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Today, the successful marketers are those who use
direct marketing as a strategic method of marketing and who also understand every direct marketing tactic and rule.
Twenty years ago, I had never heard the term "direct marketing," and candidly, never thought of it as a career. But in April 1978, only one month before my graduation from Fort Hays State University, in Hays, KS, I had the privilege of attending a Direct Marketing Collegiate Institute sponsored by the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (DMEF).
It was a career-changing experience. My mind was opened after five days at the DMEF Collegiate Institute. Since then, the scope of direct marketing has evolved profoundly, and there has been marked evolution in how direct marketing is viewed by a diverse group of marketing organizations.
The change has been gradual, but the 20-year milestone of my introduction to direct marketing - and an invitation from the DMEF to speak to a Direct Marketing Seminar for Graduate Students last year in Los Angeles -- created an opportune time to examine the changes and reflect not only about the past 20 years, but gaze into the future about what the next 20 years may bring.
The program outline from my Collegiate Institute in 1978 and the program outline from the Graduate Student Seminar in 1998 are revealing about how direct marketing has evolved. The profound change can be summarized in a single word: strategy. Direct marketing has become a strategy for marketing companies of all types. For years, direct marketing was tactically focused. And indeed, if the tactics aren't right the strategy will fail. Today, the successful marketers are those who use direct marketing as a strategic method of marketing and who also understand every direct marketing tactic and rule.
1978 Collegiate Program Compared To The 1998 Program Twenty years ago, about the only place that direct marketing was being taught was the then-named Direct Mail/Marketing Educational Foundation. In the early 1980s, the name was changed to the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation.
The presentation titles made by 1978's direct marketing pioneers are telling about where direct marketing was at that time. And credit must be given to those leaders who inspired so many of us to make direct marketing our...