Direct marketing is a strategy for putting manufacturers directly in touch with consumers – the blueprint for the "disintermediation" of the digital world. Back in the fifties and sixties, while other ad agencies disdained what was then called mail order selling, Lester Wunderman used his instincts and skills to revolutionize the industry. He was responsible for a number of firsts: He introduced bound-in subscription cards for magazines, founded the first "virtual store," introduced pre-printed newspaper inserts, and persuaded Time Inc. to use an 800 number to sell their magazines. Today, direct marketing accounts for 15 percent of all retail sales worldwide.
Twenty-five years before the Internet was invented, in a now famous speech at MIT, Wunderman described the sales relationship of the future as "interactive." In tomorrow's electronic marketplace, the interactive techniques he pioneered will account for the great majority of sales worldwide. In a groundbreaking final chapter, Wunderman looks forward to marketing in the "post-present." Anyone with an interest in the future of advertising and selling would do well to listen to this remarkable, wise and wonderfully entertaining pioneer.
The new version has been augmented with a new final chapter on the impact of the Internet on direct marketing, includes a new Consumer Communications Bill of Rights, and has been statistically updated regarding the size and scope of Direct Marketing.
