What have you found in your experiences with short and long copy in direct marketing communications? Does copy need to shorten to remain effective today?

When reviewing a control for any medium, the creative elements one looks at closely include the offer, the main selling proposition and the creative execution.

In her recent book entitled The Definitive Drucker, the author Elizabeth Edersheim says that Peter Drucker, the grandfather of marketing, believed that beyond 1990 business as a whole could no longer rely on the old assumptions.

In a Q4, 2006 online research project developed by Forrester Research, the researcher revealed that some things never change. Business-to-business marketers still do not consistently track the ROI on their lead generation programs.

You’ve seen dozens, if not hundreds of these direct mail pieces in your mailbox. The ones I am referring to are the post cards pieces that offer a free phone if you sign up now for a 2 year cell phone contract

Today I received a 0% interest on all transfers for the next 12 months from my own bank. I have a small balance that I wanted to transfer from my existing account to a new one if I could get the 0% offer. Ah, but wait. Only new customers can get this deal.

Some of the blog participants believe that branders seek the consumer’s trust above all. Direct marketers, on the other hand, have no such motivation. They are not interested in people, but numbers.

What other events have served to advance the direct marketing discipline? If you work for or with an agency, have you seen a change in focus over the last several years, or is it business as usual?

Have you ever wondered why some great, new products and ideas never go anywhere? There are probably a multitude of reasons. But one may be that management focuses on immediate profitability instead of the opportunity.