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Direct Marketing Association (DMA) took a giant step forward in recognizing the universality of direct marketing last month with announcement of its WEFA Economic Impact Study at its 78th Annual Conference and Exhibition at the Dallas Convention Center. DMA all but blessed the DM Flow Chart, which appears in Direct Marketing magazine every month (and has since early 1970s, when a definition was finally agreed to after bitter struggle to hammer out real meaning of Direct Marketing Concept).
"We believe our study is the first study of national advertising expenditure trends to measure the use of direct response advertising techniques in media other than direct mail," said DMA presidentechief executive officer, Jonah Gitlitz, during the opening general session.
While DMA has done a dutiful job of keeping track of the growth of DMA and its conferences, companies, agency billings, and the number of consumers who shop by mail or phone, "the 'big picture' has been elusive," said Gitlitz. An 1986-1987 study by Arthur Andersen & Co. was mired by "definitional problems," Gitlitz acknowledged. "What is direct marketing? Who uses it?"
For purposes of this study, WEFA adopted a board-level task force definition of direct marketing as "any direct communication to a consumer or business recipient that is designed to generate a response in the form of an order, a request for further information, andeor a visit to a store or other place of business for a specific measured purchase."
WEFA then reviewed more than 5,000 pages of direct response ads from 1,300 magazines; 1,300 pages of direct response ads from hundreds of different newspapers; nearly 1,000 direct response TV commercials; almost 700 direct response radio commercials, and more than 1,100 direct mail pieces.
Here is what DMA learned:
* In 1995, when direct response advertising is used to solicit a direct order, generate a lead, or generate retail store traffic, it will result in nearly $600 billion in sales.
* In 1995, business-to-business sales from direct order, lead generation, and traffic generation are estimated to reach nearly $500 billion.
* Compounded annual growth rates of sales over the next five years will be 7.2 percent for consumer; 10.2 percent for Bto-B.
* One in every 13 jobs in the United States today is the...