Live From Chicago: Direct From Wunderman

DM master Lester Wunderman stopped just short yesterday of saying what his new business will be.

In a wide-ranging talk that could hardly have reassured traditional DMers, Wunderman noted that selling groceries and other staple products has not yet been a success on the Web.

“We never could sell them by mail for a host of reasons,” he said to a packed house during the opening session of Chicago Direct Marketing Days. “But it will be done by someone with imagination, patience and a better idea. I hope that it is me but that’s another story.”

(Wunderman recently said in an interview that he has invested in a new business that could “change the way America ships.”)

Building on that theme, Wunderman argued that our outmoded distribution systems need to be redefined.

“The mega-store was designed as a well-engineered trap and a competitive battleground of brands,” he said. “How much time do we waste there buying what is essentially the dumb stuff we need over and over again?

“Companies such as Peapod, Streamline and other new shopping services still on the drawing board are trying to employ intelligent systems to do our mindless shopping for us,” he continued.

The Web has great potential, especially for products with “channel mobility,” like books, Wunderman said. But the sheer volume of data available online tends to erode brand advertising, and the “emotional and memorable symbols” that go with it.

Consumers are “getting all the facts,” he said. “Why make a purchase decision for less?”

But marketers have to be able to think on their feet, he warned. “Just making banal ideas, out-moded institutions and redundant business systems better is not enough,” he said. “Neither is giving the past a facelift and calling it the future.”