[Re: Loose Cannon: Which Version of This Column Are You Reading?, Direct Newsline, Aug. 29, 2005]:
Isn’t it a shame that so many of today’s marketers need to be reminded to test. To that I would add the appalling answer we receive when asking about a retest of a list or copy approach — “we tested that 3 or 5 years ago and it didn’t work”. And yet so many packages — such as the “Look” package of many years ago – have recently had a reincarnation as the “billboard” package.
Andi not only has prescience, she also has a good memory of what happens to companies that don’t follow the fundamental rule of direct marketing — test and retest. Also, it never hurts to tweak a bit as well.
Andi, I hope they are listening.
Shirley Stevens
Stevens-Slovk Direct
New York City
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My company has, in the past, done a large amount of direct marketing. And rarely if ever in the 4 years I’ve been here have we done any significant testing. The reason being is that our direct mail is not promoting the company in general, but very specific products to very specific markets.
The costs for direct mail to smaller lists are so small that we have relied on a few proven techniques that we modify for each product and simply repeat. We do not have the manpower currently, nor, I suppose, the attention of upper management to revisit our current tactics. We have upward of 40 product managers, each responsible for their product. They are therefore not interested in investigating direct mail from a bigger perspective
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