Marketing Communications

436 CHAPTER 13 DIRECT MARKETING

communications activities. For instance, the response to a direct mailing might be increased

by calling to announce the arrival of the mailing. Telemarketing can be used to generate more

traffic at the point-of-sales or to collect debts (telefactoring).

The phone is the most direct of all direct media tools and has some advantages. It is a flexible,

interactive and quick medium, the effectiveness of which can be tracked immediately. On

the other hand, it is quite a hard-selling and intrusive medium and, with its costs being

10–20 times higher than a mailing, it is a rather expensive tool. However, costs should be

gauged against response figures to make a correct evaluation.

In its April 28 issue of 2011, Time magazine explored telemarketing in the USA.^40 Accord-

ing to Time, calls and sales are on the rise. It reported that revenue from telemarketing

pitches increased 250% from 1990 to 2002, to $295 billion, and is still growing. Approximately

100 million calls are placed daily in the USA to homes and businesses. Telemarketers moved

the call centres to countries where more pliant employees line up for such work, taking into

account the falling prices of international phone calls. Over the past 15 years, telemarketing

has grown very rapidly. As the economy is moving from a manufacturing to a service base,

many people believe that telemarketing is the perfect growth tool. Telemarketing is in fact all

about customer contact, dealing with the public. One trend that will affect the telemarketing

industry is the increasing demand for privacy regulation.

The following driving forces will continue the expansion of telemarketing:

   Increasing demand for convenience and speed in the transaction of business.

   The improvement in the capabilities and the price performance of computer technologies

and telecommunications.

   The abundance of software that facilitates the development of more extensive and more

creative databases.

   Increase in the knowledge of how to develop and operate successful telemarketing

programmes.

Catalogues

A catalogue is a list of products or services presented in a visual and/or verbal way. It may be

printed or electronically stored on a disk, a CD-ROM or in a database, or even visualised on

a website, where one can virtually turn the pages. Catalogues are, of course, mostly used

by mail order companies. Although customers are not able to feel, try, smell, taste, etc., the

product in a catalogue, it does give them the freedom to go through it, choose from a wide

range of products and save time.

There are different types of catalogues.^41 Reference catalogues are an extensive overview of all

products with their characteristics, references and prices. This kind of catalogue is typically

nothing more than a purely technical description and therefore more used in industrial markets.

Table 13.2 The different functions of telemarketing

Sales generating Sales supporting

Inbound telemarketing Taking orders Product and company information

Customer service, helpdesk

Complaints service

Outbound telemarketing Telesales Organising meetings/dates for salespeople

Teleprospecting

Updating commercial databases

Supporting other marketing communications

Generating traffic

Telefactoring

Source: Based on Walrave, M. (1995), Telemarketing: Storing op de Lijn? (Telemarketing: Badly Connected?). Leuven/Amersfoort: Acco.

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