What's your address?

Our guest blogger is back with a topic that many people may not think twice about.

What is in an address?  What is an address?

Addresses can be identified two broad categories: Physical and Mailing.  A physical address can be defined as the actual location of a structure (house or building), part of a structure (apartment or suite), or an empty lot.  It also may be where one receives service from a utility, cable provider, or telephone company (service address).  A mailing address is just that – where one designates where their mail is sent.  This type of address may be a physical structure or part of a physical structure as described above, or it may be a Post Office Box located at a Post Office location.  Sometimes, a mailing address for one physical structure may be the physical address of a completely different structure. 

Why is this important?  Why should we care? 

Simply put, the point is to ensure that you are directing your correspondence to the correct person at the correct address.  It is not good enough to know that your best targets live at particular addresses, but that you are also sending mail to their preferred addresses.  Conversely, it is not enough to know that potential targets receive mail at a Post Office Box – you also need to know what physical address is attached to that Post Office Box if you want to learn anything about the demographics of who you are mailing to.

About 80%-90% of the time, the mailing address and the physical address are the same, so we do not have to worry about the consequences of the differences.  But for that 10%-20%, the differences outlined about are very important for us to consider when we construct a direct marketing campaign.

--B

How are social norms created?

Did everyone have a great Mother's Day weekend? I think my mom actually likes this holiday more than her own birthday!

I read a recent Wall Street Journal article titled Under the Influence: How the Group Changes What We Think and I started to think about how the idea of social norms could be applied to direct marketing. 

"Jonah Berger, marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, studied what makes ideas 'go viral.' His team analyzed 7,000 newspaper articles in the New York Times and found the articles considered most popular on the newspaper's website were those that aroused more emotions, particularly happy emotions but also anger or anxiety."

People are more prone to adopt an idea if it evokes emotion, which is to be expected. People feel more tied to issues, ideas, causes, if they have an emotional connection. It makes it more personal.

But who is setting these issues, ideas, causes, into the universe to become viral? "Rarely does any one individual set an entirely new norm for the group. Group leaders, however, help perpetuate or shift the norm. Unlike innovators, leaders tend to be high-status "superconformists," embodying the group's most-typical characteristics or aspirations, says Deborah Prentice, a social psychologist at Princeton University."

What the research shows is that one person may not be able to instill an idea but that it requires a group. Hence the peer pressure idea. The more people who tell you an idea is good, the more likely you are to believe it.

What does this have to do with direct marketing? DMI believes that having the right messaging is crucial in a successful direct marketing campaign. The messaging must be personal and you must make sure your message is touching the prospect multiple times. Repetition is your friend!

Let me know if you want more information about creating the right messaging and what DMI can do for your next marketing campaign!

--L

DMI's Community Weekend - Farmers' Market Edition

Did everyone have a good Cinco de Mayo? I really regret not drinking a margarita yesterday!

One of the things that I love about spring/summer are farmers' markets! And as of today, the downtown San Jose Farmers' Market is back!

"The cozy outdoor market takes place each Friday, from 10am-2pm along a charming block of San Pedro Street between Santa Clara and St. John streets."

There are a number of great offers at the farmers' market such as:

• If you ride your bike, you get a $1 credit to use at any of the vendors
• Frequent shopper cards that will award prizes for stamps collected by shopping at the market
• Every 3rd Friday are Green Days, which means the first 50 people (starting at noon) will receive a free tote bag
• Twice a month, a local restaurant will offer free samples of their food

So check out the website for details: http://www.sjdowntown.com/FarmerMarket.html

Hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day weekend! I hope my dog got me a good present!

--L

Better Know a DMI Employee!

A couple of months ago, I debuted a new segment to allow our readers to get to know the people at DMI. The concept was borrowed from The Colbert Report's "Better Know a District" segment.

So here's my second interview with Z from our Research Department.

L:  How long have you been at DMI?

Z:  One year as of April.

L:  Wow! A year has gone by so fast. I remember when you first came in for your interview. What was your first impression of DMI?

Z:  At first I was surprised at how young everyone was. I got the "Google" feel.

L:  Being compared to Google is quite the compliment!

Z:  Everyone was welcoming and energetic.

L:  So outside of work, what do you do to have fun?

Z:  The exact opposite of GD actually!

L:  So you remember our last segment! I heard you mention that it was your cat's birthday. Can you tell me about him?

Z:  I was never a cat person but my girlfriend and I decided to adopt one randomly. Actually my girlfriend had a $10 coupon for the Humane Socity, and now I'm disturbed by how many cat pictures I have in my cell phone.

L:  So what's the name of your cat?

Z:  Louis Rutherford Van Gaal Watkins

L:  That is quite the name for a cat! What did you get your cat for his birthday?

Z:  I bought him a Kitty City.

L:  Sounds fancy! It seems like we're all animal people here at DMI. Speaking of work, you are in our Research department and you deal with lots of data. What is it about data analysis that you like?

Z:  When analyzing the performance of a campaign, I enjoy finding new ways to graphically depict results.

Fascinating! Well thank you for a very entertaining interview.

I hope everyone enjoyed the interview as much as I did!

--L

What to do with all those labels?

Lots happened this past weekend. The Royal Wedding (which I loved!), White House Correspondents Dinner (Seth Myers did a fantastic job), and the most important news of all. Osama Bin Laden is officially dead! Wow...

I was given a Dear Abby article from a recent SF Chronicle issue which dealt with non profit solicitations. Specifically the ones that give you an incentive such as sheets of labels, notepads, etc. It was interesting to see how people reacted to those mailings. One writer received "532 request from 119 organizations" in 6 months! Another writer wrote "my view is, if they're using my donations to send gifts, then they really don't need my money. They should be using donations to help whomever or whatever it is they're soliciting for."

I personally have received quite a few of these types of solicitations. I never know how to react to them. I agree that they should be using donations to do other things rather than printing and mailing labels. My mom recently felt so guilty she sent a donation to an organization that sent her labels since she was using them. The organization ended up sending her a thank you with more labels!

What do you think of these types of mailings? Are you more likely to respond? Less likely?

--L