The Benefits Of A Direct Marketing “Ancient Mariner”.

In my opinion, those of us who started in direct marketing back in the 1960’s and 1970’s are a tremendous asset and advantage to have on your marketing team today. Day in and day out we prove the saying … “what’s old becomes new again”.

That’s because we were taught to be a direct marketing general practitioner. I like to say, “Not only were we trained to be the ‘chief cook’ but also a ‘bottle washer’.

Back some 40 years ago, I was a Marketing Product Manager at The Amsterdam Company. There were 7 of us. Two times a week the company owner conducted a “Green Chart” meeting. The green chart was an 11” x 17” piece of green tag paper containing the updated results of every mailing made for the last several months. Our Honeywell 1600 main frame computer hadn’t been programmed with a results spreadsheet. That forced several secretaries to spend many hours updating the information the chart contained. They too were in each green chart meeting to lend their updating background knowledge.

The company owner conducted the meetings by discussing the results of each mailing on the chart. He would make the decision to roll out, wait for more results or kill additional mailings based on the updated trends shown on the chart. Then, he would assign tasks to the 7 Product Marketing Managers. Update the art and copy; order the printing; research list continuations; recommend new list tests; negotiate prices and order product for inventory; test new premiums (gifts); test new offers … and so forth and so on.

Thus each of us were involved in every mailing from “soup to nuts”. However, we soon had so many mailings to manage, we were then assigned the responsibility of a Product Division. Pens. Key Tags. Miscellaneous Ad Specialties. Business Forms. Storage Products. Business Products. Consumer Products. That’s what the owner called our “Vertical” responsibility. We also had a “Horizontal” responsibility affecting each Vertical. List Research. Premium (gift) Research. Competition Research. Sweepstakes Rules & Regulations Research, etc.

The result: Each one of us were so well trained that we learned and felt the “heartbeat” of each Product Division. We felt the rhythm of “the music”. At any given time we could step in and take over if any one of us were sick or on vacation. But, more important, it didn’t take long to discover absolutely everything in direct marketing is intertwined. Or … akin to a concert being beautifully performed by a well known orchestra. List (Market); Offer (Why Should I Buy From You?); Copy(Features and Benefits); Graphic Layout (Presentation) are all in turn affected by Timing.

And, each of these play a role in the company’s living and breathing “heartbeat”. One is never exclusive of the other. It’s the director on your team feeling the complete music the marketing orchestra makes who will deliver your company’s success.

Like everything else in our instant 24/7 society, direct marketing management today seems to come from collection of unconnected specialists. Those who are a whiz at list research do not know the first thing about writing killer copy. Conversely, those from whom great copy flows on a daily basis have little or no concern about lists and market research. It’s not their job.

Sadly, this fractured specialist approach shows up in today’s “committee managed” direct marketing. Committees are forced to read the notes that make the music. Because of their compartmentalized training, they truly do not know how to throw the printed notes away and feel the music. Those very successful direct marketing companies are lead by people who understand how to integrate all the marketing functions in order to bring out the true living and breathing “heartbeat” of their company.

There’s a place for the specialist. Like our green chart of 40 years ago, specialists provide the necessary information for the proper decision making. But, just like yesterday’s family doctor, those of us who were trained to be a “chief cook as well as a bottle washer” truly are very important to have on your team to jump start your company’s heartbeat for success.

(Editors Note: The “gang of 7” Product Marketing Managers mentioned above you may or may not know by their individual names. But I guarantee you have heard of all the companies they went on to manage, own, buy and/or sell. Today, collectively, these companies enjoy over $800 million in annual sales or donations.)