If you make any one of these desires your main selling proposition and support it with an offer that at least partially meets that same need or another from the above list, then you are well on your way to creating a new control.

I’m driving down the road during lunch hour and hear a radio spot from a well-known printing press manufacturing company promoting a new digital printing press that I know sells for well over $300,000.

I see dozens of promotions using envelopes containing brochures, postcards, coupons and self-mailers combining all of these. But more and more, these packages contain no letter.

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.