Today’s Shopper Wants Value
by Kristen Sullivan | May 29, 2009
“Businesses who want to do more than just survive [the economic climate] should see this moment not just as a time for retrenchment but as a time for repositioning,” write Mark Penne and Kinney Zalesne in the debut issue of the DMA’s e-publication the Point.
Penne and Zalesne, the authors of the Wall Street Journal column MicroTrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes, contend that consumers are now interested in knowledge and value. “American shoppers are…more like professors and priests, chasing and absorbing knowledge, and trying to align with some larger good,” they write.
I love this description- though I’d add one more word to ensure both meanings of “value” are conveyed: Today’s consumers are like frugal professors and priests. They take the time to find products and companies in which they believe and where they can get a deal. As our country endures a harsh hangover from our earlier credit-happy days, many Americans are taking new pride in becoming responsible consumers.
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Reward Redemption + Feedback
by Scott Couvillon | May 28, 2009
Why is Dukky, an innovator (we like to say ‘disruptor’) in the direct mail industry, going to next week’s Loyalty Expo?
Well it turns out that our new technology has an application for Loyalty and Rewards programs that forward-thinking, web-savvy industry leaders will likely appreciate. We’re combining online and offline components to help you engage customers and monitor your relationships with them in real-time. Dukky’s Loyalty and Rewards platform not only increases redemption of points, miles or credits, it also encourages meaningful feedback from members. All without the expense and coordination of yet another merchandise catalog or e-mail to the membership database that has little to no impact.
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Consumers in Control of Marketing? Really?
by Scott Couvillon | May 22, 2009
The pundits, journalists, conference speakers and CMOs agree, the consumer has wrenched power away in the marketing relationship. Enabled by technology, freewill and the ability to validate information on their own, consumers have taken control of marketing.
But back here on earth, a sensible question is being asked — Why in the world would consumers want to control marketing?
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Innovation Can Save Direct Mail
by Kristen Sullivan | May 22, 2009
Ding dong direct mail is dead…
Actually, it’s in the process of dying announced Borrell Associates latest research report. Borrell has a strong track record when it comes to predicting doom. The group correctly predicted the demise of newspapers and Yellow Pages industries. Now it says direct mail will be the next major analog victim of the internet.
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New Orleans and its Starts-Ups like Dukky Say: What Recession?
Christian Science Monitor | Patrick Jonsson and Mary Knox Merrill | May 19, 2009
Chicago is “a wash,” says Jason Weyland, an architect who lost his Windy City job when his firm cut half its workforce earlier this year.
So on this day Mr. Weyland – married, bespectacled, and crisp-suited – is on a job hunt in a city that, just a few years ago, many Americans had written off, irrevocably sold down the mighty Mississippi.
“It’s hard to believe, but New Orleans has become a legitimate city,” he says, riding the St. Charles Streetcar line to a promising follow-up interview. “It’s got jobs, great culture, history, and it’s a city where people walk, which I like.”
As the anchor of Louisiana – the only state with positive employment numbers – New Orleans is back.
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See Real Results in Real-Time
Dukky technology provides marketers real-time feedback on how their program is performing and who is responding to their offers. Marketers can slice and dice the collected information in a variety of ways and then download the data from our performance dashboard.
Traditional direct mail campaigns that blast out mailers and catalogs to homes across the country rarely know when their offers are opened, passed on to a friend of the recipient, or tossed into the fireplace. Dukky is using its patented technology and the power of social networks to track all of this activity. Read more
Dukky’s 8% Response Guarantee
Dukky is guaranteeing participating retailers an 8% response rate rate.
Typical direct mail response rates range from .25 to 3 percent; however, the Dukky program is far from typical. We’re confident that our program will outperform traditional direct mail programs and your current incentive program too. If you participate in our beta program and your response rate doesn’t reach 8%, we will refund 50 percent of your campaign fees. Seriously. Read more
New Marketing Program Tracks Attendee Interest and Purchase Intent
Trade Show Executive I Hil Anderson I May 2009
Looking to boost show attendance, the New Orleans Home and Garden Show leveraged a gift card marketing program launched by Dukky LLC to 100,000 prospective attendees, giving organizers and exhibitors a pretty good idea of who was going to be there. Dukky, a direct response agency founded in October 2008, offers a patented media platform which distributes personalized gift cards to attendees and then tracks their purchase intent, feedback and redemption online.
The gift cards, which can target several thousand prospective attendees, come with an activation process that acts as an RSVP and provides the organizer with an indication of how many people plan to come to the event and which booths they are likely to visit.
Dukky President Scott Couvillon told Trade Show Executive the system is a leap beyond the long-standing practice of sending direct mail offerings with no real idea if they hit the mark. “Those methods have great reach, but give you zero indication of who is coming,” he said.
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Let’s Get Rid of the “Junk” in Junk Mail
by Kristen Sullivan | May 6, 2009
Not all junk mail is junk.
A recent study by DMNews and Pitney Bowes shows that more than 75 percent of consumers prefer to receive coupons in the mail. Coupons delivered by email came in second, while newspaper inserts were the least popular of the three forms.
The study is another reminder that the quest to reduce direct mail waste must involve a thoughtful solution.
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Merging online advertising tools with snail mail
Adotas | Edward Barrera | February 12, 2009
Scott Couvillon, president, marketing and product development, for Dukky, has a few words about merging direct mail with online tools:
So with the proposed reduction of mail delivery, retailers are rightfully concerned because the first thing to not make it through the hole is bulk mail, right? But the issue is not simply that this will challenge B2C mail delivery. The real issue is that it is, once again, important to create value in what you put into the hands of consumers. And be able to track the success of that campaign. Read more
