2001

Despite the demise of some high-profile dot-con companies and the decline of infrastructure providers, such as Cisco, the Internet is alive and kicking. Especially when it comes to commerce, and especially in the DRTV world.

My friend Charley was stopped for speeding in a school zone. From where he and the motorcycle cop were having their confab on the subject, there was no school visible, and he hadn't seen any school-zone sign, and he said so. "Oh, it's there," said the cop, handing over the ticket. The Hell's Angel in Blue whined away on his Kawasaki and Charley proceeded on his way. Sure enough, a block up the road and way off to the right behind a row of trees, was a school. He circled the block to see whether there really was a school-zone sign. There certainly was. Like the school, it was obscured by trees. To see it, you had to be looking for it.

Experimentation and invention is a human traits. In most cases, they're good traits. Otherwise, as the man said, we'd be watching television by candlelight. But experimentation in direct selling should be approached with great caution. As another man (who would never make it in Congress) said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

A psychologist friend of mine goes ballistic whenever B. F. Skinner is mentioned. "People," he'll roar, "are not pigeons! Sure, you can manipulate them to avoid pain and seek pleasure. But, left to their own devices, people think. They feel. They have and use free will. They are not mechanistic robots!" If recent analyses of U.S. consumer confidence are to be trusted, my friend is right. And we can use the information to increase (or, at the very least, maintain) direct-response sales during these uncertain economic times.

It was Dan Rather, I think, who once said that anyone who can listen to the 1812 Overture and not think of the Lone Ranger is a complete intellectual snob. That's the power of radio when it's done well. Radio is a medium for visualization, rather than for visuals. Radio listeners are involved with the message, not just passively soaking it in. They remember the message and their own perception of it.

Direct marketers should seriously start considering radio as part of an integrated marketing campaign. It's not an easy sell. Many radio stations pull out the garlic and crucifix as soon as they hear "direct response." There are historical reasons for that reaction.

Try this one on for size: "10 Million Business E-Mail Addresses Worldwide on CD! Send you advertising message..." No one in the direct response TV industry would fall for a product like that. Shotgun advertising does not work. Anyone involved with the Internet for any length of time also knows what spam is and what will happen to you and your business if you indulge in it.

Make sure you take full advantage of your Web site's capabilities. A Gateway executive told me a while back that a great number of Gateway computer buyers visited the company's Website seven times, and went to a Gateway Country store three times, before deciding on which computer to buy-usually using the toll-free number.

Sometimes unlikely products can end up big winners. One of the reasons Pablo Picasso was a great artist, it is said, was because his training in art was traditional, and because of that traditional foundation he knew when and how to break the rules. The same is true of DRTV.

A good friend of mine love the movie "Somewhere in Time." So I thought a good idea would be to buy the video cassette as a Christmas present for her. Off to a big video chain I go. When I get there, I ask the teen-aged person at the counter, "Do you have 'Somewhere in Time' for sale?" He answers, definitively, "Uh. Maybe. Uh. I don't think so." Helpfully, I suggest, "Can you find out for me?" He says, "Uh. No."