IV.

Direct Advertising

Direct advertising includes all forms of sales appeals posted, delivered, or exhibited directly to the prospective buyer of an advertised product or service, without use of any indirect medium, such as newspapers or television. Direct advertising may be divided logically into three broad classifications, namely, direct-mail advertising, mail-order advertising, and unmailed direct advertising.

All forms of sales appeals (except mail-order appeals) that are sent through the post are considered direct-mail advertising. The chief functions of direct-mail advertising are to familiarize prospective buyers with a product, its name, its maker, and its merits, and with the product’s local distributors. The direct-mail appeal is designed also to support the sales activities of retailers by encouraging the continued patronage of both old and new customers.

When no personal selling is involved, other methods are needed to induce people to send in orders by post. In addition to newspapers, magazines, television, and radio, special devices such as single-product folders or multi-product catalogues are used in mail-order advertising. Mail-order promotions are designed to accomplish a complete selling job without salespeople. The success of direct mail rests on the quality of the database from which advertisers and their respective agencies draw up their mailing lists. Up-to-date, accurate databases enable advertisers to target the recipients of the advertising in a precise manner.

Used for the same broad purposes as direct-mail advertising, unmailed direct advertising includes all forms of indoor advertising displays and all printed sales appeals distributed from door to door, handed to customers in retail shops, included in packages and bundles of merchandise, or conveyed in some other manner directly to the recipient.

With each medium competing keenly for its share of business, advertising agencies continue to develop new techniques for displaying and selling wares and services. Among these techniques have been vastly improved printing and reproduction methods in the graphic field, adapted to magazine advertisements and to direct-mail enclosures; the use of colour in newspaper advertisements and in television; and more attractively designed and efficiently lit outdoor signboards, which are sometimes even three-dimensional. Many subtly effective improvements are suggested by advertising research.