BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS is the strongest growth area in the insurance and financial services sector, according to a recent Direct Marketing Association study. In 1993, B-to-B represented 42% of all insurance and financial services DM sales; jumped to 45% by last year; and is projected to grow to 47% by 2003. By 2006-2007, B-to-B sales are expected to exceed consumer in the sector, according to the study, conducted primarily by The WEFA Group and sponsored by the DMA Insurance and Financial Services Council. The study noted that most DM advertising in the sector was for lead generation and that the telephone is the most popular medium used, contributing 41% of all DM insurance and financial services sales. Direct mail was second with 28%, followed by newspaper space advertising with 17%. In the B-to-B markets, insurance carriers and agents lead all industries with 12.2% in DM sales growth through 2003. The next fastest growing industry is professional services at 10.7 percent. Depository institutions lead all industries in interactive media sales in the consumer market with $175 million. Total 1998 DM sales for the insurance and financial servicessector were $239.7 billion, 17.5% of total DM sales.>CNDirect News Line>TI HSN, iMall Settle With the FTC
THE FEDERAL TRADE Commission reached settlements in April with two direct marketing companies that work in electronic media. Home Shopping Network, the TV retailer that reaches more than 70 million households, has agreed to pay $1.1 million. iMall, which operates an Internet shopping mall and hosts sellers of a variety of goods and services, will pay $4 million. HSN agreed to settle charges that it aired ads for skin care, weight-loss and postmenstrual syndrome/menopause products containing claims it could not substantiate, in violation of a 1996 FTC order. In that earlier order, HSN and two subsidiaries settled FTC charges and were bound to have “competent and reliable scientific evidence” to support advertising claims for any product they claim could “have any effect on the structure or function of the human body.” iMall and its principals have agreed to settle FTC charges that they made false earnings claims for Internet-based business opportunities they promoted and that they violated the franchise rule. In addition to the money settlement, Craig R. Pickering, past president of iMall, and Mark R. Corner, its current president, also would be barred for life from selling any Internet or pay-per-call business opportunity and banned for 10 years from selling franchises. Between July 1995 and August 1998, iMall marketed two programs using direct mail and other means designed to induce investors to attend free seminars where they would hear about the business opportunities. The programs offered people a way to make money by selling Web pages on iMall’s site but the FTC said iMall inflated how much people could earn.
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