About 3000 years ago, an Egyptian landowner wrote on a piece of papyrus an advertisement for the return of a runaway slave. This, so far as we can trace, is the first example of direct advertising. The original can now be seen in the British Museum.
From Gutenberg’s invention of mechanical type printing to the present time the growth of direct advertising has, in many ways, been concurrent with the progress in printing. William Caxton was the pioneer printer in England having set up his press in the year 1471 at Westminster Abbey. The first American direct advertisement, according to the Philadelphia Public Ledger, was a pamphlet published in 1681 by William Penn. We cannot forget Antonio de Mendoza, the first Spanish Viceroy of Mexico, who went to Mexico in 1535 and established a printing office.
According to Wikipedia, in 1836, French newspaper La Presse was the first to include paid advertising in its pages, allowing it to lower its price, extend its readership and increase its profitability and the formula was soon copied by all titles. Around 1840, Volney B. Palmer established the roots of the modern day advertising agency in Philadelphia, he bought large amounts of space in various newspapers at a discounted rate then resold the space at higher rates to advertisers. The actual ad – the copy, layout, and artwork – was still prepared by the company wishing to advertise.
Aaron Montgomery Ward started the mail-order industry in 1872 in Chicago; he produced the first mail-order catalogue for his ‘Montgomery Ward mail order’ business. By buying goods and then reselling them directly to customers, Ward was consequently removing the middlemen at the general store and, to the benefit of the customer, drastically lowering the prices.
But it was not until 1967 that Lester Wunderman identified, named and defined the term “Direct Marketing”. Wunderman is behind the creation of the toll-free 1-800 number and numerous loyalty marketing programs including the Columbia Record Club, the magazine subscription card and the American Express Customer Rewards program.
So, what happened from there to now? In the early nineties’ the email came in to existence and Internet was gaining popularity so email marketing was just the natural evolution, the best way to reach the customers.
Today we have vast networks, loads of servers and gateways and billions of emails go in and out but the principles are still true: The basic idea is that the principles we have been advocating for years about relationship marketing can be enhanced through technology. Use technology to improve the delivery. The delivery of the relationship.
In the end, it’s all about relationships.
Think about this, next time you have to deal with a client.
Posted by Joseph Remesar, Director of Sales for Southern Europe.
