• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, January 7, 2002

H. Robert Wientzen, president-CEO of The Direct Marketing Association, in an interview with btobonline conducted by Philip B. Clark, concluded that despite the current economic downturn, direct marketing showed stronger gains than some other advertising sectors due to its growing mainstream adoption. Wientzen went on to point out that "B-to-b marketers [were] projected to spend $102.5 billion on direct response advertising [in 2001]. That's a 4.3% increase over [2000's] b-to-b spending. Looking forward, over the next five years, b-to-b ad spending is forecast to increase 7% annually."

He said, "B-to-b direct marketing remains a large contributor to the national economy in terms of sales revenue generated from ad dollars. U.S. direct and interactive b-to-b marketers [were] projected to generate nearly $858.1 billion in sales [in 2001], which is, despite the economic slowdown, almost 10% over [2000's] b-to-b sales. B-to-b sales over the next five years are predicted to compound 8.8% annually, hitting $1.3 trillion in the year 2006."

In order to stay on track, or grow, Wientzen offered several strategic suggestions:

- "First and foremost, b-to-b marketers must keep a critical eye on new customer acquisition."

- "B-to-b marketers need to be smarter in the database marketing area by more effectively using all data elements on their customers to make offers as relevant as possible to customers and prospects."

- "The ability to segment customer files and tailor various offers to different customers based on their value to the company is imperative during these times."

- "Cross-channel communication with customers is a critical part of our ability as direct marketers to do well in this environment."

Read more here.