Briefly describe the major channels of direct marketing.

Answer: there are various channels through which direct marketing reaches the intended and current customers. These channels include: face-to-face marketing, direct mail, catalog marketing, telemarketing, television and other direct response media marketing, kiosk marketing, and e-marketing.

(1) Face-to-face marketing. Face-to-face selling is the most basic and primitive form of direct marketing, the sales visit. Today, most companies rely more heavily on specialized sales forces to visit prospective customers, develop them into customers, and grow their business. Alternatively, they employ manufacturers' representatives and agents to perform direct marketing tasks.

(2) Direct mail. This consists of sending a quotation, notice, souvenir, or other item to a person with a specific address. Applying highly selective mailing lists, direct marketers send out millions of mailings each year - letters, flyers, folded ads, and other "winged salespeople." Some direct marketers also send audiotapes, videotapes, and even computer disks to prospective and current customers.

(3) Catalog marketing. Catalog marketing is when a company mails out full catalogs, specific consumer product catalogs, and business catalogs, usually in print but sometimes on CD-ROM, videotape, or online information.

(4) Telemarketing. Includes the use of telephones and call centers to attract new customers, sell to repeat customers, and provide services such as ordering and answering questions. Telemarketing helps companies increase revenue, reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction. The company uses call centers for both receptive marketing (answering customer calls) and sender marketing (calling new and existing customers).

(5) Other direct marketing. These include marketing techniques such as television, shopping kiosk marketing and e-marketing. A shopping kiosk is a smaller building or unit within a house that markets or disseminates information. The term describes such things as newsstands, street refrigerators, and mobile vans with vending machines selling pure water, apparel, and other store-bound items; the newest channel of direct marketing is the electronic channel. The term e-commerce describes a wide variety of electronic operating platforms, such as sending purchase orders to vendors through electronic data interchange (EDI) systems; using fax and e-mail to process transactions; using ATMs, EFT-POS, and smart cards to facilitate payments and access to digitized cash; and using the Internet and online services.