MKB@CMU-CS-C.ARPA (02/08/84)
From: Mike Blackwell <MKB@CMU-CS-C.ARPA> While I was talking to a fellow in Byte's advertising department, I learned of a new scheme they have to replace the reader service cards. What they'll have is a toll free number you can call. When the operator answers, you give them your customer number (off the label, I guess), or your name and address, and the reader service numbers from the ads you want more info on. Then the companys are sent your name and address. This will eliminate the long lead time associated with the current system. They hope to have this up and running some time in the spring. -m-
Holbrook.ES@PARC-MAXC.ARPA (02/08/84)
I once worked for a company that specifically requested that Byte run it's ads WITHOUT the little reader service number. Seems that when they had the number in the ad, they would get hundreds of addresses of people. They would spend the time stuffing the envelopes and spend the postage to mail out the info, and would only get a few queries in response to their info. Their theory was that many people would send in the card every month, circling any numbers for any ads that looked even halfway interesting. Of course, they really had no intention of buying - they just wanted the literature. They had the same problem at trade shows - if they put the brochures right out front, they would run out very quickly because many people pick up all the literature they could get. Of course, if you came up and asked some questions, they would be happy to give you a brochure. Of course, one way to interpret the lack of response is that their product wasn't interesting after all .... Paul Holbrook
ABN.ISCAMS%usc-isid@sri-unix.UUCP (02/08/84)
I confess -- I am one of those culprits who circle the little number on the card if I'm halfway interested. But (and maybe this makes the difference for those vendors who DO continue to support reader service cards) -- I AM halfway interested, and in several cases (admittedly out of dozens), the follow-up literature DID give me the additional information necessary to make a "well informed selection" and purchase. I suppose I've bugged poor old Sage and Compupro half to death with periodic requests for more brochures -- but they keep coming out with new or upgraded products, and I NEED to know what they're up to. I'm a link in the specification/procurement part of micros here where I work, and have considerable influence/impact on specs and acceptances -- and I MUST know where the state of the art (and marketplace) is. I cannot specify by brand name, and insist on "competitive procurement", but to KNOW what vendors CAN offer.... that's important, and I feel all the companies I send off to for literature have a fair chance of getting their money back. Regards, David Kirschbaum
WMartin@SIMTEL20.ARPA (02/08/84)
From: William G. Martin <WMartin@SIMTEL20.ARPA> Aha! One of my "pet peeve" buttons has been pushed! ALL advertisers in a magazine with a Reader-Service card provded should be COMPELLED to use the Reader-Service numbers. This must be a condition of the acceptance of the advertising by the magazine. Far too many advertisers have been allowed to drop the use of R-S numbers, which dilutes the value of the Reader-Service program as a whole. (I speak here mainly from experience in the audio/high-fidelity magazine area.) One of the prime purposes of the very existence of most technical magazines is to serve as a conduit of information between manufacturers/dealers who are the advertisers and the consumers who are the readers. Most of the non-ad contents in such magazines are discussions about advertised products (reviews, product surveys, etc.) or interpretations of technical literature for the consumer (articles like "What do amplifier specs mean?", etc.). The whole Reader-Service process is a vital part of this, getting a direct conduit between vendors and reader/consumers. The basic purpose of this is to transfer the costs from the readers to the vendors. Without Reader-Service, the only way for the consumer/reader to contact the advertiser is to pay postage or telephone charges, invest time in composing cards or letters or making calls, and generally expend much effort. Having Reader-Service consolidates the communication path into a single card sent by the reader to the contractor who handles Reader-Service [I believe the entire population of Clinton, Iowa is in this business] and puts the cost where it belongs, in the vendors' advertising budget. The vendor can deduct the costs involved, but the consumer cannot; therefore, Business Reply Mail R-S cards should also be mandatory. (I note that Byte's cards are not; this is a major failing on their part.) The statement that "many people would send in the card every month, circling any numbers for any ads that looked even halfway interesting" is correct, but that is what SHOULD happen! The whole idea of the process is to snag the attention of POSSIBLE prospects, and then send them more information than the ad itself could possibly contain, in the hope of enticing them to buy. It is perfectly normal that the percentage response is low -- it will always be so, unless the vendor is selling something in high demand at an unusually low price. (Even then, many readers will suspect that it couldn't be legitimate, and will not respond due to wariness.) If a new, small firm cannot afford the costs of handling large Reader-Service responses, they should not be advertising at all, or they should be placing classified ads. That is the main difference between regular display ads and the classifieds (or those little display ads in the classified sections); the former all should have Reader-Service, and the latter are cheaper and do not have R-S. Some vendors may not like this; they are merely unrealistic. To sell your stuff, you have to expect to pay for getting your firm and products known -- distributing large amounts of literature, whether by mail or at trade shows, without seeing direct or immediate responses, is one of the expenses. That's just the way it is. Flame dying down... Will Martin -------
ABN.COSCOM-CE%usc-isid@sri-unix.UUCP (02/10/84)
Date: 7 Feb 1984 17:59-PST
From: ABN.ISCAMS@usc-isid
To: Holbrook.ES@parc-maxc
Cc: MKB@cmu-cs-c, Info-Micro@brl-vgr
Subject: Re: Byte reader service cards
In-Reply-To: The message of 7 Feb 84 15:25:06 PST (Tuesday) from Holbrook.ES@PARC-MAXC.ARPA
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Received: FROM BRL-TGR BY USC-ISID.ARPA WITH TCP ; 9 Feb 84 03:03:19 PST
From Usc-Isid.ARPA by BRL-VGR via smtp; 7 Feb 84 21:38 EST
I confess -- I am one of those culprits who circle the little number on
the card if I'm halfway interested. But (and maybe this makes the difference
for those vendors who DO continue to support reader service cards) -- I AM
halfway interested, and in several cases (admittedly out of dozens), the
follow-up literature DID give me the additional information necessary to
make a "well informed selection" and purchase.
I suppose I've bugged poor old Sage and Compupro half to death with
periodic requests for more brochures -- but they keep coming out with new
or upgraded products, and I NEED to know what they're up to.
I'm a link in the specification/procurement part of micros here where I work,
and have considerable influence/impact on specs and acceptances -- and I
MUST know where the state of the art (and marketplace) is. I cannot
specify by brand name, and insist on "competitive procurement", but to KNOW
what vendors CAN offer.... that's important, and I feel all the companies
I send off to for literature have a fair chance of getting their money back.
Regards,
David Kirschbaum
--------------------
That's a ditto for me. I often make the same sort of decisions or render
advice on hardware. I feel the info I receive is well spent costs by the
company.
Kevin Rappoldandrew@orca.UUCP (02/19/84)
Will Martin flames:
"ALL advertisers in a magazine with a Reader-Service card
provded should be COMPELLED to use the Reader-Service numbers."
You might as well say that private fashion salons should be compelled
to hold showings for anyone that walks in off the street, just in case
one of them should develop an interest in buying designer clothing.
Despite bombast to the contrary, there are a good many advertisers who
don't want to deal with readers who are not sufficiently interested to
fill out a postcard. One of the winning points of our system of free
enterprise is that a vendor can target a specific consumer audience.
Some vendors like to flood consumers with advertising in hopes that one
in a thousand will buy the product. Others feel that their products
are such that interested consumers will find them without such a flood.
The primary reason that magazines such as BYTE institute reader service
cards (known in the trade as "Bingo" cards) is so that they can count
the number of "responses" and use those statistics to sell more ads.
A case history might be useful here. I ran a software mail order house
for three years. We started out requesting and servicing bingo
numbers, and we kept statistics on them and on readers who used
postcards or telephone calls to request information. It cost us a
dollar to respond to each Bingo, and our product cost about $200.
After three months we noticed that 0.3% of the Bingos had placed
orders. That is, we spent $300 for each $200 sale. By contrast, about
a quarter of the postcard mailers followed up with orders.
Needless to say, we stopped requesting Bingos. To put it in terms that
consumerists can understand, if we were forced to continue losing $100
on each Bingo-inspired sale, we would have gone out of business very
quickly and the choice of products available to consumers would have
decreased.
In the long run, though, we did go out of business. When a half-page
ad in Microsystems cost $200, we could make money. When it shot up to
$900, we lost, and shut down.
-- Andrew Klossner (decvax!tektronix!orca!andrew) [UUCP]
(orca!andrew.tektronix@rand-relay) [ARPA]