Eight of 10 consumers (79.6%) say they have made a purchase in the previous 12 months in response to direct marketing, according to “Consumers’ Response to Direct Marketing: An 8 Part Series,” a study from the Direct Marketing Association that seeks to examine how consumers respond to direct marketing, reports Circulation Management (CM) magazine.
Some findings from the DMA study (via CM):
- On average, consumers respond to direct marketing every 16.4 days.
- By channel: 48% of respondents say they made a purchase or donated via catalog, followed by internet search, 37%; direct mail, 28%; and newspapers, 17%.
- TV, radio and magazines are the least popular DM channels.
- Top reasons for parting with money: attractive price, 35%; customer loyalty, 16.3%; uniqueness, 11.1%; and special offers,10.4%.
- Top reasons for not parting with money: “not the right time,” 25%; not relevant, 23.6%; “already have enough,” 13%; and price, 6%.
- Some 70.2% of consumers said they were “privacy concerned,” but as a group they were more likely to respond to direct marketing than those who say they are “privacy unconcerned.”
- 53% of the “privacy concerned” say they made a catalog purchase, compared with 35% of the “privacy unconcerned.”
Marketers should therefore focus more on timing than privacy, according to Peter Johnson, VP, research and market intelligence, DMA. “Offering the products at the right time is the next frontier of relevance for marketers,” he is quoted by CM as saying.
The study was conducted between October 2006 and January 2007 with 1,027 respondents who made 7,000 transactions and 700 purchases. They were asked to keep a two-day transaction diary, logging in direct mail they came into contact with and whether they made a purchase – and why or why not.
