The definition they are proposing is:
"Direct Marketing. Think of it as advertising that targets an identified audience with a specific proposition. This, in turn, harnesses the power of the brand, and product or service. What really sets it apart is the call to action which allows the effectiveness of every communication to be accurately measured, even in multi-channel campaigns. This makes it an ideal vehicle both for customer acquisition and retention, through online and offline channels."
In general I think this is pretty good but I have a few thoughts that may make it better.
- Instead of telling people how to think about DM, let's tell them what it is.
- The phrase "identified audience" is too general. All marketing is aimed at an identified audience. DM is targeted at an identifiable audience. In other words, it is marketing material that is targeted at a specific individual. This individual could be anonymous like when re-targeting a banner ad but because we are targeting based on a cookie we are targeting a specific individual.
- This may be a good opportunity to build some rigour into what a DM call to action must include. A place to start would be to say that a DM call to action is SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and timed)
I am really looking forward to seeing how this project evolves and to see what definition emerges.
