DIRECT MARKETING’S penetration into the U.K. ad marketplace is at an all-time high, Colin Lloyd, chief executive of the U.K. Direct Marketing Association, told a gathering of U.S. marketers at the International DM Fair in London on March 16.
But another topic of conversation was what-if any-effect the mass resignation the previous night by the 20-member European Commission will have on direct marketing.
Lloyd said during his talk that 90% of all U.K. newspaper ads have a DM mechanism, as do 13% of all magazine ads, 24% of all television commercials and 40% of all radio spots. Plus, Web addresses appear in 21% of all U.K. ads.
But while the Web is starting to thrive, direct mail continues to grow, he said. Lloyd added it will no doubt be helped by the recent 1-cent cut in the postal rate for second class mail.
Three important factors are having an impact on the growth of DM in the U.K.: price, service and time.
Lloyd said that as many markets hit price thresholds, they look to DM as a way to build the business.
“Price has never been a more serious concern than it is now,” he said, noting that the concept of service follows close behind.
The U.S., he said, “is a definite service culture. I’m always concerned that the British culture does not embrace it [as well as it should].” U.K. DMers “need to learn not only the technology of service but the psychology as well.”
Consumers’ lack of time, coupled with information overload, is the third factor affecting DM, said Lloyd. He noted that relationship marketing is the way to address that dilemma.
As for the situation in the European Commission, its import to direct marketing depends entirely on who you ask.
“It was a lame-duck commission and now it’s just a dead commission. It’s a disaster,” said Alastair Tempest, director general for the Federation of European Direct Marketing.
But Lloyd was less concerned. “It will have no effect on direct marketing,” he said.
“Many people see it as stopping the gravy train,” said Jo Lloyd, principal of Gap Communications, a Newmilns, England consultancy, alluding to reports of fraud that spurred the resignations. “But it’s not just at the top-it runs to the lower levels and the middlemen.”
Kelly H. Gilroy, chief marketing and sales officer of Naperville, IL-based Solar Communications- an exhibitor at the DM Fair at the Wembley Centre-was unsure of the ultimate impact on DM. She feels it could be a setback since the euro is still in its infancy. “We just got through with the scandal in the U.S. and now we come here to this,” she said.
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