Page 176 - Marketing the Basics 2nd

168 Marketing: the Basics
there are other varieties, for example where the customer is a busy professional buyer who wants to get right to business, or a buyer who wants to reorder a product they have ordered many times before, in that case the sales call is simpler and more to the point.
DIRECT MARKETING
One of the fastest growing segments in the marketing industry is the direct marketing industry. We define direct marketing as a marketing strategy to build stronger, more personal relationships between the buyer and selected customers directly. In other words, there are no intermediary promotion or distribution channels between the buyer and seller. Direct marketing entails providing a marketing offer specifically tailored to the needs or wants of a narrowly defined segment. If the offer is flexible enough, it is theoretically possible to capture the entire consumer surplus with a direct marketing strategy; individuals receive exactly what they want. To offer such products, direct marketers need large databases containing information on their customers, information that includes demographic, psychographic, geographic and behavioural data. Using statistics, analysts uncover similar preferences between dissimilar customers, enabling the direct marketer to craft a marketing offer to the under-served segment. Direct marketing deepens the relationship between buyer and seller.
Direct marketing is by no means a new phenomenon. The retailing giant Sears Roebuck started as a catalogue company over 100 years ago. Sears became a success because they directly interacted with the customer, always fulfilling their marketing offer, which was to deliver affordable clothing and goods to the customer’s home in a timely fashion.
BENEFITS OF DIRECT MARKETING
Employing a direct marketing model offers many benefits to buyers and sellers. For the buyers, direct marketing is a quick and convenient means of purchasing goods they want. Direct marketing also facilitates the possibility of customizing the order, therefore the buyers receive the product they want, not the product marketers