Deliver Magazine

A Paper Bag Full of Hope

Mary Carlington — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:30:35 +0000

City Harvest is showing that appearances really do matter by soliciting donations with a real brown paper bag as its envelope. A letter from the New York-based charity is headlined, “Most likely, having enough food to fill this lunch bag isn’t a problem for you. Not everybody is so lucky.” Few other tactics have worked as well for the group’s acquisitions strategy.

Getting More Bang for the Buck

Mary Carlington — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:27:53 +0000

Subway Restaurants teamed with Database Marketing Group to offer a system-wide program that allows owners to go online, customize their mailings and mail any week they choose. The overall result: while the actual size of the mailings is smaller, the overall efficiency is significantly higher than that of larger mailings.

Setting a Transparency Standard

Mary Carlington — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:29:16 +0000

Timberland created the “Green Index,” which lists such information as the amount of energy consumed to manufacture a particular shoe, and shares the database with competitors to set a transparency standard for the shoe industry.

Be Proactive Rather than Reactive

Mary Carlington — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:03:49 +0000

Companies should establish a company blog to help maintain dialog, rather than jump online only to respond to negative information, recommends Steven Solvers, principal at strategic consultancy GBSM Inc. and publisher of the blog Scatterbox.

Greener Practices Spreading

Mary Carlington — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:03:14 +0000

Wal-Mart introduced a packaging scorecard for its more than 150,000 products to determine whether the company and its suppliers can conserve natural resources by reducing packaging and sourcing more sustainable materials.

Marketing Spending Based on the Customer Database

Mary Carlington — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:05:33 +0000

Sixteen percent of Volvo Rents’ customers account for 89 percent of the company’s business. As a result, 89 percent of the marketing budget is devoted to that 16 percent.

Consumers Wielding More Influence Over Brand Decisions

Mary Carlington — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:05:25 +0000

Kodak began offering a high-quality printer that saves up to 50 percent on ink cartridge costs not long after it discovered that the cost of ink was the No. 1 consumer dissatisfaction with home printing.

Know Your Audience

Mary Carlington — Fri, 02 May 2008 20:53:41 +0000

One of the most common mistakes marketers make when trying to figure out how to reach Spanish-speaking newcomers is the assumption that there is a single Latino community, according to Veronica Torralba of insurer AIG American General.

Using Relevant Humor in Branding

Mary Carlington — Fri, 02 May 2008 20:53:36 +0000

Health care providers have learned that cheerful marketing ploys can also improve consumers’ attitudes toward medical care in general. But the humor must be relevant to a customer benefit, not just humor for humor’s sake.

Direct marketer practices responsible mailings

Mary Carlington — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:35:06 +0000

One San Francisco retailer’s Web site steers customers to a national database where they can search for the closest recycle center that accepts their direct mail discards, like the retailer’s own glossy catalogs.