Riding Piggyback
20 Feb 1994
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have, elsewhere mentioned about taking-up “ Direct Mailing
“ activity as a business diversification
The more I think about it, the more it appears to have a
synergy with our existing business of Executive search
There are following similarities in both these businesses :
Ø
Building up databases of names / addresses from
any number of sources
Ø
Sending out MAILERS
Ø
Receiving “ response “ – then Categorizing ,
Coding, Computerizing
Ø
Offering databases for clients to “ search and
select “ , one or more persons who meet their needs
Executives belong to the “ affluent “ class and are
potential buyer of goods and services . With liberalization of economy, they
are going to be in greater demand and will get progressively better paid. This
class will get more & more affluent and will have increasing purchasing
power
Therefore,
This will be a “ sought after “ class by all manufacturers
of goods / provider of services
Service Sector itself will grow in a big way.
This
comprises,
Ø
Hotel / Housing
Ø
Tourism
Ø
Hospitals / Health
Ø
Financial Services ( incl. leasing / hire
purchase )
Ø
Banking / Mutual Funds
Ø
Courier
Ø
Cable Network ( for TV )
Ø
Telephone / Fax networks ( E Mail / Voice Mail )
Ø
Software
Ø
Transport
Ø
TV ( Star – Zee – MTV etc )
Ø
Education / Publishing Idustry
Ø
Insurance ……….etc
The list is huge
All the companies engaged in the Service Sector, want to
increase their client-base. Obviously, each of these businesses is trying to :
Ø
Build-up its own database of clients ( existing
/ potential )
Ø
Reach out to these clients to offer their
services
Both are “ continuous “ processes and market-driven
Continuously new clients have to be “ discovered “ and “ new
“ services must be offered
Hence “ mailing lists “ must grow all the time and mailers be sent out all the
time
Many types of client-profile must be compiled ( continuously
). Eg :
Ø
Geographical
Ø
Racial
Ø
Social
Ø
Educational
Ø
Age
/ Sex
Ø
Purchasing power
Ø
Travel habits / Purchase habits
Each manufacturer / servicer, is interested in one or more
profiles who could be his potential clients
We could start by offering to carry out mailing of
literature / pamphlets / publicity materials, for a few select companies
Of course, we should carefully decide “ which “ companies
would be interested in our database – and why . How does it stand to benefit ?
-------------------------------------
23 Feb 1994
Only yesterday there was an advt from a company which said,
it printed and dispatched , all within one week, 5.8 lakh Annual Reports !
Tata Press perhaps send out 30 lakh in a month !
L&T has 16 lakh share-holders and Reliance has over 28
lakhs
Obviously such “ mailing activity “ has to be organized as a
FACTORY with,
Ø
Storage ( of materials to be mailed )
Ø
Machinery to place / insert the material into
envelopes / packets, seal the envelope , attach pre-printed labels, frank
postage stamp, stack in bundles ( city-wise )
City-wise bundling would make it easier for Post Offices to
accept such bulk posting
If volumes / weighs – as in case of annual reports – are too
large, services of couriers / transport contractors must be hired
A local city-agent ( a newspaper distributor ? ) would
undertake door-to-door delivery in each city / town
If large quantity of one/two page newsletters are to be
dispatched , an automatic “ paper-folding machine “ ( magazine for holding
mailers ), would be required. I am sure such machines are available
The entire process should be computerized / conveyorised /
automatic to the maximum extent possible
so that minimum number of operators are required
============================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment