The Direct Marketing Voice

Tag Archives: creative

Three Little Letters – The Art of Acronyms

Posté par Eric Welch le December 16, 2008 – 12:59 pm

Hey, want to spark an instant and lively debate? Walk into your next meeting or family gathering and say these three little letters: M-L-M. Chances are you’ll trigger a wave of rolling eyes, a collective groan, shouts of “pyramid scheme” or, if you’re really lucky, you’ll clear the entire room!

Taken at face value, the individual letters have no power or influence. It’s the meaning behind the letters and the context in which they’re used that can make or break business deals, affect relationships or change the course of history.

As marketers, we make frequent use of three-letter acronyms (TLAs). Or, if we’re feeling particularly dangerous, we may slip in a four-letter acronym on occasion. However, while we may know exactly what we mean to say, our target audience may not. We need to be very careful not to overuse these handy devices lest we create confusion for our customers.

Granted, it’s far too easy in these days of email and TXT to fall into the habit of abbreviating nearly everything, expecting your recipients to just “know” what you’re referring to. For example, see if you can decipher this (inspired by an actual message on the back of a QuantumDigital customer’s postcard):

LTO! 4BR 3BA in A+COND! NEW CRP PNT AC! $10K BMV! ALL APP CONV! CALL 555-5555 NOW! SALLY AGENT – ABR GRI CRS CPM

What’s ironic is that, unlike classified ads which charge by the word or line, QuantumDigital allows customers to add as much text as will fit for no extra cost. This message would have been much more clear had the customer simply typed out the words. Abbreviating to the point of ridiculousness only leaves people scratching their heads… and most likely tossing the postcard away.

For some excellent examples of less-than-excellent marketing, check out this list of The Worst Ad Campaigns of 2007. Now that you’ve had a laugh or three, here are some direct mail writing tips from a guy who works down the hall from me named Steve. (Hi Steve!)

So, to conclude, sum up and otherwise end this post… MUJ, CYC and WYL (minimize use of jargon, clarify your context and watch your language) or your marketing efforts may be DOA.

(And for those of you keeping track, my beverage du jour is Rockstar PUNCHED Energy + Citrus)

The Direct Marketing Voice Links: 12-15-2008

Posté par admin le December 15, 2008 – 9:46 am

dans News & Trends

The Direct Marketing Voice: Rethinking Your Messaging… Even for Cheese.

Kraft’s Mary Beth West recently wrote an AdAge article about strategies for selling within a recession. (Unfortunately, an AdAge subscription is required to view the entire article, so for a free glimpse, view the YouTube summary.) The top takeaway that rang true was an emphasis on value. Kraft adjusted the way they positioned Kraft Singles by “talking about it in terms of pocket change as well as it making a great grill cheese sandwich.” They did not remove the quality positioning statement, but subjugated it to the idea of value to the consumer.

Precision Marketing: Entire Debates Meaning of DM

Direct marketing agency Entire is sparking an online debate about the definition of direct marketing as boundaries between direct, digital and advertising become blurred.

BusinessStrata: Consumers ‘put off by websites that suffer from ad clutter’

A new study has suggested that mobile internet is growing in popularity… In research which highlights the importance of ensuring email marketing can render on phones or PDAs, comScore found that 25 per cent of the UK population now access the web over their mobile connections.

The Ballantine Blog: Direct Mail Outer Envelope Tweaks & Test Ideas

We wrote a post recently that gave some test ideas for outer envelope variations, and we thought it would be good to follow this up with a video giving visual examples.We mention about a dozen tweaks in the video so I think you’ll find it very helpful.

Rethinking Your Messaging… Even for Cheese.

Posté par Eric Cosway le December 12, 2008 – 1:42 pm

dans Direct Mail Marketing

Like Kraft, Saab adjusted its messaging. The company went from an ad campaign titled “Born From Jets,” which compared the vehicle to Jet fighters — and played upon the real Saab technology employed in some jets — to an approach seen recently in Harvard Business Review full page ad: “We believe every person should recycle. And so should every engine.” They go on to tout the turbo technology that reuses engine exhaust to increase fuel efficiency. In both ads, the Saab 9-3 Turbo was highlighted; the difference was simply positioning that emphasized value.

In the same way, our customers are discovering that adjusting their message on a direct mail piece can increase an emphasis on value without diminishing brand value, even for a luxury brand.

Color Me Influenced

Posté par Eric Welch le December 9, 2008 – 3:09 pm

dans Direct Mail Marketing

As you scamper to and fro from store to store this holiday season, looking for the perfect gift or the best bargain, I’d like to challenge you to do one simple thing: ignore color. Can’t do it, can you? Our brains are hardwired for color… but why? According to an article found on cnet’s News Blog about a new study from Caltech, the answer may make you blush:

The spectral sensitivity of color cones in humans and chimps are somewhat unusual. Bees have four color cones that are evenly spread across the visible color spectrum. Birds have three color cones. By contrast, humans have three types of cones that are sensitive to a limited range of wavelengths. The closeness, however, allows for the detection of subtle tone changes. When someone blushes, the skin becomes red from elevated oxygen levels.

Historically, color was even used as therapy to treat a host of ills both physical and psychological (now generally regarded as pseudoscience, but fun to read about anyway). But what does all this have to do with marketing? It’s quite simple. Since we rely on color “cues” to help us interpret emotions, it stands to reason that color can be used to influence the way we feel about things—especially buying things. Walk past any Harry & David store, what’s the first thing that hits your eye? Warm earth tones, muted cranberry reds, touches of gold and forest green. Those colors aren’t there by accident, folks. Subconsciously, hypnotically, they invite you to sample the wholesome goodness that lies within.

The same principle holds true for your direct marketing pieces. If you haven’t done so already, develop a content versioning system that employs subtle variations in the color scheme of your mailings and track the results. You’ll be surprised at what you find. In fact, QuantumDigital has a great Personal Design Service available to help you get started. Which brings me to my next question: what are some of the most effective color schemes you’ve seen lately? How about the most awful?

Mmm. Just thinking about all those goodies at Harry & David makes me want to… oh, look at the time! Gotta run!

Digg Spy is Dead

Posté par Luis Paez le December 3, 2008 – 4:43 pm

dans News & Trends

Recently, Digg announced that its little known feature “Digg Spy” is being killed. I am deeply saddened, as this was one of those “gee whiz” features that shone a light into what the future of Web 2.0 could look like (check out Max Kiesler’s capture for a glimpse at the past). Created in 2005, it was a real time view of the posts flowing through digg’s servers challenging your ability to speed read as the webpage scrolled itself – essentially acting like a stock ticker for digg posts. It’s being replaced by something called “BigSpy,” which is a similar idea but with the look and feel of blogging tags, or specifically a tag cloud.

BigSpy is a good visualization of the data, and with the black/grey color scheme very nerd-cool; however BigSpy lacks in a few key areas compared to the old Digg Spy feature. Namely, it’s missing the who (naming the users digging or burying stories) and the where (the raw URLs). When Digg takes away these tools, they limit the ability of the digg community to regulate themselves. They also limit my ability to easily find new stories that are “just posted” by newbie users – these may be the jewels that are being ignored by the masses, but that I might find interesting. That was the beauty of Digg originally: that the users generated their own content and you could tap that content to find the pulse of the crowd.