Business Travel Expenses Take Off in 2008

Hoteliers and Tracking Tools Benefit From Historic Highs.

According to an October 2007 American Express Global Business Travel Forecast, air travel, accommodations, transportation and meeting facilities will see a sharp increase in demand for 2008.

Expect Travel Rate Increases
Business travel demands will continue to drive an increase in rates, including double-digit hotel increases in certain markets in the US, Europe and Asia.

This poses a challenge for business and travel managers. According to Vice President and Global Leader for American Express Business Travel Advisory Services, Mike Streit, the average domestic inclusive business trip (airfare, care rental hotel) will increase six percent, bringing the average price to $1,100 domestic and $3,171 internationally.

According to the American Express report, domestic economy travel rates are expected to increase five percent domestically and ten percent internationally. Hotel rates are expected to increase up to seven percent for mid-range hotels and up to eight percent for upper-range hotels in the US.

And That's Not All Folks
Due to the high demand and low supply, business travelers can expect changes in hotel terms as well as price. This may include a minimum or maximum stay requirements.

New Opportunities for Businesses
Due to the historic highs, stricter requirements, and challenges with keeping within a budget, travel and entertainment managers are expected to find ways to save money on meetings and events. This creates new opportunities for businesses that provide affordable travel and entertainment services, or who can offer cost saving conference or event services. Companies are also expected to increase their use of preferred suppliers to maximize benefits and savings.

The report also predicted a fifteen to twenty percent increase in the sale of compliance tracking tools, to help businesses save money.

To learn how to target this niche market and increase sales, contact Variable Thinking, or attend a free 45-minute webinar held every Wednesday from 2:00 to 2:45 pm CDT
To register visit: http://www.variablethinking.com/webinar.aspx

Read the entire American Express business travel report here: http://home3.americanexpress.com/corp/pc/2007/pdf/GBTF.pdf

Advantages of Personalized Direct Mail

Marketing gives a company visibility within a target market; it is how it attracts new customers and maximizes the lifetime value of existing ones. The ability to market a product or service is vital to a company's ongoing success-this is not a revelation. The struggle amongst marketing executives is never whether or not to advertise, but which marketing medium to make use of. With all the options that exist for marketing, consumers prefer personalized direct mail over other marketing options.

There are several advantages to using direct mail as your medium of choice to market your business. Direct mail is a cost effective way to target a specific market segment, while personalized direct mail adds to that medium an attention grabbing call to action.

Direct Mail and Segmenting a Market. [Read the entire article.]

Reach Customers on a Personal Level

Increase Direct Mail Response Rates Part Two

Personalizing direct mail pieces and offers are vital to achieving any increase in direct marketing response rates. Personalization gets your targeted market's attention and immediately answers the question “What’s in it for me?” by giving customers unique offers based on their wants and needs. With fully-customized direct mail, you can make a different offer to each person on your mailing list, even use different images and text, and all in one print run. Not all printers are capable of this, so look for one that uses variable data printing and imaging software with commercial-grade digital printers.

The graphics, offers and text of each direct mail piece can be customized based on your target market's gender, income, hobbies, age, homeowner status, location, career, interests, life goals and hundreds of other criteria. The more you know about your target market's habits, hobbies, and goals, the more you can customize offers and personalize images to grab their attention. Anything that is not grabbing their attention and driving them to act is a waste of money.

The easiest way to test customized direct mail is to add a personalized image to your existing static mailer. What is a personalized direct mail image? Enter your name in the demo box at this website to see a real-time example.

Direct Mail Brings Five Percent Increase in Sales

According to the Direct Marketing Association’s yearly report, The Power of Direct Marketing, direct marketers could realize up to a 5.2% increase in sales, which is 1.5% lower than the growth realized in 2006, due to the continuing economic slowdown. Direct sales could hit $2.025 trillion in 2008.

To what is this continued growth in direct mail attributed? It’s felt that marketers continue to source money in to direct marketing due to its ROI when compared to other forms of advertising. With an economy that is continuing to lag, direct mail marketing allows companies to see hard results for their advertising dollar. While many industries continue to see an increase in their direct mail marketing investment, there are still some that are cutting back their direct mail advertising.

According to the direct marketing report, manufacturing, financial banks, and education services are among many industries that continue to put significant money into direct marketing advertising. Lags are seen in areas like petroleum, real estate and furniture industries.

Dr. Peter Johnson, the Direct Marketing Association’s research strategy and platforms vice president, and lead author of the report notes that direct mail marketing will “continue to help sustain the overall US economy.” This estimation is based on the fact that as much as 10.2% of the US GDP, or $1.41 trillion of demand is represented by direct marketing.

Employment in direct marketing in 2007 is responsible for 10.6 million jobs. A prediction of a 2.2% increase is expected for next year. Internet marketing has predicted expenditures of $23.6 billion in 2008, which is almost a $4 billion increase from 2007.

Despite this growth, many company’s marketing departments are concerned about the state of the economy. If the housing market continues to stagnate and fuel costs keep climbing, it is possible that overall marketing expenditures could be adversely affected. Considering direct marketing’s effect on our GDP this year, a decrease in its economic viability is something to be concerned about.

Direct Mail Continues to Grow

According to the Direct Marketing Association’s yearly report, The Power of Direct Marketing, direct marketing is anticipated to grow in all areas, including expenditures, return on investment (ROI), sales and employment for 2008. This is despite an economy that is lagging in most areas.

“For the first time ever, direct marketing represents more than 50 percent of total advertising expenditures in the US, growing faster than total advertising spending and the US economy as a whole,” said Dr. Peter Johnson, the Direct Marketing Association’s research strategy and platforms vice president, and lead author of the report. “Marketers are moving dollars into direct marketing because of its higher ROI relative to other forms of advertising. This makes ‘direct’ a more reliable engine for sustaining sales, incomes, and jobs at a time when the mortgage and energy markets are heightening economic uncertainty.”, as noted on the DMA website. “Overall,” said Johnson, “business performance in 2007 is likely to be measurably brighter than it would otherwise be, thanks to the effectiveness of direct marketing.”

The direct mail market predicts $173.2 billion in advertising expenditures’ by the end of this year, showing a 4.4% increase over last year. The ROI for these expenditures is $11.69/dollar spent, when taking into consideration the two trillion dollars in subsequent sales this year. The final numbers for 2006 were affected by the steep decline in the housing market, increases in energy costs as well as a decrease in auto sales. Up to a 5.5% increase in response rates is expected in commercial email, Internet marketing and direct mail.

While some mortgage companies struggle in this lagging economy, one marketing firm is helping its mortgage clients gain market share and achieve a 3% (and growing) response rate! Before starting your next direct mail campaign, attend a free webinar with Variable Thinking, and learn in under one hour how you can achieve higher response rates and sales. Attendees are entered to win a free three day/four night trip to the Grand Bahamas!

Chicago Direct Mail Agency Achieves First Online

We are proud to announce that our newly redesigned website (http://www.variablethinking.com/) is the first to integrate iPhone-like technology online.

This new technology allows visitors to grab and drag images in our portfolio with their mouse, or control the movement of images with a scroll bar at http://www.variablethinking.com/PortfolioFlash.aspx.

Variable Thinking is known as being a creative leader in the industry and is praised for its forward thinking marketing solutions. The company was the first to offer the entire marketing solution under one roof from graphic design to direct mail fulfillment and tracking.

About Us
Variable Thinking is a full-service direct marketing firm that conceptualizes, designs, prints, double bar codes, and tracks your targeted direct mail! We also offer strategic demographic lists and personalized URLs (PURLs/microsites) to further increase response rates. From start to finish, our 30,000 square foot facility is equipped to meet all of your marketing needs!