Journal of Interactive Marketing

This study examines the ethical issues involved in the use of marketing research as a sales ploy and reports results from four national studies investigating the extent to which consumers have experienced this deceptive technique. Findings indicate that concern is warranted regarding the wide extent (and perhaps increased use) of this ploy in direct marketing today. The authors recommend that both direct marketers and marketing researchers take an active position in curtailing the use of this sales technique.

International firms operating in overseas markets often face numerous channel-related problems which can adversely affect their performance. Direct marketing, by eliminating middlemen but not necessarily their functions, provides a feasible alternative for establishing marketing presence overseas. The international direct marketing potential of a target country can be determined by examining its global environmental trends and direct marketing infrastructure.

Looking ahead even 10 years will reveal tremendous changes in the direct marketing field — some of them predictable and based on existing technologies, such as the touch-tone keypad and cable television. Starting from these “knowns,” alert marketers can vastly expand the possibilities of their future utilization. At the same time, stretching our knowledge of the familiar can be a springboard to successful grasp of future techniques, which are still experimental and lesser-known. Direct marketing's future belongs to those at the forefront of this exploration.

The authors report on a technique that has been used successfully to increase response rates. The technique is to include in the questionnaire an initial question, called an inducement question, whose intent is to arouse the respondents’ thoughts and feelings.

This paper explores the problems associated with using an inducement question and reports two studies in which the technique substantially increased the response rate. The initial idea for an inducement question occurred in response to a marketing researcher from Green Mountain Power of Vermont asking one of the authors if there were ways that the nonresponse to a survey of stockholders could be reduced.

The response rate in previous surveys of stockholders had generally been quite low. It appeared that the stockholders were indifferent and apathetic about past surveys. It was suggested to the researcher that if the initial question of the survey was: “Management at Green Mountain has recently decided to abandon the payment of dividends. Do you favor this policy?,” the response rate would increase substantially.

Decision makers involved in list selection and purchase for direct marketing campaigns typically use sample response rates as a barometer of future success for a rollout effort. In some instances, decision makers may be convinced that sample response rates are not indicative of the true response rates for a given mailing list. Bayesian statistics present a methodology for revising test sample results using prior assessments and opinions on the likelihood of a particular response rate for given lists. Bayes estimation for updating response probabilities and an illustration of Bayes’ technique in direct marketing are presented.

Telescopic testing is a popular technique for comparing one direct response advertisement to others in the same publication. Many assumptions implicit in the use of this technique should be addressed, as erroneous conclusions may result if one is unaware of these concerns. First, any possible interaction between region and type of advertisement must be tested before one can make blanket statements regarding which advertisement is best. Second, the advertisement with the highest lift factor is not necessarily the best ad overall. Finally, the results of telescopic testing are not necessarily generalizable. Other approaches are considered and compared with telescopic testing, and suggestions are provided for the improvement of telescopic testing.

This research has attempted to determine attributes and features of direct mail promotions that can be directed more effectively to physicians. The study also tried to test the generalizability of the interest development findings of Ferber to direct mail promotions. Survey results showed that illustration, physicians’ familiarity with the product, and information value were the major determinants of interest on medical direct mail promotions. The value of this research is in its ability to improve the likelihood of a direct mail promotion gaining access to its intended audience, the physician.