Profit-Driven Direct Marketing Strategies Take On Cannibalization

As direct marketing professionals, we’re all too familiar with the pitfalls of cannibalization. It’s a thorn in our side, eating into potential profits. Tackling the challenge of identifying and minimizing cannibalization in direct marketing feels way beyond reach. 

Some catalog leaders have found a new way to drive incremental profit and minimize direct mail cannibalization. This has transformed their direct mail contact strategies and their businesses.
ResponseGURU by IMS is a proven direct marketing response model. It helps direct marketers to manage cannibalization and drive profit. Catalog clients who’ve tapped into ResponseGURU are seeing unprecedented results in a competitive market. They reclaim direct marketing waste to fund new customer acquisition that drives growth.

Streamline Direct Marketing Strategies to Boost Profits

Many catalog businesses make cannibalization worse with these common mistakes:

• Ignore the issue, focusing on “more important” areas of the business.
• Assume it’s beyond your control, thus avoiding efforts to change.
• Fear the complexities of navigating a new direct marketing business model.
• Believe that vertical campaign-based circulation planning is sufficient to drive results
• Doubt the potential for significant incremental revenue and profit.

Direct Marketing Response Model Overcomes Vertical Campaign Problems

Vertical campaign-by-campaign planning is familiar and achievable. All you need to do is make sure each marketing campaign is profitable.

However, this method exacerbates the problem of direct mail waste. The most loyal customers in your target audience will get too many mailings. Other high-potential target audiences will get too few mailings. 

The direct marketing innovation behind ResponseGURU is that it works based on contact, not campaign. The best direct mail contact strategies work based on contact-by-contact circulation planning, not vertical campaign planning. This is proven to be a much more strategic and effective approach.

Optimizing your direct mail strategies based on contact versus campaign ensures that every touch is well-timed and productive. Catalog clients who use ResponseGURU’s contact-based response model reduce waste. They increase incremental profit and free up precious resources for prospecting. Reaching new potential customers is critical for catalog business growth.

Harnessing Incremental Revenue in Direct Marketing

Understanding incremental revenue can be murky, but it is crucial. What looks like growth can actually be just shifting sales from one product (or campaign) to another without overall gain. 

In contrast, incremental revenue represents genuine growth—new sales that add to, not replace, existing ones.

ResponseGURU helps clearly identify and maximize incremental profit and revenue opportunities.

Real-World Direct Marketing Innovation Success

Our experience over the years serving multi-title mailers in the catalog industry has shown remarkable results:

• A controlled test with ResponseGURU led to a 30% reduction in circulation volume while increasing customer contribution by 42%.
• Optimizing contact frequency with our tools saw a 36.4% increase in customer contribution.

Ensuring Long-Term Success with Innovative Direct Marketing Strategies

By embracing comprehensive and innovative strategies, leading businesses are winning the war on cannibalization to the greatest extent possible. ResponseGURU helps minimize cannibalization, and drives incremental profit and real, sustainable growth.

See how ResponseGURU can transform your direct marketing strategies and your catalog business.