What is Direct Marketing?

Direct marketing is one form of selling a product. This form of marketing gives the marketers a good amount of control over what information and impression the customer is getting. Direct marketing can come in many forms, Mail order, M-commerce, Telemarketing, and Direct Response Advertising.
Mail order can come in two forms, catalogs and direct mail. Catalogs are collections of products offered for sale and described in book form, usually consisting of product descriptions. An example of this would be the Sunday catalogs that department stores like Macys and Herbergers send out on an ongoing basis. Direct mail is a brochure/pamphlet offering a specific good/service at one point in time. An example of direct mail would be like the flyers Direct TV sends out to people that promote their prices.
Telemarketing is a form of direct marketing over the telephone. We have all experienced the annoying telemarketers that call the same time every day trying to sell the same product. A disadvantage of using this technique is nowadays there are "Do Not Call" lists.
Direct response advertising allows consumers to respond by immediately containing the provider with questions or an order. Direct response TV is an example of this with products such as Pay-per-view features on TV. Another example is Informercials which are segments that demonstrate and inform the audience about a certain product and often times will offer special prices if people "call within the next 20 minutes!".
M-Commerce is a promotional and other e-commerce activity that is transmitted over mobile phones/devices. An example of this would be SMS text messages that reach out to customers.

The technique that marketers choose to use is not always the same. There is no one definite way to market every product. The type of technique depends on the size of the audience and the product/service being sold.



works cited:
Pillai, Rajani. "Trade Promotion, Direct Marketing, and Personal Selling." Marketing 320. Barry Hall, Fargo. 1 Dec. 2015. Lecture.