Chief Marketer Staff

• InfoUSA Buys Opinion Research

  Omaha NE-based database provider infoUSA announced Friday that it will purchase Opinion Research Corp., a supplier of market research services to business and government clients.

• Young List Pros to Receive DMA Awards

  The Direct Marketing Association List & Database Council has named the 2006 winners of its Ron Davis Young List Professional of the Year awards, intended to bring recognition to young list professionals with distinguished careers.

• Telecom Telemarketer Sued for Deceptive Practices

  North Carolina attorney general Roy Cooper has filed suit against Buzz Telecom of Merrillville IN, charging that the company used unfair and deceptive practices in marketing long-distance telephone services to customers.

• Agencies

  Loose Cannon: All That Meat and No Tomatoes

  I’m going to give direct response marketing a rest this week. Brand advertising has more than its shares of foibles, and in the spirit of balance I offer the following, which vivisects one such campaign. A slightly different version of the following piece first appeared in CM Plus (www.chiefmarketer.com/cm_plus), Direct executive editor Beth Negus Viveiros’s excellent newsletter which covers the lighter side of marketing. The spot itself is available on the YouTube video sharing site I wrote about last week (www.youtube.com). Type “Manthem” into the search box and… enjoy?

  In a scant six months, Burger King’s television commercials have gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.

• Agencies

  E-mail Creative: What Works and What Doesn’t

  (Multichannel Merchant) Imagine creating and sending a print mail piece only to find out that before delivering it, the U.S. Postal Service stripped out the graphics and put little symbols where pictures used to be.

• Agencies

  The Write Stuff for SEM

  (Multichannel Merchant) Hardly anyone talks about what tends to be the most critical component of paid search success: the marketing communications strategy.

• Agencies

  A Data Match Made in Heaven

  (Multichannel Merchant) Joe and Ted both spend the same amount of money annually with a multichannel electronics merchant. But by analyzing both behavioral and demographic data on Joe and Ted, the company can see that the amount of money they spent is pretty much the only thing the two customers have in common

• Agencies

  Delving into Data-Driven Marketing

  Is your business ready for data-driven marketing? Did you know that data-driven marketing is nimble enough to fit even multichannel merchants with annual sales of less than $5 million? A little known secret is that data-driven marketing works for any size organization.

• Are You Experiential?

  (Multichannel Merchant) The little girls who arrive at American Girl Place dressed like the dolls they hold in their arms show what’s possible when merchants take an experiential approach to retailing, experts say.

• Break a Rule for Innovation

  Every business feels the pressure to innovate. The importance of innovation is blared daily in the headlines of business magazines, the presentations of consultants, the books and conferences of business visionaries.