<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta name=Title content="ACTON, Ltd"> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <title>ACTON, Ltd</title> <style> <!-- h1 { page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Times; color:windowtext; font-weight:bold; } p.MsoCommentText, li.MsoCommentText, div.MsoCommentText { font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:windowtext; } span.MsoCommentReference { font-size:8.0pt; } a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single; } a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single } p { font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black; } p.BalloonText, li.BalloonText, div.BalloonText { font-size:8.0pt; font-family:Tahoma; color:windowtext; } p.style4, li.style4, div.style4 { font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial; color:windowtext; } p.style5, li.style5, div.style5 { font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:windowtext; font-weight:bold; } span.style71 { font-size:10.5pt; } p.unnamed1style4style7, li.unnamed1style4style7, div.unnamed1style4style7 { font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:windowtext; } span.heading1 { font-size:8.5pt; color:red; text-decoration:none; text-underline:none; text-decoration:none; text-line-through:none; font-weight:bold; } span.boldheading1 { font-size:8.5pt; color:black; text-decoration:none; text-underline:none; text-decoration:none; text-line-through:none; font-weight:bold; } p.CommentSubject, li.CommentSubject, div.CommentSubject { font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:windowtext; font-weight:bold; } --> </style> </head> <body bgcolor=#FFFFFF lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple> <div class=Section1> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><b>The Leading Online Newsletter for Marketing Education</b></span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:20.0pt;color:blue'><b><i>ACTON Marketing, LLC Update</i></b></span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;color:blue'><a href="http://www.actonfs.com/">www.actonfs.com</a></span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>Volume 5, No. 3, Monday, January 21, 2008</p> <div style='border:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt'> <p style='border:none;padding:0in;'>This is a serious educational newsletter devoted to the subject of marketing.&nbsp; You can quickly and easily expand your marketing knowledge by devoting less than 30 minutes a week to reading the four articles included in each issue.&nbsp; By printing an issue, you can read it at your leisure.&nbsp; For those who wish to read only certain articles of interest, use the table of contents as a guide.&nbsp; So you can explore topics in greater depth, we include references that will lead you to additional resources.&nbsp; Our goal is to make each of us a better marketer.</p> <p style='border:none;padding:0in;'>&#8220;Employ your time in improving yourself by other men&#8217;s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.&#8221;&nbsp; &#8212; Socrates</p> </div> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>&#8220;First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.&#8221;<br> &#8212; &nbsp;&nbsp;Mahatma Gandhi</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>___________________________________</p> <p>Inside this issue &#8212;</p> <p><span style='font-family:Symbol'>&middot;<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><b>Marketing to Women &#8211;</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> Citibank&#8217;s Women &amp; Company is back with a new agency and a new magazine ad campaign.&nbsp; Compare the &#8220;before&#8221; and &#8220;after&#8221; below.</span></p> <p><span style='font-family:Symbol'>&middot;<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><b>The Creative Process &#8211;</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> &#8220;Free Gift&#8221; generates more response than simply &#8220;Gift&#8221; as you&#8217;ll discover in this week&#8217;s article on copywriting. &nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style='font-family:Symbol'>&middot;<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><b>Marketing Insights &#8211;</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> The Internet has made randomized testing easier, faster, and less costly.&nbsp; Yet few marketers are taking advantage of it.&nbsp; Read how three marketers used testing to discover what works best.</span></p> <p><span style='font-family:Symbol'>&middot;<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><b>Ask ACTON &#8211;</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> Discover the basics of direct mail testing in this week&#8217;s article.&nbsp; Once you&#8217;ve tried it and seen the results, you&#8217;ll realize it&#8217;s both fun and rewarding.</span></p> <p><span style='font-family:Symbol'>&middot;<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><b>Banking Memorabilia &#8211;</b><span style='font-weight:normal'> Home Federal Savings&#8217; <i>unique</i></span> coin saver dates back to the late 1940s.&nbsp; Using it, young children learned about the face value of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <p><span style='font-family:Symbol'>&middot;<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span><b>Why Read the Newsletter &#8211; </b><span style='font-weight:normal'>Advice from David Ogilvy, one of the most famous names in advertising.</span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>___________________________________</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><b><i>Marketing to Women</i></b></span></p> <p>Which full-page magazine ad from Citibank do you feel does a better job of grabbing attention and getting women to read the copy? </p> <p>To introduce a new corporate logo, tagline, and global branding campaign, Citigroup&#8217;s new ads began appearing in the latter half of 2007.</p> <p>Gone were the ubiquitous, playful &#8220;Live Richly&#8221; retail banking ads. </p> <p>Gone were the very creative &#8220;hijacked&#8221; ads for Citibank&#8217;s Women &amp; Company subsidiary. </p> <p>In their place were more serious branding ads with a new tagline &#8220;let&#8217;s get it done.&#8221; &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Oh what a difference changing agencies can make, as you&#8217;ll see below.</p> <p>After a brief hiatus, a new marketing campaign for Citibank&#8217;s Women &amp; Company began appearing in women&#8217;s magazines . . . like the one below which was discovered in the October 2007 issues of <i>Traditional Home</i><span style='font-style:normal'> on page 25 and </span><i>O The Oprah Magazine</i><span style='font-style:normal'> on page 74. </span></p> <p>Compare its more traditional branding approach from new agency Publicis Groupe to the more aggressive, cutting-edge creative and direct response approach taken by Fallon, Minneapolis. </p> <p><img border=0 width=576 height=748 src="Emailnewsletter5012108_files/image002.jpg" alt=" &#13;f&#13;&iquest;$&#13;X$&#13;&iquest;k&#13;(l&#13;l&#13;@&ordm;([0[&#8706;@&yuml;([0[&#8721;@&Ugrave;([0[&ordf;@)[0[&ordm;&#711;&#711;@,)[0[&#8486;" v:shapes="_x0000_i1025"></p> <p>The Fallon-created ad below &#8211; labeled by your editor as a &#8220;hijacked-ad&#8221; approach to generating attention &#8211; appeared in the November 2006 issue of <i>House Beautiful</i><span style='font-style:normal'>.</span></p> <p><img border=0 width=576 height=809 src="Emailnewsletter5012108_files/image004.jpg" alt=" f&iquest;$X$&iquest;k(ll@&ordm;([0[&#8706;@&yuml;([0[&#8721;@&Ugrave;([0[&ordf;@)[0[&ordm;&#711;&#711;@,)[0[&#8486;" v:shapes="_x0000_i1026"></p> <p>While the new Publicis Groupe ad includes the Women &amp; Company website URL at the end of the body copy, compare it to the <b><i>bolded</i></b><span style='font-weight:normal;font-style:normal'> website address and toll-free number in the Fallon ad. </span></p> <p>Based on the absence of a logo or tagline, the Fallon ad was <i>not</i><span style='font-style:normal'> a branding ad.</span></p> <p>While neither ad contains a valid offer, the more prominent call to action in the Fallon ad puts it closer to a direct response ad while the Publicis ad &#8211; with its dual logos &#8211; is definitely a pure branding ad.</p> <p>Regardless of the marketing strategy, which of the two ads above do you feel does a better job of stopping women magazine readers in their tracks and bringing them into the body copy?</p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>The Citigroup Press Release for Women &amp; Company&#8217;s New Ad Campaign</b></span></p> <p>Dated September 10, 2007, the title of the press release reads:&nbsp; &#8220;Women &amp; Co. Launches New Advertising Campaign.&#8221;</p> <p>The release reads, &#8220;Women &amp; Co., a division of Citi, announced the launch of its new national brand advertising campaign today.&nbsp; Designed to debunk common stereotypes about women and money, the campaign incorporates a humorous twist on some well-known platitudes.</p> <p>&#8220;The ads, including bold headlines such as &#8216;Dividends are a girl&#8217;s best friend&#8217; and &#8216;Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue chip,&#8217; challenge the status quo while extending an invitation to benefit from the robust financial education offered by Women &amp; Co.</p> <p>&#8220;The new campaign, debuting in major print publications in September, leverages Citi&#8217;s new corporate brand campaign by integrating the theme &#8216;Let&#8217;s Get it Done.&#8217;&nbsp; In addition to incorporating Citi&#8217;s new tag line, Women &amp; Co.&#8217;s campaign makes strong use of Citi&#8217;s symbolic red arc.&nbsp; For Women &amp; Co., the arc serves as a visual metaphor for connecting women to their financial aspirations.</p> <p>&#8220;&#8216;This is not financial services wrapped in pink.&nbsp; The financial facts of women&#8217;s lives are different.&nbsp; We provide women with the comprehensive financial education they are seeking to help them navigate the distinct financial challenges they face over the course of their lifetimes,&#8217; said Lisa Caputo, Chairman and CEO of Women &amp; Co.</p> <p>&#8220;Women &amp; Co.&#8217;s media strategy is driven by the belief that it&#8217;s essential to interact with women wherever they are &#8211; even when they&#8217;re not thinking directly about their finances.&nbsp; Instead of targeting women in financial environments, Women &amp; Co. aims to reach women in lifestyle publications when they are more focused on their goals and dreams than their account balance.&nbsp; </p> <p>&#8220;The new Woman and Company brand campaign will appear in September in <i>The New York Times</i><span style='font-style:normal'> and in October issues of national magazines including </span><i>Real Simple</i><span style='font-style:normal'>, </span><i>More</i><span style='font-style:normal'>, </span><i>Vogue</i><span style='font-style:normal'>, </span><i>O:&nbsp; The Oprah Magazine</i><span style='font-style:normal'>, </span><i>Gourmet</i><span style='font-style:normal'>, and </span><i>Cookie</i><span style='font-style:normal'>.&#8221;</span></p> <p>Oh, by the way, the Fallon Minneapolis agency is owned by Publicis Groupe.</p> <p><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><b>Citibank Marketing to Women Magazine Ads</b></span></p> <p>Fallon Minneapolis&#8217; five versions of the &#8220;hijacked&#8221; full-page Citibank marketing to women ads are available in the following issues of the newsletter, under the <b><i>Marketing to Women</i></b><span style='font-weight:normal;font-style:normal'> topic.</span></p> <p><b>9/11/06:</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>&nbsp; Featuring the ad appearing in the April 2006 issue of <i>House Beautiful</i></span>, the headline reads <b>&#8220;Think zero calories are exciting?&nbsp; Try another zero at the end of your bank balance.&#8221;</b><span style='font-weight: normal'>&nbsp; The Citibank copy appears over the image of a woman drinking soda through a straw.&nbsp; This ad was repeated in the December 2006 issue of <i>House Beautiful</i></span>.</p> <p><b>9/25/06:</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>&nbsp; Featuring the ad appearing in the June 2006 issue of <i>House Beautiful</i></span>, the headline reads <b>&#8220;Forget about split ends.&nbsp; Let&#8217;s talk about dividends.&#8221;</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>&nbsp; The Citibank copy appears over the image of a woman with long hair and a bottle of shampoo.</span></p> <p><b>12/25/06:</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>&nbsp; Featuring the ad appearing in the October 2006 issue of <i>House Beautiful</i></span>, the headline reads <b>&#8220;There is no pheromone stronger than financial success.&#8221;</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>&nbsp; The Citibank copy appears over a large bottle of perfume which is surrounded by flowers.&nbsp; </span></p> <p><b>1/22/07:</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>&nbsp; Featuring the ad appearing in the November 2006 issue of <i>House Beautiful</i></span>, the headline reads <b>&#8220;You really can prevent worry lines.&nbsp; Get a better retirement plan.&#8221;</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>&nbsp; The Citibank copy covers what originally was created to be a full-page ad for a wrinkle cream.&nbsp; The image is a head-shot &#8211; front view &#8211; of a woman peering into a mirror she&#8217;s holding while checking the skin under her right eye for age lines.&nbsp; This ad appeared again in the April 2007 issue of <i>Traditional Home</i></span>.</p> <p><b>5/14/07:</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>&nbsp; Featuring the ad appearing on page 450 of the 637-page March 2007 issue of <i>Vogue</i></span>.&nbsp; The headline reads <b>&#8220;Yes, the eighties are in.&nbsp; But not as an age to retire.&#8221;</b><span style='font-weight:normal'>&nbsp; The Citibank copy was superimposed over what originally was created to be a full-page ad promoting some hot designer&#8217;s current retro-collection of 1980&#8217;s clothing being worn by a young female model.</span></p> <p>Past issues of the ACTON Marketing, LLC newsletter are available free, online at <a href="http://www.actonfs.com/newsletter_archive.php">http://www.actonfs.com/newsletter_archive.php</a>.</p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>Marketing to Women </b></span></p> <p>If you&#8217;re still not comfortable with developing a marketing to women strategy for your company, everything you need to know can be found in three, easy-to-read books.</p> <p>Marti Barletta&#8217;s third book, <b><u>PrimeTime Women:&nbsp; How to Win the Hearts, Minds, and Business of Boomer Big Spenders</u></b><span style='font-weight: normal'>, was published on January 2, 2007 and is currently available in hardcover for $16.50 at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/">http://www.amazon.com</a>.&nbsp; </span></p> <p>By reading both the first and second editions of Barletta&#8217;s book, <b><u>Marketing to Women - How to Understand, Reach, and Increase Your Share of the World&#8217;s Largest Market Segment</u></b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, you will be equipped to develop a marketing strategy that will resonate with women &#8211; including PrimeTime Women.</span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>__________________________________</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><b><i>The Creative Process</i></b></span></p> <p>A good copywriter would never describe the phrase &#8220;free gift&#8221; as being pleonastic.</p> <p>Unless, of course, he or she was writing copy directed at university English professors.</p> <p>On the other hand, occasionally, a gifted copywriter is chastised for using the term &#8220;free gift&#8221; when the word &#8220;gift&#8221; is grammatically correct.</p> <p>So why do direct response copywriters insist on calling a gift a &#8220;free gift&#8221;?</p> <p>You&#8217;ll discover the answer in this week&#8217;s article by veteran copywriter Bob Bly, &#8220;What conversational copy means,&#8221; which appeared in the October 22, 2007 issue of <i>DM News</i><span style='font-style:normal'>.</span></p> <p>Bly writes, &#8220;Many marketers erroneously think conversational copy means to write like you talk.&nbsp; </p> <p>&#8220;However, what it really means is to write the way your prospects talk.</p> <p>&#8220;A public radio station in my area sent me a fundraising letter that began:&nbsp; &#8216;Dear Neighbor:&nbsp; I know you are a savvy media consumer.&#8217;</p> <p>&#8220;Now, if you ask me why I listen to the radio, I would not say, &#8216;because I am a savvy media consumer.&#8217;&nbsp; I&#8217;d say, &#8216;I like music.&#8217;</p> <p>&#8220;Here&#8217;s my rewrite for the fundraising letter lead:&nbsp; &#8216;Dear Fellow Music Lover:&nbsp; Do you ever wish, when you turn on the radio, that they&#8217;d play our music?&#8217;</p> <p>&#8220;While my rewrite hasn&#8217;t been tested, I believe it&#8217;s an improvement.&nbsp; It talks about something the reader cares about, and establishes an empathy-based bond through the use of the word &#8216;our&#8217; instead of &#8216;your.&#8217;</p> <p>&#8220;Is there an exception to the rule of writing the way people talk?&nbsp; Yes.&nbsp; You might consider replacing ordinary language with more sophisticated phraseology to set your product above the ordinary.</p> <p>&#8220;Mont Blanc&#8217;s catalog doesn&#8217;t describe its products as pens; it sells &#8216;writing instruments&#8217; &#8211; that start at about $100.</p> <p>&#8220;Some specialists prefer jargon when discussing their industry or trade.&nbsp; I worked for a company that made a product where a door opened at the bottom of a silo, allowing powder to fall into a dump truck underneath.&nbsp; Our chief engineer insisted that in our copy we replace &#8216;dumped&#8217; with &#8216;gravimetrically conveyed.&#8217;</p> <p>&#8220;The goal of direct response copywriting is not to produce perfect prose.&nbsp; It is to persuade the consumer to buy your product, and a copywriter should do whatever it takes to achieve that goal.</p> <p>&#8220;For example, grammarians dislike the phrase &#8216;free gift,&#8217; complaining that &#8216;free&#8217; is inherent in the definition of gift.&nbsp; I remember years ago hearing about a mailer who split test &#8216;free gift&#8217; versus &#8216;gift.&#8217;&nbsp; Not only did &#8216;free gift&#8217; win handily, but a number of recipients of the &#8216;gift&#8217; letter responded by asking whether the gift was indeed free.</p> <p>&#8220;As Emerson once said:&nbsp; &#8216;It is not enough to write so you can be understood; you must write so clearly that you cannot be misunderstood.&#8217;&#8221;</p> <p>Okay, so what about Totally Free Checking?</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>___________________________________</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><b><i>Marketing Insights</i></b></span></p> <p>Marketers . . . how do you <i>quickly</i><span style='font-style:normal'> and </span><i>cost-effectively</i><span style='font-style:normal'> learn what works and what </span><i>doesn&#8217;t</i><span style='font-style:normal'> work before committing to an expensive roll-out or mass marketing campaign? </span></p> <p>You do some testing.</p> <p>According to freelance copywriter Malcolm Decker, &#8220;There are two rules in direct marketing and two rules only:</p> <p>&#8220;Rule 1:&nbsp; Test Everything.</p> <p>&#8220;Rule 2:&nbsp; See Rule #1.&#8221;</p> <p>These <i>same</i><span style='font-style:normal'> rules apply to almost every marketing activity, including selecting the best tagline, your corporate colors, the name of your new product, your business plan, and the graphics on your website.</span></p> <p>Test everything!</p> <p>Given the importance of testing, you&#8217;d think it would be mandatory . . . or at least commonplace. </p> <p>But such is not the case.</p> <p>Think Ford&#8217;s Edsel, Sony Betamax, McDonald&#8217;s Arch Deluxe, the Segway Scooter, New Coke, and a massive number of dot.com startups including Webvan and pets.com.&nbsp; </p> <p>The importance of testing was the subject of the article by columnist Lenore Skenazy, &#8220;Randomized testing is fast and cheap, but few seem interested,&#8221; which appeared in the October 1, 2007 issue of <i>Advertising Age</i><span style='font-style:normal'>.</span></p> <p>Skenazy writes, &#8220;&#8216;THE END OF Intuition&#8217; is a terrible name.&nbsp; So boring.&nbsp; </p> <p>&#8220;But Ian Ayres didn&#8217;t believe it.&nbsp; That&#8217;s what he wanted to call his new book about how much better it is to test ideas through random trials rather than just trusting some marketing guru or focus group &#8211; or intuition.</p> <p>&#8220;Anyway, his editor thought he was nuts and insisted that &#8216;Super Crunchers&#8217; was a much zippier name.&nbsp; So the two of them decided to do some random testing of his book on random testing.&nbsp; They took out a Google ad and half the time someone was doing a search on &#8216;data mining&#8217; or &#8216;number crunching,&#8217; a little ad on the right would appear for a new book called &#8216;The End of Intuition.&#8217;&nbsp; Half the time the same ad appeared for a new book called, &#8216;Super Crunchers.&#8217;</p> <p>&#8220;&#8216;In just a few days we had real-world reactions from more than a quarter of a million page views,&#8217; Ayres reports proudly.&nbsp; </p> <p>&#8220;A little less proudly he adds that, ahem, &#8216;Super Crunchers&#8217; got way more traffic &#8211; 63% &#8211; and, thus became the title of his book, brimming with just such stories about how quick, easy and cheap it has become to test pretty much any marketing idea that pops into your head.</p> <p>&#8220;And how you&#8217;d be crazy not to.</p> <p>&#8220;And yet, how few companies do.</p> <p>&#8220;First, a look at some of the Great Randomized Tests in History, as culled by Ayres, a Yale law professor and numbers geek:</p> <p>&#8220;In Mexico in 1999, the wonky president Ernest Zedillo decided to take 506 impoverished villages and flip a coin.&nbsp; Heads, the village got enrolled in Progresa, a program that gave cash incentives to moms who come in for prenatal care and nutrition counseling.&nbsp; They also got money if their kids stayed in school and got checkups.</p> <p>&#8220;Tails was the control group.&nbsp; It got <i>nada.</i></p> <p>&#8220;At the end of just two and a half years, 10% more of the boys were attending school in the Progresa towns, as were 20% more of the girls.&nbsp; Serious illnesses were down 12%.&nbsp; Most stunningly, the kids in Progresa villages were a full centimeter taller.&nbsp; In 2001, the program went nationwide &#8211; and has since expanded to another 30 countries &#8211; for one reason:&nbsp; The results of a giant, randomized test are simple to see and impossible to refute.</p> <p>&#8220;Now, consider a more mercenary application:&nbsp; Capital One was wondering which offer would bring in more business: a 4.9% teaser rate for six months or a 7.9% rate for a year?</p> <p>&#8220;&#8216;Theory isn&#8217;t going to tell you the answer,&#8217; Ayres says.</p> <p>&#8220;Randomized testing did.&nbsp; The company sent out a huge direct mailing, half with one offer, half with the other.&nbsp; The 4.9% proved overwhelmingly more popular and is probably sitting in your mailbox right now.</p> <p>&#8220;&#8216;This is something I wish we would do a lot more of,&#8217; says Edward Manzitti, head of research at the Direct Marketing Association.&nbsp; And yet, he admits, most companies don&#8217;t.&nbsp; Why not?</p> <p>&#8220;&#8216;They don&#8217;t have the time.&#8217;&nbsp; So here&#8217;s what&#8217;s new:&nbsp; With the internet, it doesn&#8217;t <i>take</i><span style='font-style:normal'> any time.</span></p> <p>&#8220;&#8216;You could take the front page of The New York Times and do randomized tests of 50 different ideas for changing the layout, and I bet you one or two of those ideas would be more successful than the status quo,&#8217; Ayres says.&nbsp; And you&#8217;d know it by the end of the day.</p> <p>&#8220;Incredibly, though, most websites &#8211; even the ones selling stuff, sites that could be trying out all sorts of different offers &#8211; are still not using randomized trials.&nbsp; </p> <p>&#8220;Maybe that&#8217;s because the brass there don&#8217;t want to see their great ideas lose in a simple, unbiased test, as judged by the consumers themselves.&nbsp; </p> <p>&#8220;Maybe they&#8217;d rather be wrong and not have anyone know it.</p> <p>&#8220;Scary thought.&#8221;</p> <p>You can avoid a ton of pain and agony &#8211; not to mention costs &#8211; on the backend by taking the time to test on the front end.</p> <p>And most importantly, be very careful about ignoring testing results and overriding them.</p> <p>Of course, there will always be an exception to the rule as was the case with Herman Miller&#8217;s futuristic &#8220;Aeron&#8221; office chair introduced in 1994.&nbsp; </p> <p>Malcolm Gladwell chronicles Herman Miller&#8217;s testing and introduction of the Aeron chair on pages 167-172 in his 2005 book, <b><u>Blink</u></b><span style='font-weight:normal'>.&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></p> <p>In direct mail, there&#8217;s no excuse for not testing.&nbsp; </p> <p>You can bet that the marketing folks at Capital One, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Wachovia, and Bank of America test, test, and test.</p> <div style='border:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt'> <p style='border:none;padding:0in;'><b>ROI Insight </b><span style='font-weight:normal'>&#8212; It&#8217;s often difficult to determine the return on investment for a particular marketing program or campaign.&nbsp; It was first said by soap marketer Lord Leverhulme and later by John Wanamaker, the famous Philadelphia department store owner.&nbsp; Expanding on the observation, Wanamaker was once heard lamenting, &#8220;I know that half of my advertising is wasted, but I don&#8217;t know which half.&nbsp; I spent $2 million for advertising, and I don&#8217;t know if that is half enough or twice too much.&#8221;</span></p> </div> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span lang=ES-MX>___________________________________</span></p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span lang=ES-MX style='font-size:16.0pt;'><b><i>Ask ACTON!</i></b></span></p> <p>Once you get the hang of it, direct mail testing is fun and rewarding.</p> <p>Your results enable you to make sound decisions about everything from the teaser copy on the outer envelope to the best format to use. </p> <p>Most direct mail experts will tell you that every mail drop should include at least one test.&nbsp; Because of the large number of variables in any direct mail program, finding something meaningful to test should never be a problem.</p> <p>As a result, you should always allow your direct mail agency to conduct direct mail testing to find ways to improve response and/or lower costs.&nbsp; <b>There should be at least one test in every direct mail drop.</b></p> <p>Please note that this week&#8217;s article on testing is not intended to be an exhaustive coverage of testing but more of an overview . . . enabling you to hold your own during any future discussion on the merits of direct mail testing.</p> <p>In fact, it&#8217;s an update of an earlier article on testing which appeared in the May 22, 2006 issue of this newsletter.</p> <p>The major categories of direct mail testing include:</p> <ul type=disc> <li>List tests</li> <li>Creative (layout or design) tests</li> <li>Copy tests</li> <li>Offer tests</li> <li>Format tests (envelope, self-mailer, postcard, magalog)</li> <li>Insertion order tests</li> <li>Seasonality tests</li> <li>Premium tests</li> </ul> <p>Basic testing tips include:</p> <ul type=disc> <li>Conduct at least one test with each mail drop.</li> <li>Keep each test simple so it&#8217;s easy to track response and report results.</li> <li>Test only one variable at a time.</li> <li>Test only significant things that will make a significant difference in cost and/or response.</li> <li>Use the correct sample size (see chart below).</li> <li>Always do an Nth name select when selecting members of a test cell unless you are using a statistical model to determine test cell participants. </li> <li>Establish a workable means of tracking response. </li> <li>Track results carefully and issue a report on your test results.</li> <li>Discuss results with your agency.</li> <li>Keep meticulous testing records.</li> </ul> <p>Test, but don&#8217;t over-test.&nbsp; The goal here is to continue to learn what works best so you can continue to improve your ROI.</p> <p>You can test all sorts of elements from the package format, long versus short copy, timing of the mail drop, target audience, pricing, product features, and premiums or free gifts.&nbsp; What you want to avoid is trying to test too many things at the same time.&nbsp; Not only will your test matrix become very complex, the size of each test cell may be too small to be statistically significant.&nbsp; And, your costs in the mail may increase dramatically as well.</p> <p>Direct mail experts will tell you that <i>small changes</i><span style='font-style:normal'> can make a significant difference in response.&nbsp; For example, changing one or two words of copy in the Johnson Box at the top of your letter may be one of these significant differences.</span></p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>The Basic Arithmetic Skills You Need Are Readily Available</b></span></p> <p>Direct mail testing requires that you have some basic working knowledge of direct mail arithmetic skills.&nbsp; These skills are necessary both for selecting the correct test cell sample size and for analyzing and reporting on results.</p> <p>So how does one go about acquiring direct mail arithmetic skills?&nbsp; Thanks to the folks at North American Publishing Company, publishers of <i>Target Marketing</i><span style='font-style:normal'> and </span><i>insidedirectmail</i><span style='font-style:normal'>, you can go online at <a href="http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/">http://www.targetmarketingmag.com</a> and purchase a copy of their 38-page booklet, </span><i>The Secrets of Direct Marketing Arithmetic</i><span style='font-style:normal'>, for $24.95.&nbsp; </span></p> <p>Click on the <b><u>Bookstore</u></b><span style='font-weight: normal'> link in the black band across the top of the home page.&nbsp; On the bookstore landing page, click on the desired title under the &#8220;Our Best Sellers&#8221; heading in the right margin.</span></p> <p>When a decision is made to conduct a direct mail test, one of the most frequently asked questions concerns the number of pieces in the test sample.</p> <p>As direct mailers, we often hear the term &#8220;statistically significant sample size.&#8221;&nbsp; Unfortunately, most of us are not statisticians so we have little or no idea what is meant by this term.&nbsp; Or, if we do, we have no idea how to use it to arrive at the required number of pieces to be mailed.</p> <p>Here&#8217;s a handy chart that will help you determine the number of direct mail pieces to include in each direct mail test sample or cell.&nbsp; It was found in the book, <b><u>The Complete Idiot&#8217;s Guide to Direct Marketing</u></b><span style='font-weight: normal'>, by direct mail expert, Robert Bly.</span></p> <p><img border=0 width=541 height=256 src="Emailnewsletter5012108_files/image006.jpg" alt="LEAD Technologies Inc. V1.01" v:shapes="_x0000_i1027"></p> <p><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Source of table:&nbsp; <b><u>The Complete Idiot&#8217;s Guide to Direct Marketing</u></b></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>, by Robert W. Bly.&nbsp; In his book Bly advises readers the table was reprinted from the book, <b><u>The Basics of Testing</u></b></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>, written by Ed McClean (out of print).</span></p> <p>Bob Bly explains how to use this chart:&nbsp; &#8220;Take a look at the chart.&nbsp; Go along the top line until you reach the deviation or decline percent column labeled 25 percent.&nbsp; This means that the result from a large-scale mailing should deviate no more than 25 percent from the test result.</p> <p>&#8220;So, if the test pulls 1 percent, the &#8216;roll-out&#8217; &#8211; expanded mailing after a successful test &#8211; should pull between 0.75 percent and 1.25 percent.&nbsp; Warning:&nbsp; The response rate almost always declines after the test.&nbsp; It rarely goes up.</p> <p>&#8220;Now, look at the rows.&nbsp; They show the confidence level, which indicates how certain you can be of your test results.&nbsp; Naturally, the higher the confidence level you seek, the more pieces you must mail to get that level of statistical certainty.</p> <p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s say we are seeking an 85 percent confidence level.&nbsp; Go down the 25 percent deviation column until you reach the 85 percent confidence level.&nbsp; You&#8217;ll find the number 14, which is the number of responses you must set up your test sample to get.&nbsp; To find the correct sample size, divide the number of returns (14 in this example) by the percent return (response rate) you expect.</p> <p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s say your mailings, typically, generate a 1.5 percent response.&nbsp; You divide 14 by 0.015 and get 933.&nbsp; So each test cell should be 933, or 1,000 pieces.&nbsp; On the other hand, if you anticipate a 1 percent response, then you need to mail 1,400 pieces per mailing list in your test.</p> <p>&#8220;Therefore, when people ask me, &#8216;How many pieces do I need to mail to get a statistically valid test result?&#8217; my recommendation is 2,000 names per list, based on the above analysis.&#8221;</p> <p>You might want to keep this chart handy for the next time you get into a discussion about sample size for direct mail testing.</p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>The Testing Skills You Need Require Only a Few Dollars and Some Basic Reading</b></span></p> <p>While there are many books with chapters on direct mail testing, two of the best are:</p> <p><b><u>The Complete IDIOT&#8217;S Guide to Direct Marketing</u></b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, 2002, by Robert W. Bly.&nbsp; The 11 pages of Chapter 23, titled &#8220;Testing Your Way to Direct Marketing Success,&#8221; are a primer on direct mail testing.&nbsp; Included in this chapter are Bly&#8217;s &#8220;Ten Essential Rules of Tested Direct Marketing.&#8221;&nbsp; Unfortunately, this book is tough to find new or used on the Internet.&nbsp; A periodic check on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/">www.amazon.com</a> is your best alternative.&nbsp; </span></p> <p><b><u>2,239 Tested Secrets for Direct Marketing Success</u></b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, 1998, by Denny Hatch and Don Jackson.&nbsp; While the authors don&#8217;t number their chapters, the last chapter in the book, &#8220;Testing,&#8221; which begins on page 330, contains 10 pages of sage advice on testing from 19 direct mail experts.&nbsp; New copies in paperback on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/">www.amazon.com</a> are available for $16.47. </span></p> <p>In addition to these two books, a handy how-to guide, <b><u>The Secrets of Direct Mail Testing</u></b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, is available for $24.95 from the <i>Target Marketing</i></span> magazine website at <a href="http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/">http://www.targetmarketingmag.com</a>.&nbsp; Following the instructions above will take you to this guide. </p> <p>While somewhat costly at $297 a year, an annual subscription to the printed newsletter <i>Inside Direct Mail</i><span style='font-style: normal'> will provide you with a monthly review of a number of direct mail packages, including comments and insights on direct mail testing.&nbsp; You can order this newsletter at <a href="http://www.insidedirectmail.com/">http://www.insidedirectmail.com</a>.</span></p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>Testing is Fun and Rewarding</b></span></p> <p>Once you master the basics of direct mail testing, you&#8217;ll quickly discover that testing is both fun and rewarding.&nbsp; Through constant testing you&#8217;ll learn what works and what doesn&#8217;t work.&nbsp; </p> <p>Imagine the thrill of discovering that you can improve new account openings by 7% merely by adding a lift note to your envelope package.&nbsp; Or by using a magalog format to promote equity lines of credit, your activation rate improves by 25%.</p> <p>Unique discoveries await you when you embark on a journey of testing.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <div style='border:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt'> <p style='border:none;padding:0in;'><b><i>Ask ACTON</i></b><span style='font-weight:normal;font-style:normal'> is a weekly feature of our Marketing Update E-Letter.&nbsp; If you have a marketing question you would like answered, please submit it to Shirley Sluka at <a href="mailto:sluka@actonfs.com">sluka@actonfs.com</a>.&nbsp; We make every effort to answer all questions in the weekly E-Letter so all of our client subscribers can share in the vast knowledge of the ACTON Marketing team.</span></p> </div> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><img border=0 width=300 height=114 src="Emailnewsletter5012108_files/image008.jpg" v:shapes="_x0000_i1028"></p> <p><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial'><b>Are You Using Your 2008 Marketing Calendar?</b></span></p> <p>You did create one . . . didn&#8217;t you?</p> <p>Throughout the year, your 2008 Marketing Calendar will help make your internal sales job much easier. </p> <p>Sharing your annual marketing calendar, including monthly updates, will make you a <i>hero</i><span style='font-style:normal'> with the rest of your company&#8217;s employees . . . especially the front line employees working in your branches.&nbsp; No longer will they be &#8220;in-the-dark&#8221; as to what marketing is doing next.&nbsp; </span></p> <p>It&#8217;s a great way to get company-wide &#8220;buy-in&#8221; for your plans.</p> <p>A detailed marketing calendar serves as your marketing roadmap for the year.&nbsp; It will help ensure that you stay on track and get maximum value from your marketing budget.</p> <p><span style='font-family:Arial'><b>Plan annually, update monthly</b></span></p> <p>Having an annual calendar does not mean sacrificing flexibility.&nbsp; Nor does it lock you into specific marketing programs and direct mail drops.&nbsp; Your annual calendar is a &#8220;living&#8221; document which gets updated at least monthly.</p> <p>What it does is force you to look at the year as a whole and not simply focus on two to three months out.&nbsp; It&#8217;s the difference between being proactive and reactive.</p> <p>If you haven&#8217;t already done so, it&#8217;s not too late to contact the marketing experts at ACTON Marketing and ask for their help developing your 2008 marketing and direct mail calendar. </p> <p>All it takes is a day or two to build your 2008 calendar. </p> <p>For more details about putting the ACTON Marketing team to work for you, give George Monnier a call today at <span style='font-size:14.0pt'><b>402-470-2909</b></span>.</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>__________________________________</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><b><i>Banking Memorabilia</i></b></span></p> <p>Sometime during the late 1940s, a young boy named Pat McNeal received this delightful, spiral-bound book as a free gift from his local Home Federal Savings branch in Southern California . . . perhaps Long Beach where he lived.</p> <p>We know this from the name and address he entered both on the inside front cover and on the bottom of page one.</p> <p>The purpose of this 7&#8221; x 8 &frac34;&#8221; book was to teach Pat, and kids like him, the importance of saving money.</p> <p>If you&#8217;re not careful, preaching the value of saving money to small children can fall on deaf ears.&nbsp; Fortunately, the creators of this particular coin book wrapped their message inside a book about small animals, as you&#8217;ll discover on the front cover below.</p> <p><img border=0 width=575 height=431 src="Emailnewsletter5012108_files/image010.jpg" v:shapes="_x0000_i1029"></p> <p>The front inside cover contains the headline &#8220;IT IS FUN TO SAVE&#8221; and a 24-line rhyme about the importance of saving money, which can be sung to the tune of &#8220;Old MacDonald Had a Farm.&#8221;&nbsp; In very large type, the bank&#8217;s name and location appear at the bottom . . . along with a space for Pat to print his name and street address.</p> <p>The title of the inside back cover is &#8220;A Message to Mother and Dad&#8221; and is signed by Charles E. Curry, President.&nbsp; In the third paragraph of his letter, Curry wrote, &#8220;When your child has filled this savings book with coins, bring him to Home Federal and start his college account.&nbsp; Let him help you with his nickels and dimes.&nbsp; That way, you give him a lifelong habit of thrift . . . and teach him, from childhood, the importance and value of higher education.&#8221; </p> <p>Excluding both covers, the book consists of eight cardstock pages, four of which are designed to hold coins, as shown on pages 2 and 3 below.</p> <p>By studying the pages below, you&#8217;ll discover that the book&#8217;s design team created a layout that would teach young kids the value of the various coins and how to count them.</p> <p>For example, on the bottom of page 2 on the left, the copy in red reads:&nbsp; &#8220;Two dimes and a nickel make a silver quarter.&#8221; </p> <p>Filling all four pages, young Pat and his friends could save 30 pennies, 9 nickels, 5 dimes, and 3 quarters. </p> <p><img border=0 width=575 height=431 src="Emailnewsletter5012108_files/image012.jpg" v:shapes="_x0000_i1030"></p> <p>Most surprising was the fact that your editor was able to acquire this 56+ year-old book on eBay with all the original coins intact.&nbsp; The earliest coin is a penny dated 1921 with the oldest being a 1958 penny.&nbsp; The majority of the coins are dated 1943 and 1944.&nbsp; </p> <p>The coin book is dated 1946 and was produced by Newman Advertising Service, New York, N.Y. and distributed by Coin Books, Inc. of New York.</p> <p>What program does your bank have in place today to instill the saving ethic in young children?</p> <p>Banking memorabilia presented in this newsletter are from your editor&#8217;s growing collection. </p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>__________________________________</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><b><i>Why Read The Newsletter?</i></b></span></p> <div style='border:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt'> <p style='border:none;padding:0in;'>The answer to this question was best provided by advertising great David Ogilvy.&nbsp; According to Ogilvy, &#8220;I once asked Sir Hugh Rigby, Surgeon to King George V, &#8216;What makes a great surgeon?&#8217;&nbsp; Sir Hugh replied, &#8216;There isn&#8217;t much to choose between surgeons in manual dexterity.&nbsp; What distinguishes the great surgeon is that he <i>knows</i><span style='font-style:normal'> more than other surgeons.&#8217;&nbsp; It is the same with advertising agents.&nbsp; The good ones </span><i>know</i><span style='font-style:normal'> more.</span></p> <p style='border:none;padding:0in;'>&#8220;I asked an indifferent copywriter what books he had read about advertising.&nbsp; He told me that he had not read any; he preferred to rely on his own intuition.&nbsp; &#8216;Suppose,&#8217; I asked, &#8216;your gall-bladder has to be removed this evening.&nbsp; Will you choose a surgeon who has read some books on anatomy and knows where to find your gall-bladder, or a surgeon who relies on his intuition?&nbsp; Why would our clients be expected to bet millions of dollars on your intuition?&#8217;&#8221;&nbsp; From the book, <b><u>Ogilvy on Advertising</u></b><span style='font-weight:normal'>, by David Ogilvy.</span></p> </div> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>___________________________________</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><b><i>Past Issues of the Newsletter</i></b></span></p> <p>All past issues of the ACTON Marketing, LLC newsletter are available online at <a href="http://www.actonfs.com/newsletter_archive.php">http://www.actonfs.com/newsletter_archive.php</a>.</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>___________________________________</p> <p>ALL CONTENTS OF THIS E-LETTER ARE COPYRIGHT 2008 BY ACTON MARKETING, LLC.&nbsp; ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&nbsp; REPRODUCING ANY PART OF THIS DOCUMENT IS PROHIBITED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF ACTON MARKETING, LLC.</p> <p>Protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq., Title 18 U.S.C. Section 2319):&nbsp; Infringements can be punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>___________________________________</p> <p>Please note:&nbsp; We sent this e-mail to you because you are a valued ACTON client.&nbsp; If you wish to unsubscribe to future email newsletters, click the link at the end of the email.</p> <p align=center style='text-align:center'>___________________________________</p> <p>You may contact ACTON Marketing, LLC by calling 402-470-2909, Monday through Friday, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm (CT).&nbsp; Or write to us at:</p> <p>ACTON Marketing, LLC</p> <p>3401 N.W. 39<sup>th</sup> Street</p> <p>Lincoln, NE&nbsp; 68524</p> <p>If you wish to <u>unsubscribe</u> from ACTON Marketing&#8217;s newsletter, please send an email to:&nbsp; <a href="mailto:newsletter_unsubscribe@actonfs.com">newsletter_unsubscribe@actonfs.com</a>, placing the word &#8220;remove&#8221; in the subject line.</p> </div> </body> </html>