Q&As

Vendors, take note: Marketers will spend an average of nearly $250,000 for database upgrades this year. And they are confident these expenditures will pay out.

DIRECT TALKED recently with consultant Kurt Medina, who specializes in the 50-plus market. He shared his thoughts about targeting boomers and seniors.

Picture this: A young couple sits at a table in an upscale eatery. The two chat quietly over a glass of imported beer. A well-dressed attendant approaches

TALK ABOUT DRILLING DOWN: Great-West Life Assurance Co. increased its coverage of dentists by 7% by offering enhanced benefits and changing its list segmentation.

Jim Smits has been touring restaurant kitchens and developing recipes, but he has no aspirations to be a chef. Smits is a 20-year veteran of the grocery

WHAT DOES A LOCAL PLUMBING concern do when business starts to slow down and the Yellow Pages doesn’t bring in work the way it used to? This was the problem

Mass marketing may be growing in some quarters, but not among executives surveyed by Epsilon. A poll of 175 U.S. marketers showed that most are cutting

We suppose we should be doing victory laps. The Direct Marketing Association is pulling the plug on InMarketing, its excuse for a monthly magazine. Here’s

Subway is extending its reach to tweens by way of a summer tie-in with Vans. The QSR is building out its kids marketing under new management that took

I admit, I have to search widely for interactive ads that cry out for a makeover. Still, there always seems to be a plentiful supply of examples of advertising folly. And while the percentage of such ads may be small, the dollar waste is huge.

The latest example is one that I found in a recent issue of The Wall Street Journal, an ad for the worldwide chain of Mandarin Oriental Hotels. It’s presumably one of a series.