Multimedia for direct marketing

In this article, we outline: • how companies improve their business by multimedia and networks, and • the challenges for direct marketing brought about by multimedia. The remainder of the article is structured as follows: in the first section, we provide a definition of direct marketing, illustrate the opportunities opening up for marketers by the new technologies, and present a scheme of tasks in direct marketing. Additionally, we describe the features of direct marketing using multimedia in the four domains of product, price, place, and promotion. In the subsequent section we address the possibilities for contemporary relationship marketing in the framework of content, commerce, and community. Thereafter, we discuss innovative direct marketing activities using the examples of advertising in personalized digital TV environments and mobile telephony. The article concludes with a comparison of different direct marketing media and a synopsis of success factors.