Yet another emerging direct marketing channel, TV home shopping, can be melded into the marketing strategy of a DSO. This approach has been used to good effect recently by a US DSO, Multiples at Home.
Multiples at Home is a ladies’ fashionwear company whose principal sales method is home demonstration to a group pof prospective customers. This company also sells certain lines on HSN, the Us TV home shopping network. At first sight it might appear that such an approach would alienate the DSO’s direct sellers.
In fac, research showed the athe HSN audience were not those likely to be contacted by direct sellerds and direct response TV sales would not deprive them of business. The company therefore advises all its direct sellers of the date and time of forthcoming TV demonstrations to coincide with the TV transmissions.
The direct sellers benefit froma hioghly professional demonstration and, for a given period, are able to offer their customers the demonstrated lines at the same discount price that is offered to the TV home shopper. For the DSO, the extra discount is more than covered by the revenue from TV sales.
In the United States some DSOs use low-cost, off-peak, TV infomercials in the same way.The continuing development of IT, particularly database management and electronic payment systems, offers DSOs a welth of future possibilites in melding direct selling techniques with those of other direct marketers.
The great strength of direct selling is the ability to capitalize on the availability of data by creating and retaining the loyalty of customers from the data provided. Direct mail is becoming even more personalized but there is still no better substitute for the personal human touch in converting interest into a decision to purchase.
For years most DSOs have considered it to be a logistic necessity for direct sellers to be involved in the distribution of products to their retail customers. Current distribution patterns, employed by DSOs, are considered in a future chapter but it is sensible to review the case for this involvement continually. The physical nature of the product is one reason for involving the direct seller: Heavy, fragile or bulky products may be too costly to distribute in any other way.
Follow-up contact with a customer, at the point at which products are delivered, may also lead to other orders and referrals. However, the most common reason for direct sellers being responsible for delivery is that it has been the point at which the customer normally pays for the goods.
This is not, of course, the way in which mail order or direct marketing works- these home shopping channels require payment with order. To provide consumer confidence that this prepayment is safe, many direct marketers are members of the Mail Order Protection Service (MOPS).
Those customers that buy from a DSO, which is a member of the DSA, are offered consumer protection under DSA code. They also, in some circumstances, have the benefit of statutory regulations. While there is a continuing case for direct sellers delivering products and collecting payment, it can be an unpopular and largely unproductive use of their time.
With the rapidly increasing use of credit cards and other electronic payment systems within all socio-economic groups it is now quiote feasible for DSOs, marketing certain goods, to recieve payments from and to deliver those goods directly to retail customers-in response to orders obtained by a direct seller.
Using the full spectrum of facilities offered by integrated marketing, it is possible for direct sellers, through personal contact, to create a high-quality database, to obtain orders form those on the database, and, by maintaining personal contact, to extend the database and the opportunities for further orders. Furthermore, these activities, which make the best use of a direct seller’s skills, can be supplemented and enhanced by direct communication between DSO and the retail customer.
The scenario, while possible, can be difficult to implement. The remaining chapters in these pages attempt to explain why. However, the potential for opportunities and the benefits presented by integrated marketing should be borne in mind by every DSO.
KEY POINTS
As a marketing channel the great strength of direct selling compared with direct marketing is its cost-effectiveness in the first two stages of the selling process – gaining the initial interest and the attention of a prospective customer.
Direct selling is particularly effective in the marketing of low-cost consumer goods – where the RRP of a typical product is under £20.00.
Direct marketing skills and database management can be used to great effect in direct selling, not so much to sell products but to support and motivate direct sellers.
Reference; Direct Selling: Richard Berry