Drayton Bird “Read it and re-read it. It contains the knowledge of a lifetime.” David Ogilvy, founder Ogilvy & Mather 5th Edition 25th anniversary edition of the worldwide bestseller DIRECT& DIGITAL COMMONSENSE MARKETING i ‘Drayton Bird knows more about Direct Marketing than anyone in the world. His book about it is pure gold.’ David Ogilvy ‘Remarkably personal, yet authoritative.’ Ed McLean, DM News, New York ‘Everything the testimonials say, and a bargain at any price.’ Robert Heller, Editor in Chief, Finance ‘The most stimulating book on marketing I have ever read.’ M E Corby, Mail Users’ Association Ltd ‘I have already got my money back at least a hundred times over.’ John Fenton, Founder, The Institute of Sales and Marketing Management ‘So clear and concise that selective quotations fail to do justice to the richness of its texture. Read it.’ Campaign ‘Perceptive, provocative and funny as hell.’ Robert Leiderman, The Leading Telemarketing Expert ‘I recommend it to all my students.’ Dick Hodgson, The Top US Direct Marketing Teacher ‘Without doubt the best direct marketing book which exists.’ Erik Van Vooren, BBDO Direct, Brussels ‘I picked up your book Saturday night late – I put it down early Sunday! I am very grateful to you.’ John Fraser-Robinson, Author, Secrets of Successful Direct Marketing ‘Commonsense in direct marketing makes sense after reading Drayton Bird’s excellent book.’ Eddie Boas, Organiser, Pan-Pacific Direct Marketing Symposium ‘If you can spare the time to read only one direct mail book – this is it. Beg, borrow or steal it.’ Graeme McCorkell, Founder, MSW Rapp & Collins ‘… the best work on the subject I’ve ever read… and I’ve read them all!’ James A Mienik, Direct Marketing Reports, Tampa, Florida ‘A definitive mini institute from one of the industry’s greats.’ Mike Pitt, Time-Life International, Australia ‘Great book! Clear, honest and relevant – it’s a great guide on how to focus on the basics and get it right’ Alex Smirniotis, Combined Insurance, Australia ‘If you read no other book on direct marketing you should find the time to read this one’ Direct Marketing International ii ‘Witty and practical, but never boring. A great book to read and re-read and one that I wish I had read a lot earlier in my career.’ Joseph Sugarman, CEO, JS&A ‘Among my most valued possessions, and easily among the greatest ever written on advertising, right up there with those by Caples, Ogilvy, Schwab, Reeves and Hopkins.’ Gary Bencivenga, cited as America’s top copywriter ‘I read the whole book through from cover to cover in one weekend – because it was well written (as you would hope!) but also because it was just so immediately useful.’ Rowan Gormley, Virgin Isles iii Drayton Bird London and Philadelphia DIRECT& DIGITAL COMMONSENSE MARKETING 5th Edition iv First published in Great Britain in 1982 entitled Commonsense Direct Marketing Second edition, 1989 Third edition, 1993 Fourth edition, 2000 Fifth edition, 2007, entitled Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licences issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned addresses: Kogan Page Limited Kogan Page US 120 Pentonville Road 525 South 4th Street, #241 London N1 9JN Philadelphia PA 19147 United Kingdom USA www.kogan-page.co.uk © Drayton Bird 1982, 1989, 1993, 2000, 2007 The right of Drayton Bird to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN-10: 0 7494 4760 5 ISBN-13: 978 0 7494 4760 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bird, Drayton. Commonsense direct and digital marketing / Drayton Bird. – 5th ed. p. cm. Rev. ed. of: Commonsense direct marketing / Drayton Bird. 4th ed. London ; $a Dover, N.H. : Kogan Page, 2000. Includes index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7494-4760-1 ISBN-10: 0-7494-4760-5 1. Direct marketing. I. Bird, Drayton. Commonsense direct marketing. II. Title. HF5415.126.B57 2007 658.8’72–dc22 2007011100 Typeset by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bell & Bain, Glasgow Dedication This book is dedicated to my mother, who was able to succeed at an age when most other people have stopped trying. v Contents Plate section can be found between pages 216 and 231 in Chapter 9 List of Plates ix Acknowledgements xi CHAPTER 1 Beginnings 1 The amateur approach 2 The difficult approach 3 Some valuable discoveries 5 The mysterious rise of direct marketing 6 A paradox 10 Your timing is good 11 To make learning easier 12 CHAPTER 2 The Three Graces of Direct Marketing 14 Short-term thinking 15 To make and keep a customer 16 What is direct marketing? 16 The Three Graces of direct marketing 22 How your customer is changing 23 Controllability: an important benefit 26 Giving your customer a better service 28 The spiral of prosperity 31 CHAPTER 3 Direct Marketing Can Do More Than You Think 36 What can you sell? 37 The role of direct marketing 38 Five major objectives of direct marketers 45 And four ways to achieve them 46 Which names are best? 53 CHAPTER 4 How to Get Started 54 Does your business have a continuing relationship built in? 56 Sales-force help 57 Some pertinent questions 59 Use your names 60 Retail problems 61 The key to profit 61 Employers and shareholders 64 Who complains? 65 What mail order teaches 65 Three major errors 66 What should you sell? 68 Can you offer a good deal? 69 Ask your customers 71 How does it compare? 72 Pay the right price 73 Don’t over order 73 Where to look 74 CHAPTER 5 Positioning and Other Mysteries Explained 77 Sound advice on boasting 78 Would a salesperson do this? 79 Added value 80 Unique selling proposition 82 Positioning: today’s theory 83 Changing the rules 90 General advertising and positioning 91 CHAPTER 6 How to Plan Well 94 Eleven steps to success 96 Five questions you must answer 99 Keep in touch 102 How to understand your customers better 104 Who knows where or when? 108 Where your money will do most good 108 CHAPTER 7 Media: A Different, More Flexible Approach 112 What is your purpose? 112 Five major differences 113 The media recipe 120 Timing critical 120 The eight traditional media at your disposal 122 Other media 141 Interactive, personalised media 142 Successful media selection 144 Proven principles of negotiation 148 Ten good deals 149 vi ᔢ Contents CHAPTER 8 Digital Marketing: The Internet and E-mail 153 Getting it right from the start – seven things you must ask yourself about your site 155 A–Z of building and managing a website 162 You have a fantastic site – what next? 164 Don’t be bamboozled: commonsense online techniques 166 How your traffic helps improve your aim 173 Just a reminder: it’s accelerated direct marketing 174 Whose website is it anyway? 179 What’s making money – and why 191 An extraordinary, rare opportunity 195 CHAPTER 9 Your Greatest Asset 199 The value of a name 200 The relative importance of the list 201 Twelve criteria for evaluating lists 206 Your database and how to build it 209 Where to find the best new customers 215 Lifestyle databases 234 Compiled lists 236 Jon Epstein’s 11 desiderata 239 CHAPTER 10 Where Ideas Come From and How to Express Them Persuasively 245 The birth of an idea 245 Getting organised 249 Context is everything 251 Nationalities and social groups 257 Media vary; principles don’t 260 How to build conviction 268 The nuts and bolts of good creative copy 271 Creativity in action 283 Two secret ingredients 290 CHAPTER 11 How to Make Your Creative Work Virtually Foolproof 296 Twenty-five pointers before you write a word or sketch a layout 299 Planning your creative treatment 307 Eleven uncreative (but tested) ways to make your layout work harder 311 Thirteen attention-grabbers 320 Tricks and techniques that keep people reading 323 Charity advertising: a special case 324 What to watch for in broadcast 326 Now that you think it’s perfect have you forgotten anything? 329 Contents ᔢ vii CHAPTER 12 How to Test – and Evaluate Your Results 334 Testing: the first duty 336 Fourteen ways you can learn by testing 339 A fair test? 349 A true and proper record 350 What testing achieved for me 356 CHAPTER 13 Testing Versus Research – and Other Matters 359 Tests that gained an account 361 Two laws of testing 362 Startling results 365 Nine testing opportunities 367 How much should you test? And when? 375 A famous case-history 376 CHAPTER 14 How to Choose Your Agency – and When to Do Without One 381 Agency or not? 383 Speculative presentations 385 Organisation and procedure 386 Playing the field 390 How much you should pay 391 Money and talent 393 Try to understand the process 394 CHAPTER 15 Client and Agency: the Unequal Partnership 396 The impossible dream 396 Joy ride? 398 Two types of relationship 399 Where things go wrong and how to get them right 401 Other trouble spots 406 CHAPTER 16 The Future of Marketing: Ten Predictions – and a Health Warning 410 Little more competence 416 Honesty 416 Full circle 418 Index 420 viii ᔢ Contents ix List of Plates Plate section can be found between pages 216 and 231 in Chapter 9. Joe Sugarman – A thoroughly modern mail-order man Renault – A good example of how advertising and direct marketing work together Reader’s Digest – How well do you remember the hits of the 60s and 70s? Eagle Star – How I saved £50 in five minutes Kathie Webber Belgian Xerox mailing with stopwatch Compaq American Express – Shades of no Felix Robert Hayes-McCoy – Fan of letters Jet Stream before and after British Telecom Amex Avon Help the Aged Banco Comercial Português Quality Paperback mailings [...]... confidently: Direct marketing And today, of course, firms like Dell Computers and Amazon rely entirely on direct marketing Ignorance of direct marketing In 1976 a farsighted friend, John Watson, suggested to me that we start an advertising consultancy or agency specialising in direct marketing – especially since I knew more about it than most The most vital sector of the economy 8 ᔢ Commonsense direct and digital. .. questionnaires 22 ᔢ Commonsense direct and digital marketing Today no serious car manufacturer ignores direct marketing, although not all of them do a very good job They spend for too much on flashy executions and not enough on personal, persuasive messages THE THREE GRACES OF DIRECT MARKETING What makes each customer different? Build a continuing relationship What is the purpose of direct marketing? In... terms such as ‘curriculum marketing , ‘dialogue marketing , ‘personal marketing , ‘database marketing and – currently the most fashionable one – ‘customer relationship marketing But the most common term remains direct marketing It is certainly the one I propose to stick to Nevertheless, these terms do reveal important facts about the nature of the business Certainly direct marketing revolves around... Everything done directly 20 ᔢ Commonsense direct and digital marketing Short-sighted bosses from ‘Green Card’ membership to ‘Gold Card’ membership, perhaps to ‘Platinum Card’ membership, and may be persuaded to have a credit card too All by means of direct marketing Indeed, the only time when a cardmember is likely to transact any business with American Express in any other way than via direct marketing. .. to serve them better Within Ogilvy & Mather, the advertising agency group I The reaction to direct mail A good time to start 12 ᔢ Commonsense direct and digital marketing Rules not sacred used to work for, the direct marketing arm was growing much faster than general advertising, and this growth is continuing as more and more companies put resources into this form of marketing So there is a great and... hardly be surprised that few understand what direct marketing is Indeed, whilst preparing this book, I saw that, in a survey of 133 leading American direct marketers, no clear agreement on what the business is emerged When the phrase direct marketing comes up, most people, in my experience, immediately think of the medium of direct mail Others think of direct marketing as a method of selling, like off-the-page... Just commonsense Fortunately, direct marketing is not hard to understand, despite the efforts of a large number of half-baked theorists with a penchant for quasi-academic jargon We all like to dignify our craft with a little mystery for the benefit of outsiders; this is particularly true of experts talking to potential customers with bags of money But direct marketing is little more than commonsense,... much money as you’d like?’ If you are not careful, these will lead to a visit Why a definition matters Building a relationship 18 ᔢ Commonsense direct and digital marketing from an insurance salesman Clearly these people are engaged in direct marketing: they are making a direct contact and trying to initiate a relationship with you as an individual In the same way, somebody who offers you a leaflet inviting... of your local Conservative Party candidate – they’re all direct marketing In fact the most popular section in many papers – the classified section – is nothing but direct marketing And almost everything that happens on the internet involves direct marketing Perhaps it is worth stating here what I believe to be the differences between direct marketing and some of the other communications tools (This... take over If you choose direct marketing, you will be entering the most vital segment of the economy for the next 50 years.’ As time passed, the mail order and direct mail businesses crawled out of the gutter and became mysteriously transmuted into direct marketing By the end of the 1970s over half the Fortune Top 100 Companies were either dabbling with direct marketing or were direct marketers, like . Isles iii Drayton Bird London and Philadelphia DIRECT& amp; DIGITAL COMMONSENSE MARKETING 5th Edition iv First published in Great Britain in 1982 entitled Commonsense Direct Marketing Second edition, 1989 Third. Secrets of Successful Direct Marketing ‘Commonsense in direct marketing makes sense after reading Drayton Bird’s excellent book.’ Eddie Boas, Organiser, Pan-Pacific Direct Marketing Symposium ‘If. founder Ogilvy & Mather 5th Edition 25th anniversary edition of the worldwide bestseller DIRECT& amp; DIGITAL COMMONSENSE MARKETING i ‘Drayton Bird knows more about Direct Marketing than