It might sometimes seem that brand building and direct response marketing are mutually exclusive, even diametrically opposed forms of marketing.

And there is an element of truth in that, when you consider modern day brand building as practiced by mainstream advertisers and marketers.  Much of what passes for brand building today seems to me to focus far too much on “form” rather than substance and seeks to create an image without too much regard to reality.

It wasn’t always that way of course.  In a previous era, different marketing approaches were used in a more complementary way to best achieve the business objectives.

And many substantial brands have been built largely through direct response marketing without any image advertising.

I was reminded of this recently by the great Drayton Bird who cites the examples of Readers Digest, MBNA and Churchill Insurance.  Other examples would include George Foreman Grill and the Juiceman Juicer (see the excellent book Buy Now!: Creative Marketing That Gets Customers to Respond to You and Your Product
by Rick Cesari for more details on those great direct marketing successes).

Drayton also drew my attention to the following article that he regards as one of the best pieces on this subject.  It was written some years ago by his friend and colleague Bill Dyer and it has stood the test of time.

I’ll have some further thoughts about brand building with direct response later…but first here is Bill’s article… [Read more…]