jbn@glacier.stanford.edu (John B. Nagle) (03/29/89)
"Forbes" for April 3 contains an article, "Relationship marketing",
which indicates what caller ID services are really for. A combination of
home-shopping TV shows, automatic caller ID, telco-provided billing, and
relational databases promises to be the biggest thing in marketing since
computer-targeted direct mail.
Some of the people and organizations involved:
Merv Griffin (interactive game show in the works)
MGM/UA ("Hotline": "I'm Jim Peck, and this is HOTLINE. To play
our game, just pick up your phone and call the 900 number
flashing on the TV ncreen. Answer today's questions and
you could become an instant winner... Vanna, tell the folks
about our terrific prizes...")
Capital Cities/ABC (900 numbers used to improve ratings)
General Foods
RJR/Nabisco ("New, detailed databases that will track buying habits")
Ronald Katz (inventor of mag-stripe credit cards, online credit
verification, and and head of First Data Resources
Interactive Technologies. "By the end of this year,
[our] system will be able to take up to 300,000 calls an
hour". Enough for something plugged on the Cosby Show.)
United Airlines (Mileage Plus customer service)
Telecredit, Inc. (bought Katz's first company)
American Express (owns part of Katz's new company)
Telesphere (an AOS?)
AT&T, MCI, Sprint (the usual suspects)
John Nagle