Integrating mind and media

Throughout the Asia Pacific, 59% of consumers trust brands less today than they did one year ago, and 78% of consumers trust other consumers more than other information sources.

Yet throughout it all, one traditional form of marketing continues to hold its own: Direct.

Direct is much more than "mail" as many perceive it to be. Direct marketing as it was named in its early days as Lester Wunderman's brain child is all about generating responses directly from the consumers via multiple channels rather than just creating more awareness and boosting a brand's image. While we've put on a new face since Wunderman's pioneering days of toll-free numbers and magazine subscription cards, direct is the still among the best methods for generating sales.

This Fall, direct marketers converged at the Fuji Xerox Innovate '09 and Premier Partners conferences in Brisbane to discuss and map out the future of direct marketing in the Asia Pacific. The path for continued growth and profitability was clear: creating relevant brand episodes by integrating consumer psychology, personalized value, and marketing channels that support today's lifestyles and emotional needs.

Integrating Consumer Psychology

More important than coming up with new discounts and promotions to create short-lived revenue boosts, marketers need to focus their efforts on what really drives consumer buying behavior. Research that delves deep into the human mind validates that we consumers are not very rational, making highly emotional decisions that aren't always practical. Note the overwhelming levels of credit card debt that imprison consumers. How rational was it to spend beyond our means for years? Clearly it wasn't, but the emotions of having something cool, prestigious, or fun overrode common sense and drove behavior. Nothing has changed, and in fact, the key characteristics of what makes us humans happy haven't changed since the beginning time, or so says psychologist Jon Haidt in his book "The Happiness Hypothesis" which states that all we have ever needed to be happy is to feel connected to others, to be associated with good, fairness, justice, and reciprocity.

Direct marketers today need to understand the emotions behind consumer behavior, rational and irrational, and how to address them accordingly via various marketing channels. Research that tracks the unconscious mind shows significant increases in brain activity when presented with messages that have emotional relevance. And quite often, this activity leads to sales or another desired behavior.

Personalized Value

At the forefront of the Fuji Xerox partner discussions was the need to take personalization beyond direct mail and into a new product category for direct marketers. Print industry veteran of 42 plus years, Frank Steenburgh, now of ColorCentric in the U.S., highlighted personalized digital books and photo albums as the profitable revenue stream of the future as they enable printers to deliver on consumers' needs to feel connected and part of something fulfilling. In the U.S. alone, digital books are a $25 billion plus business and have revenues have grown steadily since 2002. Small independent printers represent more than $14 billion in digital books, making this the future for any size direct marketer.

Integrating Lifestyle Media

Discussions at Fuji Xerox events in Australia, and at the Direct Marketing Association's international conference in the U.S. this past month, all point to the need to integrate our messages throughout various touch points in consumer lives. While direct mail might drive existing customers to new information on a website, mobile marketing might be used to send instant coupons for goods and services consumers can use "right now." Print, e.g., magazines and newspapers also play an important role in reinforcing brand values and characteristics, both of which influence choice and loyalty.

Social media too is critical as it shows customers your brand is not only a part of their world, but actually gets it. Consumers support innovative brands and move on from those that aren't.

Successful media integration today involves three key phases:

1. Set up the relationship

   Personalized direct mail gets attention, states the value of the relationship, and sets the stage for all other communications. In addition, it quite often pulls in double digit responses.

2. Define the value

   Personalized URLs are a great way to create individual value and support the customer relationship. Populate these sites with information that informs, involves and inspires consumers.

3. Address the lifestyle

   Consumers use multiple channels to manage their world and so should we. We are always connected to some form of communications - text, phone, email, websites, networks. Ignoring these channels is simply ignoring what matters most to your customers.