Welcome to Compositions, James DeKoven's column about brand communications. This time around:

- Designing Direct Mail
- Altering Assumptions
- Selling With Caffeine
- Album of the Month

-------------------------
Designing Direct Mail
-------------------------

Remember the dotcom boom, when everyone’s neighbor, best pal, cousin, and accountant suddenly started calling themselves a “designer”? No art school, no internships, no formal training.

Just get the software and open up shop.

Now there’s nothing wrong with switching jobs or careers. This is America, land of opportunity. We all have the right to earn more cash and/or become more fulfilled.
And besides, who needs to be officially sanctioned with a degree? A talented designer is a talented designer.

Here’s the trouble spot: The newly anointed designer gets charged with a direct response project. While she has a keen eye for color choice, typography and layout, there’s a good chance that she might not understand her true function as a DIRECT MAIL designer.

I’ve had designers sum up their direct mail approach by saying, “I try to capture the essence of a brand.”

Good philosophy if we were creating packaging for a new line of biscotti. Or if we were developing a brochure for a resort in St. Thomas.

But this is direct marketing. You may believe you care about aesthetics, but what you actually want are responses, leads, and sales. The more the better.

So how do you find the right designer? It’s a matter of separating the strategists from the artists: 

• Your designer employs proven direct response techniques. She knows what’s effective, and most importantly knows WHY it’s effective.
• Your designer understands that design has one function: to help sell a product or service. That means capturing attention, making copy easier to read, and driving readers to the call-to-action.
• Your designer won’t eliminate copy to accommodate her design. Design doesn’t persuade. Copy persuades (before you object, remember that I’m talking about direct response, not a product catalog or print ad).

This isn’t about copy being “more important” than design. It’s not about importance—it’s about what sells. And frankly, if your designer isn’t interested in selling, well, she might as well go to art school.

------------------------
Altering Assumptions
------------------------

Hate, greed, selfishness. When it comes to behavior, these are three of our species’ most unfortunate best sellers. And although its ramifications aren’t as damaging, we should also add “Assumption” to that list.

Assumptions make us pre-judge people based on their jobs, the neighborhoods they live in, the clothes they wear.

Assumptions prevent us from trying what could otherwise be beneficial.

Assumptions close our minds.

Assumptions also keep us from getting the most from our direct response campaigns.

See, there’s a popular assumption about the frequency of sending. If you want any degree of success, it’s important to send your mail frequently.

But since many businesses don’t know the correct time gap between mailings, they avoid frequency altogether. The assumption: “We just put something in the mail six weeks ago. We shouldn’t send another piece right now.”

The assumption of the assumption: People will remember they already got your mailing, and they’ll immediately throw it away. To that I ask:
 
Do you remember everything that arrives in YOUR mailbox? Maybe you do. Maybe you remember some. Maybe you have zero recall.

To account for the differences, just make your mail look different.

Alter the shape, size, paper type, teaser copy, even the entire format. You can still include the same exact content inside. The trick is getting people to open the envelope. And it’s easier when you catch them offguard.

------------------------
Selling With Caffeine
------------------------

Forget the copy. Apparently, persuading your prospects only requires a big fat cup of java. Or tea, soda, energy drink, and other caffeine-fueled beverages.

According to Australian researchers from the University of Queensland, caffeine consumption makes us more likely to agree with persuasive arguments.

The study, which was published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, involved controlled experiments with 140 students. They were asked about their attitudes regarding voluntary euthanasia before and after reading persuasive arguments against their initial beliefs. Before reading the arguments, the students drank orange juice with either caffeine (equivalent to two cups of coffee) or no caffeine.
The researchers discovered that increased caffeine consumption led to increased agreement with the arguments. As the study said, “Given the numerous situations in which people are exposed to persuasive arguments, these results could have many applied implications.”
So drop everything you know about marketing, branding, and selling. Just buy your prospects their favorite blend—not decaf, of course.

----------------------
Album of the Month
----------------------

This album came out 32 years ago. I’ve owned it for about 13. And once it gets back in the rotation it’s hard to put away. I’m talking about Miles Davis’ Pangaea, a double-disc set, recorded live in Japan in 1975, comprised of two, 40-plus minute musical explorations into the outer limits of space and time. The liner notes say “Miles’ Pangaea-era unit was the world’s first fully improvisational acid-funk band.” Break out the headphones for this one.

Until next time,

James