Direct marketing according to experts. If personal selling seeks to approach buyers, advertising seeks to inform and influence customers, sales promotion seeks to encourage purchases, and public relations builds and maintains the company’s image, then direct marketing condenses all these activities in direct selling without intermediaries.
A. Direct marketing is interactive
Direct marketing is an interactive marketing system, which utilizes one or several advertising media to generate a measurable response or transaction at any location.
In direct marketing, promotional communications are aimed directly at individual consumers, with the aim that these messages are responded to by the consumers concerned, either by telephone, post, or by coming directly to the consumer’s place.
This technique developed in response to market demassification, where there are more and more market niches with very individual needs and preferences.
On the one hand, the development of transportation and communication facilities facilitates contact and transactions with the market. where it is relatively easy for companies to go directly to prospective customers or contact them via telephone or letter.
A large number of working women also contributed to the development of direct marketing, because they had less and less time to shop.
Another factor driving the growth of direct marketing is the long queues at the cashiers, causing customers to have to wait patiently for a long time to be served, even though they are pressed for time.
On the other hand, rising transportation costs, increasingly congested traffic, and the difficulty of finding a parking space have made people lazy to shop at shops or supermarkets.
As a result, direct marketing is growing and attracting consumer demand. Through direct marketing, consumers can also get benefits in the form of saving time in shopping and can even shop secretly (secretly).
Meanwhile, for sellers, the benefits are being able to select prospective buyers selectively, being able to establish long-term relationships with their customers, and obtaining profitable new opportunities.
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B. The problem of direct marketing
However, direct marketing also faces problems such as people who are annoyed because of aggressive sales, and the emergence of a bad image for the industry when there is one direct marketer who deceives his customers and disturbs the privacy of others.
And sometimes some direct marketers take advantage or exploit impulsive buyers or buyers who do not understand technology.
