Q&As

What’s in a name? Intrigue, if you ask the folks at Stormship. The Medford, MA-based agency which has a number of clients in the high-tech and education

Man, the bureaucratledygook coming out of the Direct Marketing Association was sure thick this summer.

Cross-selling has become an important focus for many companies since it’s been shown to generate incremental profit and improve long-term customer retention. Marketers also recognize the CRM perspective that, after offering the best products, successful cross-selling depends largely on an offer’s relevance. But too often database marketers struggle to reach this difficult goal.

Here are some suggestions that might make things easier.

Perhaps you have children leaving for college for the first time this month. Have you given a lot of thought to the sheets they’ll be sleeping on? Peggy Allen and Ronda Pierson have.

Does anyone remember a cantankerous man named Arnold Fishman? He slammed the Direct Marketing Association years ago for compiling and publicizing pumped-up

Not since Ponzi have so many “rewards” programs blossomed in our midst.

The catalyst, of course, is the World Wide Web, whose fertilizer-enhanced tentacles ensnare the unwary and enrage the wary.

Who do you trust?

That is, whose word do you take on the state of the list business?

List managers and brokers say that rental volume and commissions are up.

But mailers don’t necessarily agree. We contacted both groups for our 2007 list use survey and got slightly different results from each.

NEW LISTS J.H. Breakell and Co. The 8,854 named here bought jewelry and fashion accessories during the last 12 months. A typical customer is a 48-year-old

Is investment in online marketing growing the way it once did? Probably not, judging from Direct’s 2007 online marketing survey.

Fewer DMers are planning large spending increases this time around, and more seem to be embracing a wait-and-see attitude.

On the wall of his office in Washington, Steve Berry keeps a pair of maps depicting a growing trend. The map, labeled shows only four red states; the