The True Definition of Direct Marketing from the Man Who Coined the Phrase
Plus: The 19 things all successful direct marketing companies know
DRTV. DR. ‘As Seen on TV.’ Infomercials.
Live shopping. Home shopping. Shopping channels.
eCommerce. DTC. D2C.
Can’t we all just pick a term and stick with it?!
Truth be told, I’ve never been quite sure which terms to use, either. What I do know is that all of these phrases fall under one umbrella term: direct marketing.
But what is direct marketing, exactly? Today, we’re going back to the beginning to find out.
DR Dynamite!💥
This is the part of my newsletter where I share wisdom from the ‘Masters of Marketing,’ especially tried-and-true (T&T) techniques from the world of direct-response advertising direct marketing. Today’s Master: Lester Wunderman.
Wunderman, who just recently passed in 2019 at the age of 98 (😮), was chairman and co-founder of what became the world’s largest direct-marketing ad agency, the Wunderman Group. He is “credited with pioneering the hugely successful modern techniques of direct marketing,” according to his New York Times obituary, and was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 1998.
The obvious thing to do here would be to share Wunderman’s “Nineteen Things All Successful Direct Marketing Companies Know” from his book, Being Direct: Making Advertising Pay. We’ll get to that. First, I want to focus on something else I found in that book.
Fun fact: Wunderman not only pioneered the techniques, he coined the phrase “direct marketing” in a 1967 speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Actually, according to his book, Wunderman first spoke the words in a 1961 speech to the Hundred Million Club of New York, an organization of leaders in the direct mail business. One quote from that speech, in particular, is worth reproducing here because it makes the central argument for all of direct marketing — DRTV, home shopping, DTC, etc. Wunderman said:
The din of advertising becomes louder and louder, and it costs more to make a consumer remember the advertising he saw, heard or read when he makes a buying decision.
Isn’t it logical to sell him at the point of his greatest conviction, when he has just absorbed the sales message?
As mentioned, he ended that thought by inventing the phrase “direct marketing” and then defined it in a way that readers of this newsletter (The Scientific Marketing Report) will fully appreciate.
Direct marketing: “A more efficient method of selling
based on scientific advertising principles.” - Lester Wunderman
With this definition, Wunderman gave an official name to an idea originally set down by Claude Hopkins, whose 100-year-old “principles of scientific advertising” I covered when I began this feature back in April.
In the fall of 1967, the Boston chapter of the American Marketing Association invited Wunderman to MIT to elaborate on this “new form of advertising” he had spoken about in New York. It seems the professors there, and at nearby Harvard, were particularly interested in what Wunderman had to say.
The speech he ultimately gave was titled, “Direct Marketing — The New Revolution in Selling.” Much of that speech is reproduced in Wunderman’s book if you want to check it out. Here’s the main thing I took away: Direct marketing is a method, not a medium or sales channel. Or, as Wunderman put it: “Direct marketing is a strategy, not a tactic.”
It’s hard to imagine how controversial this argument must have been at the time. As the “Hundred Million Club” name suggests, direct mail was the 800-lb gorilla of the advertising world at that time. In fact, when the AMA chairman introduced Wunderman at MIT six years later, he incorrectly identified him as a leader in the “direct mail advertising business.” Wunderman took this in stride and used it to make his point. He told those esteemed professors and business leaders the following:
Mail-order and mail-order advertising are bigger, healthier and more vital today than ever before…[But] the very term itself has lost total validity, and it will be less applicable in the future…
Phones are easier, faster and more personal. But it will not stop there. More sophisticated and better methods of ordering and delivering will surely come, whether they be orders geared directly to computers, video phones, closed-circuit television, or some newer technology.
What is true is that whatever the mechanics, we are dealing with a form of convenience marketing where the customer is placed in direct contact with a warehouse, factory or fulfillment center, which will deliver merchandise directly to his home.
This was in 1967 — and yet it speaks directly to today. Indeed, we can easily name that “more sophisticated and better method…of ordering and delivering” Wunderman predicted — Amazon.
People don’t typically have a positive reaction to hearing their business model is crumbling and will soon be replaced, but I see cause for optimism in Wunderman’s words. Just as direct marketers survived the replacement of the once-dominant direct mail model, direct marketers will survive the replacement of the models Amazon is disrupting today. (For me, it’s the DRTV-to-retail model.) Of course, Amazon itself will also eventually be replaced by some better method of ordering and delivering products (Temu? AI?) — and still direct marketers will survive and thrive.
The point is this: Direct marketing is eternal! It works regardless of how prospects experience it (the medium) and where they ultimately go to turn into customers (the sales channel). That’s the true genius of what Wunderman saw.
Now that we have a general definition of direct marketing, let’s get into the specifics. Like many of the old Masters, Wunderman created and published a list of principles.
Nineteen Things All Successful Direct Marketing Companies Know
by Lester Wunderman
Direct marketing is a strategy, not a tactic
The consumer, not the product, must be the hero
Communicate with each customer or prospect as an audience of one
Answer the question, “Why should I?”
Advertising must change behavior, not just attitudes
The next step: Profitable advertising
“Advertising can’t be just a contribution to goodwill—it must become an investment in profits.”
Build the “brand experience”
Create relationships
Know and invest in each customer’s lifetime value
“Suspects” are not “prospects”
“‘Prospects’ are consumers who are able, ready, and willing to buy; ‘suspects’ are merely eligible to do so.”Media is a contact strategy
“Measurements such as ‘reach’ and ‘frequency’ are out of date. Only ‘contacts’ can begin relationships.”Be accessible to your customers
Encourage interactive dialogues
Learn the missing “when?”
“The answer ‘not now’ is as dangerous to advertising as ‘not this.’”Create an advertising curriculum that teaches as it sells
Acquire customers with the intention to loyalize them
Loyalty is a continuity program
Your share of loyal customers, not your share of market, creates profits
You are what you know
“Data is an expense—knowledge is a bargain. Collect only data that can become information, which, in turn, can become knowledge.”
Source: Being Direct: Making Advertising Pay
News(letters) You Can Use 📰
As if affirming my last lead article, business buyer Codie Sanchez of Contrarian Thinking recently tweeted the below as one of her 20 “uncomfortable business truths.”
A few of her other truths that will resonate with direct marketers include:
“You make more money selling a need than a desire.”
“Compete on value, not price.”
“A happy customer is the most powerful marketing.”
“Your product should meet demand, not attempt to create it.”
“People will steal from you. You can’t control others’ actions. But you can control your reactions.”
Wise words!
Chart Watch👁️
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For Premium Subscribers🔒
Past this point, it’s paying subscribers only. Below you will find the latest commercials DRTV advertisers are testing, promising new products for direct marketers and a list of hits from the past that might just be ready for a comeback.