earticle

영어

Direct marketing activity has grown rapidly during the last decade. This growth has been spurred by firms’ ability to directly measure the customer response to their marketing contacts and thus target the most likely responding and high-spending customers. However, the typical response rate to direct mailings is still low, and many recipients consider unsolicited mails, such as catalogs, ‘junk mails.’ This study proposes a model that would enable the direct marketing firm to understand the customer’s response behavior, evaluate its current mailing policy, and modify its current policy concerning who and when to mail. The response likelihood and response timing models in the study enable the firm to understand the customer’s response behavior. Inclusion of the firm’s customer selection decision in the model enables the firm to evaluate the current mailing policy. By analyzing the firm’s current mailing policy along with the customer’s response behavior, the firm is able to modify and increase effectiveness of its mailing policy. An application of the model to a database of a non-profit organization(charity) provides an interesting story and managerial insights about the firm’s mailing policy for different types of mailings in light of the customer’s likelihood of response and response timing. This study shows that the average donation amount and the number of mail received since last purchase have significant impacts on firm’s customer selection and customer’s response pattern.