This Direct Mail Package Hurts Direct Marketers' Reputation

Written By Ted Grigg

Note the terrible letter below I just received from a local car dealer. (If you are a car dealer or car salesman, please stop abusing direct response advertising polluting direct mail with double meanings and outright lies.)

I can't figure out if it's caused by bad advertisers, unwary consumers, or both.

DMCG Results

Sabaru promotion from local dealer

 The highlighted area in the letter shown above reads as follows on the first line of the offer.

We will buy back your current vehicle at 100% of the ORIGINAL FACTORY BASE MSRP when your car was new.

Wow! Taken at face value, that seems pretty clear. If your car had an MSRP of $30,000, then your trade in value based on this comment is $30,000. The deception continues.

SUBARU OF PLANO has been provided by the National Automobile Dealers Association the original price for your vehicle. Any 1999-2007 vehicle traded during this event will receive this offer. Obviously your vehicle must be in safe operating condition, with normal wear and tear & free of paint or collision work.

 That last sentence above sounds like a warning. And sure enough it is. Finally we get the truth about the real "offer."

Adjustments will be made for mileage, excessive wear and tear and reconditioning costs.

 Now the reader should know that this is a non-offer. They will simply give you the trade in value of your car since mileage is taken into account. It also leaves room for them to deduct costs for the vehicle's age since the title of the offer says it all. "100% trade value."

Let me ask you. After getting this in the mail, would you ever trust this dealer with your $20,000 plus for one of his cars?

Ted Grigg

Ted Grigg is a direct response strategist who helps growth-focused companies reduce risk by identifying weak assumptions before they become costly mistakes.

Over the course of his career, Ted has evaluated several hundred million dollars in direct response testing across direct mail, digital, print, television, telephone, and other channels. His work combines direct response strategy, acquisition economics, customer analysis, creative evaluation, offer development, and disciplined testing.

Ted has worked on both the client and agency sides of the business. That experience gives him a practical understanding of the pressures facing executives, marketing teams, agencies, and service providers—and of the problems that arise when activity, media volume, or creative preference replaces a clear economic objective.

His consulting work helps organizations examine such questions as:

  • Are acquisition goals economically realistic?

  • Is the allowable Cost Per Sale supported by customer value?

  • Are targeting, offers, creative, media, and response paths working together?

  • Are tests structured to produce reliable business decisions?

  • Are unproven assumptions being treated as facts?

  • Is the organization measuring sales outcomes rather than convenient proxies?

Ted’s experience includes the development of direct mail and multichannel acquisition programs for insurance, healthcare, financial services, technology, nonprofit, manufacturing, retail, transportation, communications, government, and business-to-business organizations.

For a national direct-to-consumer insurance company, he developed a direct mail format that defeated established controls and helped expand the productive use of compiled prospect lists from less than 10 percent to more than 30 percent of total direct mail circulation within one year. He also planned Medicare lead-generation programs for more than 60 regional and national HMO and PPO organizations, with some programs exceeding sales projections by as much as 60 percent.

Ted founded Wyse Direct, a direct marketing division of Wyse Advertising in Cleveland, where he developed acquisition programs and helped launch a new technology product for Seiko Instruments by generating a predictable flow of qualified sales leads for its national sales organization. As vice president of new business development for the Grizzard Agency, he helped broaden the agency’s strategic capabilities and pursue new commercial and fundraising opportunities.

He is the author of The HMO/PPO Marketing Plan—A Step-by-Step Guide, published by Executive Enterprises, and has written numerous articles and conducted webinars on direct response strategy, testing, creative development, and marketing economics.

Ted earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University and completed two years of graduate study at Texas Tech University. He is the founder of DMCG, LLC.

http://www.dmcgresults.com
Previous

Communication and Strategy not the Technical Marketer’s Strength
Next

How Much Should You Pay for a Lead?