The recent Do Not Call list and increased response rates make direct mail an even more attractive option.
There's a really good reason why executives from a company such as Crabar/GBF, Dayton, Ohio, want to further penetrate the direct mail market. As representatives for a leading manufacturer, they recognize a good thing when they see it, and direct mail is definitely a good thing.
After all, it is the only method of advertising that can produce a very accurate measured response and, despite its overwhelming saturation of the postal system, businesses and consumers still open and respond to it—actions that ring the sweet sound of victory in the ears of end-users and the distributors who made the print sales.
"We know how powerful direct mail can be, and we know how well we can benefit by providing more of it through our distributors," said Lowell Lumpkin, Crabar/GBF national sales manager. "It is a product that we've been focusing on greatly since Crabar and GBF merged."
Direct mail is so powerful, in fact, that Vertis—a Baltimore-headquartered provider of technology-based integrated marketing and advertising solutions—reported in its May 2003 direct marketing survey that response to direct mail has risen by 12 percent since 2001, and that readership has remained steady across all demographic groups. It also indicated that industries benefiting greatly from this means of advertisement included nonprofit and direct life insurance.
But, for a distributor, there are many other reasons to promote such a product. For instance, Tracy Wissmann of PXGraphics, Toledo, Ohio (a division of PrintXcel, Englewood, Colo.), said that direct mail products and services offer a natural extension of the print products on which they have built their existing relationships. In addition, she said that increasing use of direct mail by smaller businesses due to short-run programs and by larger business due to the federal Do Not Call list makes it an attractive market.
