April 2008
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DIRECT Newsline
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| An Original or a Copy? |
Quick — is FedEx Kinko's new business loyalty program the original or a copy? It's a little of both, actually. On April 2, the Dallas-based company...
Richard H. Levey |
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| Engage 'Em |
Why do direct marketers have a such a tough job measuring the value of their custom magazines, newsletters and microsites? One reason is that they're...
Joe Pulizzi |
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| Healthy Dividends |
Most marketers would be ecstatic with the $2 million-a-year savings in print costs alone that United Healthcare's custom e-mail newsletter has achieved....
Ken Magill |
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| Industrial Strength |
ThomasNet revamped its business plan by giving the people what they wanted — and what they wanted was less paper. The company was founded in 1898...
Beth Negus Viveiros |
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Features
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| Listline |
NEW LISTS WallSt.netFinancial Media Group Inc. has a list of 78,843 investors' e-mail addresses. The file...
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Op-Ed Columns
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| Back to the Future |
Did we ever have kinder, gentler times when direct marketing simply meant “direct mail”? We look back fondly at what we remember as happy...
HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS |
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| Green Hype |
The Federal Trade Commission announced last month that it's revising its packaging guidelines to make them more environmentally sound. Fair enough....
RAY SCHULTZ |
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General
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| Bare Bones |
Are we dreaming? Postal reform works. The rate hike that takes effect May 12 is the lowest in memory: an average of 2.88%. And some mail classes are...
Larry Riggs and; Ray Schultz |
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| Beyond Brown Bags |
If you were a kid, which would you choose as your lunchtime attaché: a plain brown bag or a colorful sack featuring games, puzzles and cartoon characters?...
Beth Negus Viveiros |
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| Calling Up From Down Under |
It's no big news that the United States lags behind other countries in mobile technology adoption. Australian mobile marketing firm 5th Finger recently...
Beth Negus Viveiros |
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| Down and Dirty |
If you're a small marketer, chances are good you've got more promotional chutzpah than budget. “The Complete Idiot's Guide to Guerrilla Marketing,”...
Beth Negus Viveiros |
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| Eyes Online |
Television and movie writers are now back to work. But will the audiences be back too? A poll taken by online lead generator Prospectiv during the strike...
Beth Negus Viveiros |
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| Go All the Way |
You may recall a few “integrated” or “multichannel” marketing campaigns that received industry accolades for message consistency...
Grant A. Johnson |
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| Have Brand, Will Travel |
With the dollar hitting new lows against other currencies, it seems the United States is headed for a recession. Does that mean direct marketers considering...
Beth Negus Viveiros |
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| It's Not Brain Surgery |
News item: A new research system measures consumers' reactions to advertising. Test subjects wear a baseball cap containing microsensors that track changes...
RICHARD H. LEVEY |
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| Letters to the Editor |
SUGGESTION BOX I think Tom Collins' January makeover is an improvement, but could be less “junky looking” — or simply less cluttery...
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| New and Improved |
Everybody likes to freshen up with a new look in spring, and the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing is no exception. This year CADM is rebranding...
Beth Negus Viveiros |
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| Nobody Left to Blame |
It happened again last month: Another JupiterResearch e-mail buyer's guide, another round of press releases from all the service providers congratulating...
KEN MAGILL |
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| Novel by Design |
Beginning writers typically are advised to write about what they know. That's a lesson Chip Kidd took to heart. Kidd is best known as a graphic designer...
BETH NEGUS VIVEIROS |
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| Put It On |
If you think you've exhausted every possible place to splash your company's message, try this on for size. Wearable Video's Video Vest offers marketers...
Beth Negus Viveiros |
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| Site Slighted |
It's a new print-ad world out there. It has been for 10 years now. But too many print advertisers still don't get it. They could be running what I now...
THOMAS L. COLLINS |
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| Social Strategizing |
If everyone was going to jump off a bridge, would you? No? Really? Then why do you have a blog? Many DMers are leaping on the social marketing bandwagon...
Beth Negus Viveiros |
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| The Day Andi Emerson Made Me a Man |
Roughly a decade ago I underwent a rite of passage that was necessary to my becoming a full-fledged direct marketing reporter. This rite occurred at...
Richard H. Levey |
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| The Unsinkable Andi Emerson Caples founder dies at 82 |
She was a New England Emerson, she'd have you know. But Andi Emerson had a bohemian streak. It came out when she sipped wine and told of wild parties,...
Ray Schultz |
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| Yes They Can…Pull Pranks |
As the primaries chugged along in February, some pranksters apparently found their own path to change by signing up anti-spammers' e-mail addresses and...
Ken Magill |
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