Direct marketing

Swiss Post knows what works

Creative physical advertising messages attract attention and stick in the memory.

Whether it's addressed or unaddressed promotional mailings, when it's done well, direct marketing works. Swiss Post is not only a bearer of creative advertising messages, it also helps advertisers to design their campaigns.

Letters work. They arouse interest, stick in the memory, influence attitudes and inspire readers to take action. This was also Nestlé's experience. The food manufacturer used materials including newspaper ads and an unaddressed mailing to promote a yoghurt called Nestlé LC1. A few weeks later, the recipients were surveyed by an independent market research institute – with clear results.

Mailings improve image and increase sales

“Can you remember the content of the LC1 advertising?” Asked this question, 29 percent more respondents remembered the mailing than remembered the ad, and were able to recall the details of the mailing correctly. This is hardly surprising, considering that a mailing almost always ends up in the hands of – and gets read by – the recipient. Ads, however, are in direct competition with the rest of the content in the newspaper or magazine, and are therefore often skipped over.

Even more pronounced was the advantage that mailings have over newspaper ads in terms of motivating people to act: the product was a full 67 percent more likely to be purchased or the discount voucher redeemed as a result of the mailing.

Swiss Post passes its knowledge on

Swiss Post passes on its years of direct marketing experience and the results of numerous studies to its customers. Under the name DirectPoint, it operates an extensive knowledge platform for marketing and communication managers. The platform contains tips, publications, tools and more – everything from the checklist for target group definition to the template for the agency briefing. With a range of courses and seminars, Swiss Post also offers communications professionals the opportunity to develop their direct marketing skills further.

A growing market

Direct marketing is growing in importance and the channel for addressed and unaddressed promotional mail is increasingly popular. Not least because of increasing sales, the established Intermedia study MA Strategy Direct Mail is becoming a separate media category from 2014. The MA Strategy from WEMF AG for advertising media research is an important planning tool for advertisers and advertising and media agencies.