Target marketing and direct mail: a smart campaign combination.

There are three basic steps to a successful camp marketing campaign: Define what your camp has to offer. Determine who needs or wants your camp's product or service. Get the message to that audience that you have what they need or want.

For a camp director, identifying your camp's product or service means defining what you have to offer in terms of your current and prospective clients' needs or wants. For example, a summer camp experience is not only labeled recreation. It could be classified as education, special populations, day camp, skill development, socialization, and many others.

Using a strategy called market segmentation will help you to identify and classify your camp's product or service. It is a process of determining the wants and needs of the market for the purpose of allocating marketing resources. Once segments have been defined, target markets can be specified.

Segmenting Consumer Markets

The four most common bases of market segmentation are:

Geographic -- This is the simplest method of segmenting the consumer market, identifying market segments according to geography (such as region, city size, market density, and climate). Since market potential is often measured in terms of population, it is relevant for camp marketers to analyze markets by population concentration and growth rates.

Demographic -- This is perhaps the most widely used method, identifying market segments by a set of quantifiable characteristics (such as age, income, and family size).

Psychographic -- This method divides the market according to the psychological characteristics of buyers. Obviously, consumers' purchases are strongly influenced by their activities, lifestyles, interests, and opinions.

Behavioralistic -- This method cuts across geographic and demographic segments and life-style characteristics, identifying the product or service benefit expectations. It is a useful technique, particularly when the marketer has reason to believe that the benefit sought is more relevant to the decision to purchase than other factors.

Defining the Target Market

Many methods of segmentation are not useful to the camp marketer because the variables do not provide marketing guidance. The key is to target a segment that is both meaningful and reachable. (It does little good to identify a segment that is difficult to reach through promotional efforts.)

Figure 1 illustrates the concept of a single marketing mix concentrating on a specific segment or subset of an entire market. This segment is considered the target market.

Every facet of a marketing activity needs to be precisely tailored toward satisfying the target market. A camp's product, price, distribution, and promotional strategies (single marketing mix) should focus on a single goal: to encourage the target market to invest its resources in the camp's product or service. To do this, your marketing efforts must convince the target market that the camp's product or service can satisfy its needs better than any other alternative.

Direct marketing is the total of activities by which products and services are offered to market segments, in one or more media, for informational purposes or to solicit a direct response from a present or prospective customer or contributor by mail, telephone, or other access.

Direct mail, one of the oldest advertising media, consists of advertising mailed directly to the target market. The average household receives 2.5 direct mail pieces each day, and 65% of all third-class mail is opened and read by some member of the household.

Direct Mail gets your message to your audience.

There is a growing interest in direct mail because it provides the greatest efficiency in reaching a target market. While direct mail can be a very high cost-per-thousand medium, it has the least amount of waste exposure. Unlike the audiences of the mass media, the names on a carefully selected mailing list should all be interested in the marketer's offering. You should use direct mail for three other reasons:

Direct mail is measurable. One of the most appealing dimensions of direct mail is that the advertiser can calculate the return of the advertising investment. The purpose of direct mail is to stimulate a short-term response from the target audience; therefore, the marketer is able to determine the profitability of the effort.

Direct mail works. The response rate may not necessarily be high, but direct mail is a medium that motivates people to act.

Direct mail is a flexible medium. It can be used by a wide range of camps from special populations and day camps with small target markets to resident camps with large national markets.

Direct mail also allows you to create an advertising piece that is perfectly suited to the creative needs of the product or service. With direct mail, there simply are no limits on time or space. Each mailing package is designed to take the reader through the entire sales process, from introduction of the product (letter), to complete explanation of benefits (brochure), to providing a mechanism for further inquiry and/or ordering (order form, return envelope). Direct mail packages vary widely, with each of these elements modified to suit your need and to maximize response and profitability. Creativity within these pieces depends on the following factors:

* Needs of the target market

* Characteristics of the advertised piece

* Competitive offerings

* Financial resources and objectives of the advertiser

The right mailing list is crucial.

As diverse as mailing packages can be, the most significant difference between direct mail and other major forms of media is the delivery to individuals. Direct mail is used so widely because it is the only advertising medium that communicates directly with a specific person or, at least, with a specific household.

Direct mail is sent to a list of people who the advertiser believes will respond to an offer. Finding the right list is crucial because the list is an advertiser's market.

The best mailing lists are derived from a camp's own records. Such a list is known as an internal (house) list. It includes current and former camp families, prospective campers, people who have inquired about your facility, contacts from staff and alumni, referrals, and so forth. Internal lists are best because the names on them share some common characteristics, the most important of which is that they have purchased your product in the past or have expressed interest in purchasing from you.

An external list is obtained from sources outside your camp. There are two basic types of external lists. A direct response list contains names of individuals who have used the mail either to inquire about a product or to purchase it. The other major type of external list is the compiled list. This type of list does not necessarily indicate prior purchase by mail, but the names on the lists do share one or more common characteristics, such as "heads of household," "households with children," or "businesses." The value of compiled lists is that the common characteristics define a market for the advertiser (camp director). When one common characteristic is insufficient for meaningful segmentation, advertisers seek compiled lists with additional segmentation variables: for example, "heads of households with presence of children ages 5-12."

Most direct mail advertisers acquire mailing lists from a mailing list broker. Developing a mailing list and maintaining it (updating addresses, purchase records, and other behavioral information) require more human and financial resources than most camp directors want or even need to invest. Basically, mailing list brokers provide a market. They offer thousands of mailing lists that have been built through direct response and compilation. Brokers either rent or sell lists. List rentals depend on a number of factors, but they average $50 per thousand names for a one-time use. Repeated use within an agreed time frame will significantly lower the per thousand cost.

One example of such a list is a commercial consumer database. One company's list comprises more than 151 million consumers in almost 81 million households. You can demographically segment any portion of the list to reach the best prospects for your product. For example, you can target people by age, sex, household income, marital status, number of children, dwelling type, and a variety of other selections.

When to use direct mail

Despite the rising costs of third-class mailing rates and the overall high cost-per-thousand of direct-mail advertising, camp marketers have increased their usage of direct mail for the reasons of accountability, effectiveness, and flexibility.

The situations in which direct mail will work best for you are:

When you have a narrowly defined target market, especially when that target includes a specific geographic region or specific household demographics. Direct mail is the only medium that can provide both mass and individual coverage.

When you need to explain a product or service. Because direct mail is not constrained by space or time, it is an ideal medium for advertisers who need to explain their offerings.

When you are interested in short-term, direct response. Although direct mail advertising is sometimes used to say "welcome," its power as a marketing tool is most evident when it's used to complete the sale process.

To earn its way, direct mail is usually expected to get an immediate response, whether it be to seek more information or order a product or service. If you have carefully considered the needs and wants of your clients in the description of your product or service, and if you have selected your target market based on relevant data, then direct mail is one of the best ways to increase your camp's exposure and ultimately, to bring you more business.

Editor's note: For those of you who would like more information on marketing, consider the following ACA bookstore items:

Rossman, Marlene L. (1994). Multicultural Marketing: Selling to a Diverse America. New York: AMACOM. ($22.95) New in the ACA bookstore, this book: defines ethnic market segments and how you can best reach each segment; identifies cultural differences among various groups and how to incorporate them into your marketing programs; discusses how to tailor your product offerings and advertising messages to meet special needs and interests; and gives tips on how to avoid inadvertent or careless mistakes that may offend your clients.

Bade, Nicholas E. (1994). Marketing Without Money. Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Business Books. ($12.95) Also new in the ACA bookstore, this is a general business book for those working with small marketing budgets. Topics include: thrifty ways to reach prospects; free news publicity; retaining current customers; where, when and how to sell personally; sources of free marketing assistance; direct mail sales methods; effective and affordable sales literature; and use of personal computers.

Fisher, Mark P. (1993). Marketing Instincts: 12 Profit Making Principles. [Video] North East, MD: Paine Fisher Marketing Group. ($89.95) This 153-minute video covers 12 main topics including: deadly mistakes businesses make that sabotage their marketing efforts and how to avoid them; where to find the best consultant and get free advice; which ad, sales pitch or brochure brings in the most customers; and how to remove the number one fear from your prospects' minds so they will buy quicker and with greater regularity.

Private/Independent Camps Council of the American Camping Association. (1991). Marketing and Communication Strategies: An Action Plan for Camps. Martinsville, IN: American Camping Association, Inc. ($250.00) Specifically, pages 96-102 highlight research on market segmentation. This analysis might be helpful for camps trying to upgrade from a general marketing effort to a strategic recruitment plan.

All of the above items can be ordered through the ACA bookstore: 800-428-CAMP.

Mark J. Brostoff is president of Mark One Distributors in Bloomington, Indiana. He is also an adjunct faculty member in the Business Administration Program at Ivy Tech State College in Bloomington.

Demographic           Geographic
Variables             Variables
Age                   Region
Sex                   Urban, suburban,
Race                  rural
Ethnicity             City size
Income                County size
Education             State size
Occupation            Market density
Family size           Climate
Family life cycle     Terrain

Religion

Social class          Behavioralistic
                      Variables
Psychographic         Volume
Variables             End use
Personality           Benefit
attributes            expectations
Motives               Brand loyalty
Lifestyles            Price sensitivity

A Target Market must have the following characteristics:

* An identifiable common need

* An interest in the product/service * Sufficient buying power

* Sufficient numbers of people

* An identifiable basis for segmentation

* Sufficient exposure to advertising

Mailing List Terminology

Worthwhile postal savings may be realized by using a competent mailing house or service (also known as "lettershops"). When you prepare to work with a qualified list broker, it is important to have an understanding of some basic mailing list terms.

Cheshire -- four names printed across on continuous feed paper which require a professional mailing house to properly cut and apply the label to the mailing piece.

Pressure sensitive -- Self-stick labels for "peel and stick" application. Common form of output for camps applying labels themselves.

Magnetic Tape -- Media for computer application.

Computer Disc -- A camp can use this to generate name and address labels from ITS OWN personal computer.

Carrier Route Sort -- Postal Service code applied to the top of each label for faster delivery by letter carrier. Bulk mailings which are carrier route coded receive a postal rate discount. Your local post office can supply you with Postal Regulations on Bulk Mail and Carrier Route Coding.

C.A.S.S. Certified -- A list supplied by a mailing list supplier with post office approved plus-four zip coding to enable the sender to benefit from a lower postage rate.