Q&As

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. . . .

O.K., so it was only 14 years ago and no farther away than Arizona, that childhood friends Eileen Spitalny and David Kravetz started Fairytale Brownies. The company was named as much for the product as for the elves who baked the brownies for the partners overnight in a kitchen they rented from a local caterer, or so Spitalny likes to claim.

Why is it important to use e-mail effectively with a direct marketing campaign?

E-mail says as much about a company as a catalog, Web site, or space ad. A well-written and well-organized message presents a professional image.

Direct marketing is not only part of the “TV/industrial complex” in general, but also guilty of “TV thinking” in particular, according to marketing guru Seth Godin.

GiftCertificates.com will close its Seattle office at the end of the year, consolidating all of its business operations in Omaha, NE. The change affects about 40 employees and is expected to save about $1 million in annual costs.

Marketers and retailers could easily cut their rebate costs 20% or more, rather than abandoning rebates altogether— Best Buy vowed last year to do. But few marketers pay enough attention to their programs to find and fix the glitches. That’s where Hal …

Days of Our Lives is rewarding longtime fans for their devotion with a new viewer loyalty program under which consumers can earn points to redeem for Sony products and series merchandise. The Daily Rewards program, which rolled out last week, …

McFlurry with your phone? In an effort to better connect with younger consumers, McDonald’s restaurants in southern California are…

Hasbro is taking its larger-than-life Tonka truck on tour as part of a cause marketing initiative to collect toys and games to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina and local charities. The Tonka Toughest Mighty Dump Truck kicked off a 14-city tour last …

Gift card sales are expected to spike during the 2005 holiday season, according to a recent survey from First Data Prepaid Services’ ValueLink. Fifty-four percent of survey respondents who purchased gift cards this past year indicated that they have …

Panasonic Consumer Electronics Co. is using an online sweeps to extend a mystery that began in a TV spot last spring. The spot, for Panasonic’s HD Plasma TV, shows a handful of different scenes while asking, “What is the color of innocence?” (And …