The Complete Guide to Direct Marketing

Citation

Lewison, D. (2007), "The Complete Guide to Direct Marketing", Direct Marketing: An International Journal, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 119-120. https://doi.org/10.1108/17505930710756888

The Complete Guide to Direct Marketing is subtitled “Creating breakthrough programs that really work”. Given the world‐wide emphasis being placed, by firms both large and small, on establishing custom relationships through a wide‐range of direct marketing tools, a comprehensive guide to developing successful direct marketing strategies and tactics is most timely. Unfortunately, while the book contains a wealth of information, in the end it fails to deliver on its promise to be a “complete guide”.

Taken as a whole, The Complete Guide is written and presented more in a traditional textbook format than as an applied guide which can be quickly and effectively used in the business world. Much of the content addresses topics which business people with any level of experience should be familiar with. The first part of the book (Chapters 1‐5) deal with very general topics (e.g. direct marketing as business strategy, direct marketing as sales, thinking like a direct marketer, barriers to success, etc.). This is not to diminish the importance of these topics, but the author does not provide any real down‐and‐dirty specifics. Perhaps the one strength is Chapter 4, which deals with specific examples of success that cross a variety of industries, and which delve into some lessons that are valuable and relevant in a number of scenarios and firm circumstances.

The second part of The Complete Guide (Chapters 6‐10) reads like a traditional promotion text with the term “direct marketing” used in place of “advertising”. In reading these chapters, I found very little information that cannot be found in virtually any marketing communication text. The discussions of finding an audience, the creative process, production, and testing really contained nothing new. Particularly frustrating was the chapter dealing with data management (Chapter 7). Anyone involved in direct marketing understands not only the importance of establishing a usable system for collecting analysable data; but they also realize that the ongoing success of any direct marketing efforts are dependent on the ability to “mine” that data. The majority of Chapter 7 is a discussion of simple terminology. The attempt at the end (14 rules for effective use of data) to provide a guide for data management and use falls woefully short with rules such as: “Decide what data you need, then figure out how to get it”, “Write reports first”, “Put your most experienced person in charge”, etc. is little more than a laundry list of what should be simple common sense.

Having been somewhat critical of The Complete Guide as a readily usable tool for business people seeking lessons that can be quickly implemented, it should be noted that the author chose to take on a monumental task in assembling a single volume that would be both comprehensive and direct. If the reader is actively involved in business and seeking to either create a new, or improve an existing, direct marketing program this is probably not the best book on the market. At the same time, if the reader has little or no business experience (especially in areas related to promotion) The Complete Guide to Direct Marketing may be a good place to start. It would also serve as a decent text for an introductory direct marketing course.