• by Bob DeSena , April 13, 2011

In Dudley Moore's portrayal of "Arthur" (I haven't seen the Russell Brand movie), there's a classic scene in which he observes that waiters are wonderful people because "you ask them for things and they bring them to you."

Arthur was about innocent discovery, most often of the obvious. But he was lovable and he had good intentions.

We are all Arthur today, it seems, rediscovering everything, because some of the things around us are new.

Last week a breathless report announced, "Yahoo study connects relevance to advertising."

Really?

There are two reasons for this Arthur-like statement to be reported as news. First, we have come to believe that no knowledge was transferred from the pre-digital age to the present. Second, the direct marketing community, the long time champions of data-based relevance, has been consistently unaware of the critical role its discipline needs to play in the present and the future of consumer marketing.

I'll let the first reason stand on its own, as unfortunate but true. As to the second, although the facts state that direct marketing accounts for more than half of all advertising spend, and over a trillion dollars in related sales (yes, direct has always tracked to sales and ROI), its main practitioners and trade groups have never fully grasped its wider application -- and those few who do, have chosen to keep it to themselves.

For decades, and not just the last two, direct marketers have practiced their craft around the six key variables of response (sorry, that's pre-digital, I meant the key variables of interactivity). This knowledge of the factors that identify, target, involve (sorry, I meant engage), and cause a consumer to act, starts with the notion that, as Lester Wunderman often said, there is no junk advertising, only irrelevant advertising.

Direct marketers think tactically but always with a human frame of reference. Although database marketing involves millions of records, its point of view is purely personal. It is most like the process you employ when you buy a present for someone close to you. It starts with a mental picture of who they are, what they like and dislike, a recollection of conversations, what their reaction was to prior gifts. In short, a database. This knowledge makes everything you do, every action on their behalf... relevant. And effective. We know this intuitively. The direct-to-consumer community has been acquiring facts, building case studies and practicing relevance and "relationship marketing" for a long time. But last week, in the digital age, we reported it as news.

One day, these uniquely capable but distinctly separate worlds of direct and brand marketing, of media and enabling technology, will come together around the consumer, to combine their knowledge and skills in the pursuit of value creation. Until then, it seems, we will observe the virtues of waiters.