A general customer purchase model is presented for segmenting direct marketing customer files for direct mailings. The model specifies the functional relationships among the traditional recency, frequency, and monetary value (RFMV) variables. Because of the generic nature of the model, it can be used by different direct marketing businesses for a variety of different customer mailings. Strategic implications of the model are discussed for: a) defining active versus inactive customers, b) selecting customers for special mailings, c) comparing multiple customer lists for a single company, d) an overall company purchase score for a company with multiple programs/customer files, and e) product purchase scores for special product offers.

The present article reports an experiment conducted in order to test the recently formulated “Theory of Electronic Propinquity.” In the original study, the author proposed a structural-functional approach to mediated communication in which perceived propinquity was considered to be the essential system trait for the continuation of the human communication system in organizations. Psychological propinquity was considered to affect the degree to which members of an organization experience communication satisfaction. A 3 times 2 experiment was conducted where the treatments were three business conference situations (face-to-face, video. and audio only) with two different levels of complexity of information in a problem-solving task. The results of the equation for perceived propinquity indicated that only perceived feedback was a significant contributor. The results of the equation for communication satisfaction indicated that perceived feedback, perceived level of communication rules, and psychological propinquity were significant contributors. The major finding of the study, was the importance of perceived feedback in accounting for variance in communication satisfaction. Psychological propinquity, however, was found to mediate the impact of perceived feedback on the communication satisfaction of the participants. Finally, the shortcomings of the experiment were discussed as well as the implications of the study for future research and theory-building efforts.

A differential equation model of the attitude change process is proposed which considers an individual's attitude as affected by discrepant messages along a unidimensional continuum. The model posits two dynamic components: translation to a new equilibrium due to the impulsive force of the message, and oscillation around the moving equilibrium due, in part, to restoring forces resisting displacement from equilibrium. An experiment to test some of the implications of the model is performed, in which 1174 subjects receive one of three messages differing in discrepancy from their attitude, and in which they are randomly assigned to varying times during which they may consider the message; almost all subjects consider the message for a period of not less than 10 and not more than 815 seconds. A structural equation with translation and undamped oscillation is found to significantly but modestly fit the data. Implications for the periodicity and temporal parameters of the attitude change process are discussed, and theoretical and methodological implications of the approach taken are considered.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments of Gene Laczniak and two anonymous reviewers, along with commenfs and suggestions from Connie Bauer s graduate direct marketing students ABSTRACTThe purpose of this article is to inspire critical thinking about what constitutes direct marketing. To accomplish this, we discuss problems with the prevailing current definition and present a new conceptual definition of direct marketing. This definition distinguishes direct marketing from direct mail, direct response advertising alone, direct selling, and consumer goods telemarketing.