Your Questions About Direct Marketing Definition

Jere answers:

Electronic marketing
marketing of products using electronic technology to determine the consumer market. Electronic marketing is a type of micromarketing in which the retailer tracks consumer purchases using bar code scanner technology such as that found in many supermarkets. When making purchases, consumers fill out computer readable cards with demographic and other pertinent information. This information is logged into a database by the retailer who then uses it for: mailings of special promotions; direct mailing coupons for products in which the consumer has demonstrated interest; other special sales promotions of products already purchased by the consumer; or products that are complementary to those the consumer has already purchased.

Many of today’s business owners and executives find themselves frustrated when dealing with the subject of marketing – even if they have marketing specialists in-house.

For that reason, I thought it might be helpful to share some basics about marketing, PR and advertising, as it relates to your company’s growth.

Let’s start with a very simple, but thorough definition of marketing. The American Marketing Association defines marketing as “…an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.”

This definition makes it pretty clear that marketing is not an activity by itself, but rather, a collection of strategies and actions aimed at driving business to your door. Marketing tactics may include branding, advertising, public relations, merchandising, direct mail advertising, phone sales, infomercials, multi-level marketing, and more.

It also includes the production of “collateral” – materials such as sell sheets, brochures, media kits, sales kits and any other document that supports the sales department. This marketing collateral differs from advertising as it is used later in the sales process, often as materials used by sales people to close prospects.

Let’s talk about advertising. It’s a marketing activity in which companies pay for space in print publications or on Web sites, commercials on radio or television, or direct mail pieces to advertise their products or services. This is paid space, so you control everything that goes into the message, and the cost of the space is based on reach and repetition.

Public relations differs in many ways from advertising. The Encarta dictionary defines PR as: “the practice or profession of establishing, maintaining, or improving a favorable relationship between an institution or person and the public.” Publicity is one of PR’s tactics and involves pitching a news story about your company to the press (both offline or online), and booking your spokesperson as a guest on radio and TV.

Given that the media is driven by ratings on radio and TV and by subscribers and visitors per month for hard copy publications and online news sites, they know precisely the demographics of their audience and what topics keep them engaged. Consequently, they’re very selective about who they interview as guests or who they choose to spotlight in their publications.

The great value of PR is the implicit endorsement that comes with appearing as an expert guest on radio or TV, or being the focus of a story in a newspaper or magazine. So, while advertising serves the needs of the company who is buying the advertising, PR serves the needs of the consumers who watch TV, listen to talk radio and read hard copy or online publications as their source of entertainment and information.

Of course, these are just very brief definitions – intended to give you a simple overview of the topics. I decided to write about this only because in my day-to-day conversations with clients and people interested in our PR services, I find people often confuse advertising with PR, and marketing with advertising – even when speaking with executives at large corporations. Yet each one of these tactics, when understood more clearly, can be so important to an organization’s survival and growth.

Hopefully this brief explanation can be helpful to you.

For 20 years Marsha Friedman has been a leading authority on public relations as CEO of EMSI, a national public relations firm. Her firm represents corporations and experts in a wide array of fields such as business, health, food, lifestyle, politics, finance, law, sports and entertainment. Some of the more prominent names on her client roster are Teamster’s President Jimmy Hoffa Jr., Sergeant’s Pet Care Products, Former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane and the famous Motown Group, the Temptations.

She consults individuals and businesses on a daily basis and is frequently asked to speak at conferences about how to harness the power of publicity.

Jere answers:

1. Socialism- An economic system characterised by social ownership and control of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy, and a political philosophy advocating such a system. *****There are many variations of socialism and as such there is no single definition encapsulating all of socialism.******

A socialist economic system would consist of an organisation of production to directly satisfy economic demands and human needs, so that goods and services would be produced directly for use instead of for private profit driven by the accumulation of capital, and accounting would be based on physical quantities, a common physical magnitude, or a direct measure of labour-time.

As a political movement, socialism includes a diverse array of political philosophies, ranging from reformism to revolutionary socialism. Proponents of state socialism advocate for the nationalisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange as a strategy for implementing socialism. Social democrats advocate redistributive taxation in the form of social welfare and government regulation of capital within the framework of a market economy.

2. Communism- a revolutionary socialist movement to create a classless, moneyless, and stateless social order structured upon common ownership of the means of production, as well as a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of this social order. In Marxist theory, pure communism is a specific stage of historical development that inevitably emerges from the development of the productive forces that leads to a superabundance of material wealth, allowing for distribution based on need and social relations based on freely associated individuals. The exact definition of communism varies, and it is often mistakenly, in general political discourse, used interchangeably with socialism; however, Marxist theory contends that socialism is just a transitional stage on the road to communism. Leninism adds to Marxism the notion of a vanguard party to lead the proletarian revolution and to secure all political power after the revolution for the working class, for the development of universal class consciousness and worker participation, in a transitional stage between capitalism and socialism.

3. Fascism- A radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek rejuvenation of their nation based on commitment to an organic national community where its individuals are united together as one people in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood through a totalitarian single-party state that seeks the mass mobilization of a nation through discipline, indoctrination, physical education, and eugenics. Fascism seeks to purify the nation of foreign influences that are deemed to be causing degeneration of the nation or of not fitting into the national culture. Fascism opposes multiple ideologies: conservatism, liberalism, and two major forms of socialism—communism and social democracy.

4. Capitalism- an economic system that includes private ownership of the means of production, creation of goods or services for profit or income, the accumulation of capital, competitive markets, voluntary exchange, and wage labor. Economists usually emphasize the degree that government does not have control over markets (laissez faire), and on property rights. Most political economists emphasize private property, power relations, wage labor, class and emphasize capitalism as a unique historical formation.

5. Liberalism- is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights, capitalism, and the free exercise of religion.

6. Conservatism- a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism and seek a return to “the way things were”.

Jere answers:

They have moved from a command economy to a free market economy.

In a command economy the State decides what should be produced and how much. Workers are paid a salary and, with no sense of ownership, little care is given to the quality of the goods or to the quantity. If we look at the definition of economics given by Lionel Robbins we see: “Economics is the study of the use of scare resources which have alternative uses.” (Quoted from “Basic Economics: A Citizen’s Guide To the Economy” by Thomas Sowell).

Under a command economy scarce resources are often wasted on producing goods that no one wants. It may take years for the State to realize what is happening and correct it. This is inefficient and wasteful.

In a free market economy, scare resources which have alternative uses are directed to their most efficient use. When cars became common, manufacturers of horse-drawn wagons and buggies either went out of business or found a way to participate in the auto industry. When computers became common in offices, typewriter manufacturers went bankrupt if they didn’t quickly find a way to support the computer industry. When Wal-Mart uses its purchasing power to buy 100,000 pairs of jeans they get a lower price and can then sell the jeans cheaper than the small store that only buys 100 pairs of jeans at a time. When Plymouth and Oldsmobile cars saw a continuing sales decline they quit manufacturing cars. A & P was once the largest grocery chain in the United States. They failed when management refused to change the business plan and A & P stayed in the towns and cities as the population – and other grocery stores – began moving to the suburbs. So in a free market economy price directs the most efficient use of scarce resources which have alternative uses.

Another contributing factor is the rule of law. Unless you know that contracts will be enforced and that some dictator can’t change the rule of law at a whim, you probably won’t do business in that country. If laws are written to favor businesses owned by one group over another then you aren’t going to do business in such a country.

I urge you to read the book I referenced at the beginning.

Jere answers:

Email Marketing is:

Email marketing is a way to reach consumers directly via electronic mail. Unlike spam, direct email marketing reaches those interested in your business’ area of expertise. The information is sent out more like a laser-guided missile than a bomb: No matter what you’re selling, it is a way to reach thousands of potential customers directly at a relatively low cost when compared to advertising or other forms of media exposure. It brings your business’ message through an attractive mix of graphics, text and links directly to people who may have never heard of your business or considered your products, but are knowledgeable and interested in your business’ area of expertise.

Social Media Marketing:

The definition of social mediamarketing is hard to truly describe, but a popular definition says that it is the methodical use of marketing with other technological concepts and techniques to achieve specific goals for a company. In simple terms social marketing, means building a business through many different media, like viral videos and blogs, social networking websites (Myspace, Facebook etc) because these give your company exposure.

Jere answers:

Be aware that age by itself is not enough to make a book valuable. The importance of the text, the condition of the book, and demand for it will determine the valuation of an old book. However, certain categories of books are generally more sought after, including all books printed before 1501, English books printed before 1641, books printed in the Americas before 1801, and books printed west of the Mississippi before 1850.

19. How can I sell my books and get a fair price?

You can sell your books to a bookseller, through a professional auction house, or on your own through an online auction or other means of direct sale. Which is best for you will depend on the rarity and value of your books, your location, how quickly you need to sell them, and the time you are willing to spend marketing them. If you simply have a few second-hand books to clear off your shelves, a good option will be to find a local used book shop willing to buy the lot from you. If your books are rare or valuable, then finding a bookseller that specializes in the particular kind of books you have may be your best option. Directories published on the web by the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America http://www.abaa.org/books/abaa/abaapages/index.html?showsub=1&id=ERb2uMXd or the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers http://www.ilab.org/index.php can help identify qualified merchants. If the first dealer you contact cannot help you, ask for a referral.

Evaulation and Appraisal: Selected Resources

American Book Prices Current http://www.bookpricescurrent.com/ is “an annual record of books, manuscripts, autographs, maps and broadsides sold at auction,” available as a book or CD-ROM. Many major auction houses that handle fine and rare books, such as Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Swann Galleries, offer searchable databases of past and current sales from their web site. PBA Galleries also offers an online appraisal tool called BiblioBot that can be used to estimate market values of hardcover books. You can also estimate the current retail market values of used and rare books by comparing prices for similar books in databases and catalogs available on the web sites of online booksellers. If you need to find an appraiser in your area, the web sites of the American Booksellers Association of America (ABAA), the American Society of Appraisers (ASA) http://www.appraisers.org/, and of the International Society of Appraisers http://www.isa-appraisers.org/ each offer searchable directories by subject and dealer/appraiser location…Request and check references and consult with a tax attorney until you are satisfied that you have found a qualified appraiser for your collection.

Http://www.ioba.org/ The web site of the Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA) includes glossaries of book terminology and condition definitions and…a searchable directory of IOBA member booksellers and links to multi-dealer databases and auction sites.

Http://www.rarebooks.info aims to be a comprehensive web resource for learning about rare books. It offers…a glossary of terms and links to libraries, museums, national associations, and private collections worldwide.

Rest of the FAQ at America’s Library of Congress’s Rare Books and Manuscripts section, along with links about rare books/rare book value appraisal. Aimed at an American audience. Http://www.rbms.info/yob.shtml