Information and Intelligence in Direct Marketing: Public Policy Issues and Initiatives

Introduction

Companies require collecting information about customers and generating marketing intelligence to understand their customers and to serve them better (Mandal, 2022). Companies also develop customer relationships to conduct business (Kasemsap, 2019). It is difficult for a company to grow unless it maintains proper relationships with its customers. The relationships require to be mutually rewarding (Allan, McCarthy-Cheung, & Usmanova, 2021). The relationships depend on whether companies are able to delight their customers for a consistently long period of time (Martin & Murphy, 2017). At the same time, companies should be aware of the competition and may need to adopt aggressive steps to perform and to sustain in the competition. This becomes even more important in the case of direct marketing (Yanti & Dewi, 2021).

Direct marketing helps companies to collect information directly from customers (Yan & Pengfei, 2021). For this purpose, in direct marketing, companies or people employed by companies remain in direct touch with customers. They maintain direct relationships to serve them better (Vafainia, Breugelmans, & Bijmolt, 2019). Companies collect information and generate intelligence about customers through different direct marketing channels. Sometimes, direct marketers may adopt aggressive approaches which may not be liked by customers or which may even bother or harm customers (LeSueur, 2007). Consequently, customers become suspicious about direct marketers and the policies adopted by them (Appuzo & Perlroth, 2014). This in turn may create a bad reputation for the company and for the industry as a whole (Asllani & Halstead, 2015).

Customers may get irritated because of the aggressive nature and actions of direct marketers. Repetition of such actions may frustrate customers (Moraes & Michaelidou, 2017). The actions of direct marketers may in extreme cases result in instances of unfair practices or even outright deception and fraud (Skiba, Petty, & Carlson, 2019). Critics accuse the industry of intruding into privacy of customers, breaching the codes of conduct to be maintained while dealing with customers, and threatening the security of customers (Hamidi & Moradi, 2017). The issue of security of customers is particularly important in the case of online marketing where critics accuse online marketers of breaching customer privacy and security (Ikonen, Luoma-aho, & Bowen, 2017).

The discussions indicate that the above-mentioned issues are important. However, few studies have attempted to conduct a conceptual analysis of the various issues related to collection of marketing information and marketing intelligence in direct marketing. Various public policy issues are involved in the process. Initiatives adopted by companies for the various public policy issues are also not studied. The study aims to address this research gap. The study discusses about the various issues in collection of marketing information and marketing intelligence in direct marketing. It also focuses on the various public policy issues involved and the initiatives taken by companies.

Methodology

The study conducts a conceptual review and an analysis of the literature on marketing information and intelligence in direct marketing and various public policy issues and initiatives related to it. Recent research papers on the topic published in reputed journals are studied and reviewed. Conceptual analysis is expected to provide better insights into the various issues related to collection of marketing information and marketing intelligence in direct marketing.