E-marketing vs Direct Mail & Bar Codes

Direct mail tends to have many benefits over electronic mail. As one of the articles stated, an individual is more likely to delete an electronic copy of mail without taking a second look, compared to having a hard copy to refer back to. Many electronic messages also come off as "junk" mail to individuals, therefore many people will delete them before even opening them. Direct mail tends to be more "personal," when a customer receives an e-mail about sales, they probably tend to think "this got sent out to all individuals" where as if a customer was to receive a 20% off coupon in the mail, they are more likely to feel like a valuable customer. Many customers use direct mail as a "reminder" of what is going on with that company each week. In fact, when the company in the article cut off their direct mail, they had customers calling, saying, "did you take me off your list?"

Bar codes, although marketers have been getting closer and closer to making them easily accessible, there are still potential concerns with using them. Compared to the year 2000 when bar codes were first introduced, technology has grown tremendously which has boosted the success of bar codes. No longer is an individual required to own a hand-held scanner that once needed to be installed on their computer, but now people are able to scan bar codes from certain cell phones. However, not all cell phones have the application to scan bar codes, leading to a potential problem. As of right now, there are bar code applications (ScanLife) for Blackberry, iPhone, Android based handsets, and some Sprint phones. If ScanLife wants to be as successful as it is trying to be, this application needs to be made for every cell phone or people will not use it daily.

As far as e-marketing goes I do not think that is will completely replace traditional forms of marketing. Although internet has replaced many aspects of communications, I believe that companies have great success using the traditional forms of marketing such as direct mail, phone calls, and newspaper promotion. Technology has grown immensely over the years, however many people still enjoy reading the newspaper and opening their mail. If all companies were to use e-marketing as their only marketing technique, I believe that many customers would no longer be aware of promotions or sales going on, causing them to slowly break away from those companies. Flyers are easy to flip through while on a break from work or sitting on the couch watching television, where as e-mails can be deleted with the click of a finger, never to appear again.

A company such as Panera Bread could benefit from direct mail by sending out coupons to committed customers. As of right now Panera has no form of marketing, therefore to boost their success they may want to try and reward their dedicated customers with a little break from spending now and then. Direct mailing could potentially bring in more business, and have their customers continually checking their mailboxes for coupons.