Direct marketing and mass marketing are becoming a very popular method for communicating with consumers. Giving reasons for their worldwide popularity, show the differences between direct and mass marketing

What will be an ideal response?

Direct marketing is defined as any communication with a consumer or business recipient that is designed to generate a response in the form of an order, a request for further information, and/or a visit to a store or other place of business. Mass marketing communications are typically aimed at broad segments of consumers with certain demographic, psychographic, or behavioral characteristics in common. More sophisticated techniques and tools are being used for direct marketing as well as for mass marketing. Also, one-to-one marketing is developed on the basis of CRM by treating different customers differently based on their previous purchase history or past interactions with the company. Worldwide, the popularity of direct marketing has been steadily increasing in recent years partly due to the availability of credit cards as a convenient payment mechanism for direct response purchase. Another reason is societal, since dual-income families have more money to spend but less time to shop outside the home. Technological advancements have also made it easier for companies to reach customers directly. Cable and satellite television allow advertisers to reach specific audiences on a global basis. The European Commission expects investment in direct marketing to surpass expenditures for traditional advertising in the near future. The primary differences between direct marketing and mass marketing include marketers add value in direct marketing by arranging for delivery of products to the customer's door and control the product all the way through to delivery. Another difference is that in direct marketing, direct response is used to generate an immediate enquiry or order. Also, in direct marketing, the customer perceives higher risk because the product is bought unseen and recourse may be viewed as distant or inconvenient.