HOW THE NET CHANGES EVERYTHING.(Internet and direct marketing)(Industry Overview)(Statistical Data Included)

Target Marketing, January, 2000 by MUMMERT, HALLIE

How the Web has impacted traditional direct marketing

FOR THE PAST FEW YEARS, the industry has been buzzing about the possibility of the Internet replacing direct mail and other forms of print direct marketing.

But as direct marketers now head into the 21st century, the primary channels of direct marketing remain intact. Lands' End and L.L. Bean still mailed catalogs this past holiday season. Direct response space ads from The Franklin Mint and Lenox ran in magazines and the Sunday FSIs. Long distance phone services and daily newspapers continued to telephone prospects to drum up new business.

It's just not business as usual.

The impact of the Internet as a sales channel has direct marketers shuffling their budgets, staffs,...