What My Dog, Daisy, Taught Me About Direct Marketing

The art of raising a dog and creating a direct marketing campaign sound worlds apart. But they have more in common than you might imagine.

Dogust, 1998. Everything reminds me of my dog. The New York Yankees remind me of my dog. Picnics remind me of my dog. The Metropolitan Museum of Art reminds me of my dog. The Central Park Zoo reminds me of my dog. A bone-dry, terrier-like Chenin Blanc served of a hot, summer evening reminds me of my dog. Friends remind me of my dog. Strangers remind me of my dog. Smiling faces remind me of my dog. Dogs remind me of my dog. And direct marketing reminds me of my dog.

I’ve learned a few things from my dog, Daisy, a Border Terrier, who is everything I want in a dog—friendly, smart, healthy, and very cute. First of all, I can lead her to water but I can’t make her drink. Second, by watching her, I learned the joy of wanting and waiting for something--by watching her wanting and waiting for me to throw her the tennis ball, or the excitement and happiness she displays day in and day out when she sees a neighbor, or stranger, suddenly appear in the driveway. Third, I learned the value of consistency, praise, patience, and positive reinforcement; in other words, I learned the importance of keeping focused on the basics every day. Finally, I learned, as I once read on a bumper-sticker, to err is human and to forgive is canine.

These lessons have served me extremely well. The simple lessons of raising and loving a dog have guided me. The simple lessons Daisy taught me and continues to teach me. Perhaps the most crucial lesson is that just as with loving a dog, building and nurturing that special relationship, when you’re loving your customer, doing whatever it takes to make your customer happy, acting for the benefit and satisfaction of that customer, you develop a sense of purpose that propels you forward. As Julian Niccolini, co-owner of The Four Seasons, says in the current issue of Bon Appetit magazine, "We love the men and women who eat here, and we will do whatever it takes to make them happy."

The focus of successful relationships--Business or Border Terrier—keeping people, or dogs, happy, is keeping the emphasis on serving rather than results, on involvement and personal touch, affection and care. Woof! Woof! Nothing wrong with response rates, MIS reports, and industry analysis, but once the focus goes too far in that direction, it is far to easy to lose sight of the value marketing ball, which is a matter of acting for the benefit and satisfaction of others. Value comes from making a continuing contribution to a customer’s success or happiness.

Dog biscuits will get Daisy to come and sit, but it’s love that keeps her coming back. Likewise, price and premiums may attract customers, but it’s knowledge and information, communication and constant giving if you will, that sustains relationships. Price and premiums may get them in the door, but it does not keep them coming back. Doing it right may please customers, but helping them achieve their goals keeps them. Simply being an outstanding direct mailer, or dog owner, is only the beginning.

Daisy come. Come Daisy come. Good girl Daisy. Daisy sit. Daisy down. Daisy Let’s go. Daisy Heel. Daisy Wait. Daisy good girl. Good Girl Daisy. Good Girl.

Eccelesiastes reminds us there is a time to sow and a time to reap. People who are obsessed with either change or stability are bound to eventually harm their organizations. As direct mailers, as visionaries, people have to be able to sense when to exploit an established crop of strategies and when to encourage new ones to replace the old.

However, while strategy is a word that is usually associated with the future, its link to the past is no less central. As Kierkegaard once observed, life is lived forward but understood backward. People have to live strategy in the future, but we must understand it through the past.

Daisy doesn’t like walking out our driveway at night and turning left into darkness and a short walk. She prefers to turn right toward the streetlight, toward a long walk around the entire neighborhood, toward the house where her friend, Molly, the golden retriever lives, and no matter how hard I try to get her to turn left she simply stops, puts her head down, and doesn’t budge, not until I give her what she wants and needs and say OK let’s walk toward the mailbox.

There are, of course, many direct mailers, as there are restaurant owners, who focus on the basics, on what they do best and do it well. Martha Stewart Living and Conde Nast are two good examples. So is The Christian Science Monitor.

Brian Sullivan, Senior New Business Manager at Conde Nast, focuses on the basics of value marketing. Currently, his two best direct mail campaigns are the Allure "Book-a-Log" and the Self "Poly Cover Wrap." The Book-a-Log stands out in the mailbox (certainly an immutable rule of direct mail), has value because it gives beauty tips (another basic rule), and it clearly defines the magazine (and another). The Self Poly Cover Wrap also stands out in the mailbox, is very visual, and has a premium tie-in. They both also talk benefits to the customer.

Rich Fontaine, Vice President, Catalog and Consumer Acquisition Marketing, Martha Stewart Living, also focuses on the basics of value marketing. He has, in fact, a list of ten basic ideas that help him better communicate with his audience. The list includes such reminders as a picture is worth a thousand words (in fact, Rich puts a sticker on a picture which he knows the customer wants to see better, thus creating customer involvement), the value of an over-sized order card to simplify ordering, an emotionally charged letter to help build brand value. Rich focuses on the basics but also uses them in fresh, creative, appealing ways.

Brook Holmberg, Circulation Manager, The Christian Science Monitor, has been busy re-shaping all of the newspaper’s direct mail efforts to better reflect the Mission of the Church. He is, in a very real sense, not mailing; he is clearly communicating the value of the Mission as opposed to the paper’s Pulitzer Prizes. Guess what? It works.

When I worked at Hearst Magazines, I once overheard a top circulation executive say to a copywriter, "that’s a beautiful direct mail package, but does it communicate that we love them?" So why do we call what we do direct marketing? Database marketing? Sales promotion? For what we call what we do impacts how we do it. How about saying I am in the business of opening and nurturing relationships. Personally, I like to keep in mind Julian Niccolini’s marketing strategy at The Four Seasons; we love our customers and we will do whatever it takes to make them happy. I also like to think of Daisy and the lessons she has taught me. Daisy, Daisy. She knows how to tell me what she needs. And she loves me to pieces when I give her what she wants.