After personally going through several hundred of these pitches, there is nothing that guarantees the pain of failure more than not winning an account you really wanted. So what went wrong?

Personally, I like the term "disruption" when used as a reference to direct marketing. All successful advertising must ultimately lead people to make an unplanned purchase. It strikes at the core purpose of advertising in a free market.

Right now, the markets are in turmoil due to the instability in housing. So in the Advertising Section of today’s Issue of the New York Times, the lead article talks about brand marketers switching gears from easy-money themes to financial strength and stability.

These words did not come from me, but from Ian French, President and Executive Director of Northern Lights Direct Response Television. His article entitled “Don’t lose branding” was published in DM News’ 2007 issue of Essential Guide to Direct Response Television.

Some of my clients understand fully what direct marketing can do for them. But they need help in assessing why their programs are not performing at the levels they should.

As consumers continue to consume the Internet at an ever-increasing rate, I see it as the direct marketer’s dream come true. It offers many advantages to the direct marketing practitioner.

I believe that well conceived loyalty programs provide both immediate and long-term benefits to the organization. But how should the direct marketer go about proving the effectiveness of Customer Relationship Marketing activities?

I recently sent a note to the President of one of my favorite advertising agencies. I congratulated him for his fabulous white paper expounding the positioning and branding services offered by his team.

To this day, I still see web management under the complete control if the IT department in many companies. It’s comparable to putting the print production team in charge of creative and marketing.