*Week 2 *

Ah, the beauty of database marketing?those sophisticated little computer models/spreadsheets fraught with consumer data that enable us aspiring IMC graduates-to-be to manipulate it just the way we want and effectively target the consumer segments we?re after. It?s a wonder to even think where we might be without this ability. It?s just another example of the importance of computers in our day-to-day, even minute-to-minute lives. I mean really, could we reach such targeted audiences in mass appeal without them? I think not.

This brings me to the second week of Direct Marketing where the class was charged with the challenge of elaborating on how we might go about building a database of friends and supporters at our undergraduate alma mater; what might be available to us in terms of databases; and finally, what we would need to do to make our ?new? list as efficient and effectively as possible. It was a truly interesting week to see the ideas and insight from students come together, especially on account of the fact that I personally have never taken a DM course before. I?m noticing the DM concept is actually starting to come to me quite naturally, which I must say is a little nerve-racking to say the least for this hard-working PR specialist. Just the measurement element of DM alone is enough to tempt me to switch, as we PR folks many times struggle with the burden of accurately measuring our efforts.

The class collectively illustrated the importance of outlining objectives, strategies and tactics before engaging in any successful DM effort. Makes sense. You?re not going to launch a program just for the sake of launching a program?at least I hope not anyway. The lists that students compiled in terms of which ones would truly be useful were abundant?such as obtaining lists from admissions, school media subscriptions, alumni associations, institution-run clubs, sports team ticket holders, bookstore transactions, sorority/fraternity memberships and social media outlets, to name but a few. Finally, to bring the effort full circle, students recommended thoroughly scrubbing the data to rid of any unnecessary duplicates, and so on.

I must say, these are smart people we share class with?professionals representing various positions in the communications field across many different disciplines, which is why the perspective that is brought to the class is always an unpredictable, yet interesting one. I?d venture to say that the social media aspect of all of this certainly added a bit of contemporary flair to the assignment considering the degree to which this ?movement? is heading. I particularly think that using social networking web sites for this exercise, like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and Xanga, for example, could especially be helpful to the DM in terms of capturing e-mail addresses, specifically, from web sites that are seeing more action than ESPN.

So, dare I ask?did we miss anything?

Do share your suggestions!

-J