DIRECT MARKETERS WANT TO BUILD RELATIONSHIP WITH CONSUMERS
By Adnews Staff
Direct response marketing in Canada is increasingly becoming a process of relationship building, according to a study by the Canadian Direct Marketing Association. Fifty-seven per cent of the respondents have reported an increased use of housefile names over last year because there is better segmentation of housefile names, a growth of housefiles, more mailings to housefile names, internal database applications and introduction of new products. The survey identifies list trends and major issues that impact on the industry from the perspective of list users. Most companies predict an improvement in business conditions for 1997, with 16% expecting a significant improvement and 58% saying there will be some improvement. Reasons for the change include new products, strategic planning, better general economy, strategy changes, segmentation capabilities and company/product reputation. List technologies most likely to be used this year are internal housefile analysis, lifetime value analysis, demographic and geographic segmentation, statistical analysis modeling, prior mail history analysis and outside list databasing. Postal rates, postal delivery and consumer privacy are the three most important areas of concerns regarding direct marketing, while list fatigue, availability and pricing were identified as important issues specific to the use of lists. About 63% of the respondents don't make their list available for rental or exchange. The survey was mailed to 213 CDMA voting member companies who are list users in different sectors and industries. It received a 26.8% response rate.