is not ready to share the figure.
On the other side, the corporate sectors increasingly relying on direct marketing. ITC, ANZ Grindlays, UB Group, Hindustan Levers, British Airways are some of them. The point not to be missed here is that they are all very big companies.
This brings us to the cost of direct marketing. The bill is really high enough to deter the run of the mill companies. Each direct marketing contact can cost between Rs 12 and I5 in terms of printing, mailing etc. This is for the ordinary. A premium mailer can cost Rs. 100. Personal contact extra. The total bill foe a whole campaign can be beyond the reach of most companies. Small wonder then, direct marketing has remained in the realm of the big companies. Yet, it can be said with reason and a degree of certainty that in the nineties more and more companies will fall to the attraction of Direct Marketing in spite of the cost. Reach and access to the marker are important. As products get more customised the need for micro-level marketing will be increasingly felt.
This has already given birth to a new, specialised service, requiring special skill. A new breed of marketing and adverting men has arrived.