Exam 17: Integrating Direct Marketing and Personal Selling

The most common use of direct marketing is as a tool to close the sale with a customer.

Discuss why the role of personal selling is a critical one in the direct marketing tool kit.List and briefly explain the four types of personal selling as part of your answer.

Order taking is just what it sounds like-accepting orders for merchandise or scheduling services.But it also requires answering basic questions and communicating effectively so that a quality relationship with the customer is established and maintained.

Ben & Jerry's uses its database to not only get customers' reactions to flavors and product ideas, but also to involve them in social causes.

Merely having a marketing database can create conflict between departments within a company as well as between a company and its advertising agency.

Direct mail is probably the direct marketer's most invasive tool and as such must be used with discretion so as not to alienate customers.

The development of a marketing database can lead to interdepartmental conflict within a company.What are the most common sources of such conflict?

Define list enhancement, and discuss two simple ways to conduct it.What four categories of information are often included to help define various populations and target markets?

Which of the following is one of the three basic elements of any frequency-marketing program?

Scenario 17-4 Trapper's Lake Lodge is rustic hotel situated on a large lake in the Flat Tops Wilderness Area.The lodge offers a relaxing getaway as well as guided fishing, hunting, bicycling, and cross-country skiing trips from its remote location 250 miles away from a major airport.Guests must travel the last 40 miles on a rough dirt road during the summer months or ride a special snow car during the snow season.Trapper's Lake Lodge management has found that guests almost always have a wonderful experience during their stay and swear they will visit again.Nonetheless, the biggest problem is getting people to visit in the first place, probably due to the difficult travel involved.So the lodge management has decided to mount an aggressive direct marketing campaign to increase first-time guest visits as well as to nurture loyal frequent visitors. -(Scenario 17-4) A public relations consultant advises the lodge management that any direct marketing campaign should be coordinated with its other advertising and promotional strategies.In effect, the consultant is recommending that the lodge focus on ____, which should always be the goal of advertising and promotion.

One disadvantage of direct marketing is that it has no way to identify and target specific segments of the population.

Scenario 17-1 If you walk into a Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, you'll see many items once found in general stores, like porcelain signs, ceramic jugs, tin boxes-and Coca-Cola trays and plaques.And since 2004, Coca-Cola Co.has maintained a larger display of unique Coca-Cola memorabilia at the Cracker Barrel in Nashville, right next to the Opryland Hotel.Visitors will find a number of rare holiday paintings, prints, and calendars featuring the familiar Santa Claus figure and a bottle of Coke.In 1931, the company had commissioned professional illustrator Haddon Sundblom to create illustrations for its advertising, resulting in the warm and jolly image of Santa that has endured in American culture ever since.The soft drink has been served in Cracker Barrel stores for 40 years, so this is a natural connection for both brands.In fact, for its 40th anniversary in 2009, Cracker Barrel featured Black Cherry Coke in limited-edition glasses bearing logos of both brands.(http://www.crackerbarrel.com/about-decor.cfm?doc_id=51.Accessed January 17, 2011.) (original press release by Jim Taylor, "Rare Coca-Cola® Holiday Artwork on Display at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store®," http://www.crackerbarrel.com/mediaroom-newsreleases, November 15, 2004.) -(Scenario 17-1) Cracker Barrel stores feature a big fishbowl inviting visitors to leave a business card and announcing a monthly drawing for free memorabilia from both brands.Those whose cards are drawn receive their prizes by mail.What are Cracker Barrel and Coca Cola specifically doing with this fishbowl activity?

Scenario 17-2 AmericanProfile is an e-technology company.It allows companies to search and navigate gigabytes of data, categorize disparate content, and gain secure access to information regardless of where it resides-all from its Web browser.So, AmericanProfile can share content across connected servers with partners, suppliers, customers, and employees to form an e-business content network.And it all happens in real time. -(Scenario 17-2) The whole idea behind promoting AmericanProfile is to show companies that gathering information about visitors' households and lifestyles through its website is a crucial step in building a

Two big advantages of direct mail as a communication medium stems from its

Scenario 17-2 AmericanProfile is an e-technology company.It allows companies to search and navigate gigabytes of data, categorize disparate content, and gain secure access to information regardless of where it resides-all from its Web browser.So, AmericanProfile can share content across connected servers with partners, suppliers, customers, and employees to form an e-business content network.And it all happens in real time. -(Scenario 17-2) AmericanProfile is considering imitating a direct marketing tactic employed by several consumer magazines.Visitors to the home pages of these magazine's websites can link to tips on gardening, home decorating, cooking, clothes shopping, skin care, hair care, etc.They are then encouraged to rate these articles and columns, explain whether they were helpful, and add comments and suggestions based on their own lifestyles and hobbies.This allows marketers to enhance their customer information with

Which direct marketing medium currently has the highest response rate?

Scenario 17-1 If you walk into a Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, you'll see many items once found in general stores, like porcelain signs, ceramic jugs, tin boxes-and Coca-Cola trays and plaques.And since 2004, Coca-Cola Co.has maintained a larger display of unique Coca-Cola memorabilia at the Cracker Barrel in Nashville, right next to the Opryland Hotel.Visitors will find a number of rare holiday paintings, prints, and calendars featuring the familiar Santa Claus figure and a bottle of Coke.In 1931, the company had commissioned professional illustrator Haddon Sundblom to create illustrations for its advertising, resulting in the warm and jolly image of Santa that has endured in American culture ever since.The soft drink has been served in Cracker Barrel stores for 40 years, so this is a natural connection for both brands.In fact, for its 40th anniversary in 2009, Cracker Barrel featured Black Cherry Coke in limited-edition glasses bearing logos of both brands.(http://www.crackerbarrel.com/about-decor.cfm?doc_id=51.Accessed January 17, 2011.) (original press release by Jim Taylor, "Rare Coca-Cola® Holiday Artwork on Display at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store®," http://www.crackerbarrel.com/mediaroom-newsreleases, November 15, 2004.) -(Scenario 17-1) If Coca-Cola employed someone to call on frequent buyers of its memorabilia to guarantee their satisfaction and update their needs-but not necessarily to pitch new products or close another sale-this employee would be considered to be a(n)

Infomercials were made possible by

There are many different types of sales jobs.Which type is the least complex form of personal selling?

Infomercials that use celebrity testimonials have a definite advantage over those featuring ordinary people, though this adds significantly to overall cost.