Direct marketing: Marketing Report - The vital statistics

DIRECT MARKETING AGENCY 2007 - KITCATT NOHR ALEXANDER SHAW

After a productive 2006, Kitcatt Nohr could have been forgiven for
keeping its head down to consolidate and bed in its new clients during
2007. However, last year it managed to win more business than ever.
Among the wins were prestigious brands such as John Lewis, The Salvation
Army and WWF, as well as project work for the RAC, Goldfish.com and
Carphone Warehouse.

Despite this impressive growth in volume, Kitcatt Nohr remains true to
its original principle that at least one of its four founding partners -
Marc Nohr, Paul Kitcatt, Vonnie Alexander and Jeremy Shaw - is directly
involved with each of its clients. Although the bulk of the agency's
work remains below-the-line, it has also turned its hand to a number of
successful TV ads, including a campaign for Virgin Holidays.

THE ONE TO WATCH - IRIS

The rise of Iris since it opened its doors in 1999 has been startlingly
swift. Last year was exceptional, even by the agency's ambitious
standards, with a string of heavyweight and diverse new-business
wins.

Iris demonstrated its ability to activate briefs ranging from simple
direct-mail packs and sales promotion to sports sponsorship activation
and experiential marketing. By the end of last year, it was the global
sponsorship agency for ING Direct, the lead global digital agency for
Shell and a digital roster agency for Coca-Cola. It won promotional
briefs from Unilever to support its Sure, Lynx and Vaseline brands and
developed work for Sony Ericsson.

Source: Marketing Agency of the Year 2007

DMA PARTICIPATION MEDIA REPORT FINDINGS

- Consumers are filtering out the marketing information they need,
especially when gathering information ahead of purchase. Their preferred
methods are talking to the retailer and word of mouth.

- This empowerment is also reflected in decreasing levels of loyalty.
Positive responses from past customers have slipped from 43% to 34%,
showing consumers are more willing to switch suppliers.

- Consumers are taking more control of who can contact them. There is a
reluctance to share personal information with companies, attributed to
heightened awareness of identity fraud and data losses.

- Most people feel overwhelmed by the volume of marketing communications
they are receiving. The research shows a significant increase in
consumers who are happy to pick and choose how they get information
about companies and their products and services.

- Growth in internet access is significant across all demographics as
confidence in the medium grows and access costs decrease. There is an
increase in the number of people accessing internet services at work -
it may be why the majority of purchases made in response to email
marketing were at work. This, with the growing number of consumers using
laptops, PDAs and mobiles, has created an 'always on' consumer.

DIRECT MAIL



2004 2005 2006 2007



Volume (m items) 5418 5134 5028 4655

Postage expenditure (pounds m) 1021.21 973.33 962.92 902.24

Total expenditure (pounds m) 2468.63 2371.32 2321.72 2171.37

Postage costs as % of total spend 41.4 41.0 41.5 41.6



Source: Royal Mail





IMPORTANT FACTORS WHEN DEALING DIRECT WITH COMPANIES



1 Value for money

2 Speed of response

3 Quality of information

4 Personal touch

5 Helpful advice



METHODS THAT GENERATE DIRECT PURCHASE

1 Interactive TV

2 People marketing/demonstrations

3 Emails

4 TV and radio ads

5 Customer magazines



METHODS THAT GENERATE RETAIL TRAFFIC

1 TV and radio ads

2 Customer magazines

3 Inserts

4 Emails

5 People marketing/demonstrations



COMMUNICATION THAT LEADS TO FURTHER ENQUIRIES

1 Telephone calls

2 Interactive TV

3 Mobile messaging

4 People marketing/demonstrations

5 Newspaper/magazine ads



METHODS USED TO CONTACT COMPANIES

1 Internet search engine

2 Telephone call

3 Website visit

4 Email

5 Visit to shop or showroom



HOW PEOPLE RESPOND AFTER RECEIVING DIRECT MAIL

1 Phone

2 Post

3 Visit company website

4 Visit store

5 Not stated



Source: DMA Participation Media 2007