According to Wikipedia, “Direct marketing is a form of advertising that reaches its audience without using traditional formal channels of advertising, such as TV, newspapers or radio. Businesses communicate straight to the consumer with advertising techniques such as fliers, catalogue distribution, promotional letters, and street advertising”. The earliest example of direct marketing occurred around 1000 B. C. when an Egyptian landowner wrote on a piece of papyrus an advertisement for the return of a runaway slave. In modern-day times, direct marketing really took off when Gutenberg invented the printing press. The evolution of printing techniques drove the evolution of direct marketing…at
least until today. Today, through web-based tools and social communities, we have the ability to target audiences through their online habits both behaviorally and contextually, serving us messages that are personally addressed to us, recognizing our tastes, likes, dislikes and needs. Additionally, we, as consumers become the marketer in the way that we use these tools and communities to carry messages word of mouth. (more…)
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