Page 270 - DMGT408DMGT203_Marketing Management

Unit 11: Marketing Communication Tools (Promotion Mix)

3. Making the sales call Notes
4. Objection handling
5. Lastly, Closing the sale

Task Contact a Eureka Forbes salesperson. Go with her/him in the field and
study the sales presentation steps. Write a critical report.

Self Assessment

Fill in the Blanks:
13. Personal selling involves …………………… interaction with the clients.

14. …………………… is the first stage in the personal selling process.

11.5 Direct Marketing

“Direct marketing is an interactive system of marketing which uses one or more advertising
media to affect a measurable response and/or transaction at any location.”
A number of factors are promoting the attractiveness of direct marketing. The main factors are:
1. Availability of consumer credit cards,

2. Availability of professional agencies,
3. Competitive Pressures, Rising Media Costs, and Market Fragmentation,

4. Increasing family incomes, including dual-income families,
5. Technological advances.
For successful implementation of direct-marketing, marketers must establish objectives, specify
target market, choice of strategies, and set evaluation criteria.

11.5.1 Direct Marketing – Objectives

Objectives of direct marketing usually focus on seeking direct response in terms of behaviour.
Order response rate varies across product categories and prices but in most cases, usually a two
per cent order placement is viewed as good. Some organisations use direct marketing to inform
and educate customers about product/service in anticipation that it may precipitate future
actions, reminding about offers, image building, maintain customer satisfaction, strengthen
relationship, and reassure customers about purchases.
11.5.2 Market Segmentation

Market segmentation and targeting the right customers are critical to the success of promotional
programme. Customers can be grouped on the basis of age, sex, income, education, lifestyle,
and stage in family life cycle etc.
Direct marketers use a database. It is much more than just names and addresses and is used to
identify and profile the company’s best customers and effectively target the customer segments.

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