Fredy Collioud, CEO of the Publicis advertising agency, is stepping down from his post and will concentrate on his activities as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Publicis Werbeagentur AG and Chairman of the Publicis Group Switzerland from the beginning of 2004. The posts of CEO and Managing Director (MD) will be merged and new appointments made. The current MD Cornelia Harder must leave Publicis at the end of the year due to a conflict of interest. An external solution is being sought for Collioud's successor.
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The real estate platform ImmoScout24.ch has appointed Jürg Zesiger as sales manager and Marcel Schönhaar as new account manager in the Zurich/
Eastern Switzerland. He previously worked for Immostreet.ch.
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Suzane Brunner and Dominik Zeltner are leaving the local radio station Energy Zurich. Brunner was previously in charge of the station's marketing projects, while Zeltner was responsible for on-air promotions. Brunner will be succeeded by Daniela Jordi, who most recently worked at Rufener Events. Zeltner's successor is to be appointed in the near future.
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The Zurich-based Wirz Group now has an agency for pharmaceutical communications in Germany. Wirz Vital was founded by the Frankfurt network agency Wirz & Hafner. Peter Lohmüller, head of the contract research company Euphamed, and the two managing directors Bill McEwen and Susanne R. Müller are also partners.
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The Art Directors Club of Europe (ADCE) has appointed a new board of directors. The President for the next two years is Johannes Newrkla from the Viennese advertising agency Bluetango. The Vice Presidents are Martin Spillmann, CEO of Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett in Zurich, and Rémi Babinet, CD of BETC Euro RSCG in Paris.
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Sylvie Arsever from Le Temps has been elected as the new Vice President of the Swiss Press Council by the Board of Trustees. She replaces Daniel Cornu, who moved from
has resigned from his post. The new journalist representative is Pascal Fleury, editor of La Liberté. Charles Ridoré from Villars-sur-Glâne and Franco
Ballabio from Lugano take their seats as audience representatives.
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Ellen Ringier hands over the chairmanship of the Foundation for Constructive and Concrete Art to Hans Ulrich Schweizer. The foundation has been running the "Haus Konstruktiv" in the former EWZ Selnau conversion station in Zurich since 2001.
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There are departures in the Facts society section: Daniel Blickenstorfer and Anna Schindler are leaving the news magazine.

Advertising statistics Equipped with a new logo in green and modern lettering, Media Focus presents itself freshly strengthened in its Zurich domicile.
The long years in the provinces are a thing of the past: Media Focus has recently relocated its headquarters from Hergiswil to Zurich. The joint venture between IHA-GfK and AC Nielsen has found a new home in the same premises at Stauffacherstrasse 28, where MMXI, which belongs to the same group of companies, is already based.certain services such as finance and human resources will remain at the IHA-GfK site in Hergiswil. "The move was urgently needed, as hardly any customers ever strayed to the geographically remote previous domicile. Now we are where most of our business partners are based," explains Jens Windel, Board Delegate Media Focus.
Media Focus has also developed a new logo to coincide with the change of location. In the modern new lettering, the Zurich agency Code has replaced the previous purple with a fresh green. "The signet can mean networked data points, symbolize an "m" for media or characterize an entire industry in which a submarket (green element) is focused on. We believe that customers and employees can recognize themselves here," explains Windel.
Media Focus customers can also benefit from the new "WizzAd" analysis software. It represents a real "quantum leap" for working with advertising statistics. "It now takes far fewer steps than before to achieve the same result," explains Media Focus Managing Director Lukas Zihlmann.
Designed by the Code agency: Media Focus' new logo.

Daniel Schifferle

16 percent 16%Internet In Europe, the number of "silver surfers" - Internet users over 55 - has risen by almost 30 percent to 11.5 million since September 2002. The
The study by NielsenNetRatings measured the highest proportion of the total population in Sweden (19.4%), compared to just under 16% in Switzerland. At the bottom of the country comparison are Italy and Spain. However, Italy recorded the strongest growth among silver surfers at around 43%.

Media marketing The Automobil Revue has been given a new look. A campaign aims to bring the magazine closer to its readers.
bind readership.
Consumers' continuing reluctance to buy is not only slowing down the Swiss car market, it seems to be accelerating even in reverse gear. After sales in 2002 were already below the 1998 level, an even lower dip in new car registrations is on the cards for the end of the year. It is pleasing to note that the readership figures for Automobil Revue (AR) have not developed in parallel over the same period - with the exception of the slump in 2001. And this despite frictional losses following last year's takeover by Espace Media Groupe. Garage optimistsA direct link between the sales of new cars and their figures cannot be established, says AR publishing director Roselien Huisman and specifies "at least not in the short term". In 2003, circulation and reach increased significantly and the volume of business advertisements was absorbed. "But this could change if the bad trend continues." However, she has no reason to worry at present, as all signs point to a recovery in the automotive market next year. She refers to
Roselien Huisman on the optimistic mood at the automotive industry meeting last week.
The publishing group has also repositioned its automotive titles in view of the recovery. "We have a very competent editorial team - even by European standards - with excellent contacts in the industry. With our weekly publication rhythm, this means that we have many primeurs," says the publishing director, praising the USPs of AR, which stands out from the "very strong German" competition as an up-to-date, competent, opinion-forming and, above all, Swiss magazine.
Pressure on the advertising acceleratorWith improved reader guidance, a new structure, more generous articles, driving tests and photo galleries as well as the Occasions-Bund, the leader among Swiss automobile newspapers (246,000 readers according to Mach 2003) wants to hold on to its top-of-mind position. In order to convey the independence of the title and attract new, young subscribers, the publisher is stepping on the gas pedal again after a phase of consolidation with little communication. Camponovo & Partner was engaged for the campaign. In its implementation for various advertising media, the Bern-based agency presents the AR in a multi-faceted and stylish way between word pairs that allude to the differentiating features of the paper.
The co-driver doesn't let go of the AR either.

Luca Aloisi

Peter Rutishauser, Head of Valora Wholesale, on the critical relationship between subscription and retail prices.WW Most newspapers are increasing the subscription price as of 2004, but leaving the EV price unchanged. Is this the right move from the K-Group's point of view? Peter Rutishauser Yes, we are fighting for this. The subscription prices are around 40 to 50 percent lower than the EV price and are therefore very attractive for consumers. The publishers' aggressive subscription strategy is taking customers away from us. We have therefore already asked ourselves whether we should buy several thousand subscriptions from the publishers instead of individual copies and sell them to our sales outlets. That would probably give us a better margin. But that's hypothetical, of course (laughs).
How do you assess the development of EV prices over the last few years?
The price increases were very moderate. Blick, for example, raised its prices in October for the first time in around nine years. There was more room for maneuver. Our internal logistics costs, for example, are constantly rising. So if publishers are considering EV price increases in the coming years, this is certainly in our interest. But there should be a reasonable correlation between EV and subscription prices.
Of course, I would like to see both prices at the same level, but that hardly corresponds to the publishers' strategy. That's why I can't answer that specifically. But a difference of up to 50 percent is clearly too big.
The publishers explain that returns, newsstand posters and special transportation are additional costs and justify the difference.
But why up to 50 percent? With subscriptions, the publishers also have costs for early delivery or for the post office. And returns are not produced by us alone. Publishers themselves sometimes want larger quantities to be distributed, which in turn causes return costs that we have to bear. Our total returns are very, very high at over 40 percent.
How big is the difference between the two prices in Germany, where the law stipulates that the difference between the EV price and the subscription price must not exceed 15 percent. However, publishers get around this and entice new subscribers with attractive starter gifts such as coffee machines or irons.
Interview:
Markus Knöpfli

Print media Every year, newspapers increase their subscription prices. This time by 1.8 to three percent. They have little time for the kind of price hikes that the K-Group would like to see.
Next year, the annual subscription to Südostschweiz (SO), Graubünden edition, will cost CHF 15 more, while the Bund will only charge CHF 3 more. The price increases of the other larger newspapers are somewhere between these two amounts, although the subscription prices of Tages-Anzeiger (TA) and SonntagsZeitung (SoZ) have not yet been fixed. In contrast, the prices for individual sales (EV) remain at the previous level almost everywhere, with only the Bieler Tagblatt (BT) increasing by 13.6 percent and Blick already raising its EV price by 20 percent to CHF 1.80 in October.As different as the absolute subscription price increases are, the difference to the current subscription price is generally between 1.8 and 3.6 percent. The SO is also out of the ordinary here - depending on the issue, it will increase by up to 5.1 percent. Publishing director Beat Ravaioli explains this primarily with the rising postal rates. "We deliver around 60 percent of our subscriptions via the post office," he explains. At Berner Zeitung (BZ) and St.Galler Tagblatt (SGT), the post office is also a reason for the subscription increase. The Neue Luzerner Zeitung (Neue LZ), the BT and the Bund, on the other hand, cite "inflation" as the reason.
Elsewhere, the Basler Zeitung (BaZ) recently informed its readers that it was raising the annual subscription price "to ensure the quality of reporting". Due to falling advertising revenues and despite cost-cutting measures and process optimizations, quality limits had been reached "that must not be undercut". SGT Publishing Director Daniel Ehrat also justifies the subscription price increase with, among other things, "maintaining performance despite declining advertising revenues". NZZ publishing director Tobias Trevisan goes one step further, citing structural reasons in addition to economic ones: Among other things, due to the migration of classified ads to the Internet, he expects revenues from this area to decline in the medium term, he says. "We therefore feel compelled to pass on a larger share of the costs to the newspaper's readers." Ueli Eckstein, Head of Print Media at the AZ Group, adds: "From a strategic point of view, the share of reader market revenue must be given greater weight."
Cautious price adjustmentsThe reasoning of AZ, BaZ, NZZ and SGT is not surprising, as they took part in a study last year (see box) that gave them a free pass for further subscription increases. Basically, the study confirmed what experience had already shown: In individual years, some titles had dared to increase subscription prices by up to eight percent (SonntagsBlick, TA, SO - SoZ even risked plus 16 percent once) - without their circulation taking a hit as a result. This year, no title is going that far out on a limb.
Some publishing managers are convinced that they "could actually make a bigger impact". In view of the current economic situation, however, they are cautious. Bund publishing director Pepe J. Wiss puts it this way: "In the long term, the reader will have to pay a larger share, but this point is irrelevant for the current price mark-up."
However, it is also worth taking a look away from the current price increase to the long-term development of subscription prices and their relationship to the EV price - a point that the K-Group repeatedly points out. It is clear that the publishers are not pursuing a uniform strategy: Since 1996 and 1997 respectively, NZZ, AZ, SO and also Blick have raised both prices by a similar amount, while BZ, Bund and Neue LZ have made the EV price significantly more expensive than the subscription price. BaZ, on the other hand, did the opposite, and SGT even left the EV price at the 1996 level, but increased the subscription price by 24 percent.
On the one hand, these differences reflect the importance that the individual publishers attach to the EV. Ehrat, for example, openly states that with a share of two percent of the SGT circulation sold, the EV plays an "insignificant role" in the earnings situation. Elsewhere - in Bern, for example - the competitive situation is likely to have led to parallel price trends for the Bund and BZ. The fact that both titles also raised the EV price more significantly than the subscription is probably due to the fact that they already had a proud subscription price of 307 francs in 1996. By way of comparison, the NZZ only charged three francs more back then, and the TA only cost 265 francs - the same as Blick.
However, the different pricing strategies cannot hide one thing they have in common: Publishers sell their newspapers up to 55 percent cheaper with a subscription than with a PA. The exceptions are the Sunday press titles, where the two prices differ by just 10 to 15 percent. The latter is "due to the fact that the Sunday delivery corresponds to an additional service", explains Tobias Trevisan.
Very few publishers are sympathetic to the K-Group's long-standing request to increase the price of subscriptions to daily newspapers compared to the EV price (see interview). On the contrary: "The subscription price and the EV price should continue to differ greatly in future. This is because the EV sector involves some additional costs with returns, newsstand posters and special transportation," says Beat Ravaioli, speaking from the heart of his colleagues. "The
Returns are a cost factor that should not be underestimated," says Jürg Brauchli, Head of Newspapers at Tamedia. And Tobias Trevisan adds: "With a subscription, the customer pays for 300 issues in advance. An advance payment and volume discount is well justified. This roughly corresponds to the margin of Kiosk AG."
Price elasticity studyNewspaper subscribers are not very price-sensitive when it comes to press subscriptions. When asked spontaneously, they can neither name the current price nor the date of the last increase. This is the result of a "price elasticity study" conducted by the Prognos Institute in 2002.
was carried out. The study was published by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)
Several other publishers took part, including the Tages-Anzeiger, the St.Galler Tagblatt, the Neue Luzerner Zeitung, the Basler Zeitung and the Aargauer Zeitung. The study report was divided into two parts: The result on the overall market was sent to all
study participants, the region-specific and title-specific
Only the relevant study participants received the results. NZZ Publishing Director Tobias Trevisan can only formulate the main finding in general terms: "There is still potential for increases in subscription prices, although this varies from title to title." (mk)
Markus Knöpfli

Publishing house Filippo Leutenegger's trip to Springer's Hamburg headquarters is fueling speculation about a sale of Jean Frey.Tito Tettamanti, the largest single shareholder in Jean Frey AG with 25 percent, made no secret in a Facts interview last week that the time was ripe for a sale of his stake in the publisher of Weltwoche and Bilanz. As luck would have it, Jean Frey CEO Filippo Leutenegger was at a meeting at the Hamburg headquarters of Axel Springer Verlag that same week. Also sitting at the table alongside board member Martin Wagner was HandelsZeitungs publisher Ralph Büchi, Springer's representative in Switzerland. When asked, Büchi denied that there was any talk of a purchase or participation in Jean Frey AG. "Springer has a young board of directors who want to get to know the key people in the Swiss publishing industry. I organized that." Leutenegger himself told Werbewoche: "A sale of Jean Frey AG is not an issue" and remained silent about the content of the meeting.
The fact is that Springer is looking for further reinforcement in Switzerland. Following the failed merger with Ringier, Jean Frey AG would be an ideal new takeover candidate - with synergy potential between HandelsZeitung and Bilanz, for example.
(dse)

Verkehrsbetriebe Zürich has the busiest traffic wardens in Switzerland: nowhere else does so much money flow into the city coffers from parking fines as on the Limmat - "reason enough for Ruf Lanz, on behalf of our customer VBZ, to once again remind drivers that there is a cheap alternative". On posters around the large parking lots in Zurich, the word "parking fine" is reduced to its essentials: All that remains is a "bus". The VBZ logo and the campaign claim "It's worth changing" are placed underneath, and "everything important has been said".

Direct marketing VI E-mail, mobile and co-marketing are the magic words of the dialog marketing guild. Mass mailings are a thing of the past; the future belongs to personalized and emotionalized approaches. While less and less money is flowing into classic advertising, direct marketers in Switzerland are once again seeing a silver lining on the horizon. Because no matter what one thinks of direct marketing, the fact is: Not only the general conditions, but also individual pressure on results and costs as well as the diminishing effect of individual sales channels are forcing companies to increase efficiency and effectiveness.More and more companies are recognizing the importance of measurability
of their advertising investments and shift part of their marketing budget to direct marketing sales activities because the cost-benefit ratio of these activities can be clearly quantified. In this respect, it is not surprising that the total investment in direct marketing today is already 40 to 60 percent higher than in conventional advertising.
On the one hand, this development is due to the changed framework conditions. But it is also the consequence of the fact that the buyer's market has become an interface market. An interface market in which the design of the numerous points of contact between the supplier and the customer is at the center of economic value creation. This interface market of the most diverse nodes between man and machine, man and virtual seller, supplier and customer as equal players is our location in marketing today.
Harry Potter shows the wayCarlsen Verlag has been demonstrating how this new cross-media interface marketing works since the publication of Volume 4 of the Adventures of Harry Potter, the Sorcerer's Apprentice. The first day of sale, which is set early, always triggers hype: Fans are allowed to determine the cover design themselves via the Internet. Telephone calls, mailings to retailers, and in-store material are used to boost sales even before the book is published.
Bookstores lured their readers into the stores with Harry Potter events at the witching hour. Sales PR on TV news and media-effective alliances with companies like Coca-Cola catapulted Potter-mania into the public spotlight. The publisher uses ads to boost not only book sales but also merchandising. Tickets for films are raffled off in advance. On the night of the premiere, costume parades of sorcerer's apprentices and sorcerer's teachers parade through the cities. And the computer game makes it possible for everyone to be Harry Potter.
Another example comes from the USA: When there, after the
September 11, no one wanted to fly anymore, a major international airline launched an ad campaign promoting
offered one day of free flights. Anyone who wanted one of the seats filled out a coupon. 50000 people flew, every TV company reported about it, also the radio, newspapers and magazines.
This was classic advertising, direct marketing and promotion in
one. And a lot of things will be cross-media in the future. Without being an indication that the new media will replace the old. Because, as with Harry Potter, there will be no either/or, but always a both/and. And the boundaries between classic and dialog-oriented advertising are becoming increasingly blurred.
The cell phone as the next big thing
There are many indications that the cell phone as a communication tool will be the next big thing for direct marketing. After all, the cell phone has become a commodity, and sending text messages has acquired the status of the standard form of communication. In Europe, texting is even overtaking Internet use. In Germany, 59 million cell phone users sent 16 billion text messages in 2002, generating a turnover of 3.5 billion euros. In Switzerland, 11 million text messages are sent every day. And the business community expects illustrated and set-to-sound text messages to generate sales of 12 billion euros in the 16 key markets by 2006.
The cell phone is a revolution for companies and customers. For its owners, it is becoming a second identity. For business, it is a magic wand. Because the cell phone is usually switched on and belongs to a definable person. And while the Internet is global, the mobile marketing of the future creates touch points in the immediate vicinity. With cell phones, all knowledge becomes available anytime, anywhere. We no longer need manuals because everything can always be accessed anywhere. Newspapers are read aloud via voice web while driving. Cell phones will be used for shopping, payment and mobile check-in.
Cell phones of the future will have GPS with a tracking option. And that means: I walk past a sports store where they make me a special offer for a pair of Nike sneakers. At the same time, I get a tip via my cell phone as to whether I can get the same product cheaper in Zurich, or what comparable Adidas shoes cost at Sport Scheck by mail order. And once I've made my purchase, I can dial in to the free number on the packaging and seconds later receive a text message congratulating me on winning two tickets to the next FC Basel game.
That sounds like too much information, but it's not. The excess is tamed by interest-specific use. The customer organizes himself into subcultures and only releases his localization data within this community.
In the future, it will not be so much a matter of developing mobile technology further. It is more important to implement information services close to the customer. This is because information via cell phones is context-sensitive. It "supports" people in social matters, leisure activities and purchasing decisions. Whether information is interesting for the cell phone user depends on time, place and personal circumstances. Companies use mobile marketing most successfully when they know the customer's lifestyle precisely and can thus offer personalized offers. Then mobile marketing will pay off.
Click rates of up to 25 percentThe fast track to customers will make e-mail marketing even more prominent than it already is. That's because email marketing is paying off, despite the enormous growth rate of electronic mailboxes, which now stands at 138 percent. Two-thirds of all U.S. companies recently said that their sales were improved by email marketing last year.
Research conducted on behalf of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) found that in 2002, 18 percent of all online sales overseas could be attributed to e-mail-based promotions. U.S. companies currently spend 14 percent of their marketing budgets on e-mail marketing, implementing e-mail campaigns at the expense of traditional advertising channels. And Old Europe is also emailing out of all the wires: more than 60 percent of Swiss email users have already bought a product at least once as a result of an advertising email. Over 70 percent of them check their messages more than three times a day. And more than a third of Swiss surfers are said to spend more than an hour a day processing
Be busy with emails.
As far as results that can be netted out are concerned, the industry is keeping a low profile as usual. Only the
Allgemeine Deutsche Automobilclub (ADAC) has made public that it will halve the acquisition costs for the extended ADAC membership with the e-mail from ten to five euros
could. And as far as click rates are concerned, Spiegel online wants to be at
in the consumer sector and from 1.3 to a maximum of 25 percent in the B-to-B sector.
The acceptance is there in any case, as long as the recipient has his
Permission-based e-mails have become an indispensable part of modern direct marketing. According to a recent Doubleclick study, 69 percent of e-mail recipients in the USA have made a purchase from the relevant online retailer after receiving a permission-based e-mail. Three-quarters of respondents say they regularly retrieve product information via e-mail. Only 25 percent prefer to receive advertising by mail. For the survey, a total of 2000 U.S. consumers who use e-mail at least once a week were questioned in September 2002.
Despite all the euphoria, however, it must be recognized that the avalanche of data is also casting a large shadow over its own success. In 2002, the U.S. analysts at Gartner Dataquest calculated on the basis of an average of 22 e-mails that employees spend 49 minutes a day dealing with electronic mail. E-mail researcher David Ferris concludes that companies will have to deal with up to 80 percent more e-mails this year and will therefore have to destroy even more working time and spend even more money on storage space.
Michael Dertouzous, professor and head of the computer science laboratory at Boston's Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has determined that the limit of endurance is reached with 30 e-mails a day. In this respect, no one can any longer rule out the possibility that electronic mail, which was introduced by most companies for reasons of efficiency, is in danger of collapsing and thus becoming a victim of its own success.
See, hear, touch, smellBecause even more advertising will be transmitted by e-mail in the future, it is also foreseeable that the traditional mailing will not maintain its 30 to 35 percent share of the direct marketing mix. However, this does not mean that mailing will lose its importance. On the contrary. Provided, that is, it will increase in quality. The former Cinderella of communication can now develop into a premium medium.
Mailings of the future must be truly personal communication. In other words, one-to-one in its ideal form, because personal communication is the highest form of individualization: They have to break the standard of the last 50 years, break the dreary postal norm, become more emotional, more interesting, more playful, more creative. It must be something very special to receive a mailing. Mailings for an Italian cookbook will smell of fresh oregano, Electronic Speech Systems will make their way into the DM and enable talking mailings. Mailings will automatically open and read themselves aloud. And invitations to a fashion show will feel like silk and rustle like chiffon.
The new direct mails will throw most of the old experiences overboard, because it's different with ideas than with cognac: they don't get better with time. The new mailings will be much more individual, much more unique, and will aim for the highest possible level of interaction. And they will appeal to all five senses: seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting.
Personalized adsIn an environment where editors fight tooth and nail for the reader's attention, ads today have to do more to get noticed. And ads that are meant to trigger action ("call/respond/send in/come by") have to do heavy lifting because they also have to get the reader physically moving.
Personalized ads will no longer be the exception, but the rule. Fragrances, foils, metals, merchandise samples - all of these will be
dialog-oriented ads in the future. Ads will engage the reader when unfolded (light- or pressure-sensitive Electronic Speech System). And the Post-It-like memo sticks recently developed by WRH in Switzerland will ensure that ads attract additional attention. That's because memo sticks are slips of paper printed in luminous ink and clearly branded as memo sticks that can serve as coupons or memory aids or action triggers.
Here, too, the link between classic advertising and dialog-oriented (action-triggering) communication could be made. A classic ad for Nokia phones with a sticker and the text "Today raffle of five Nokia 500 at Swisscom at Bahnhofstrasse 75" is conceivable.
Co-marketing and co-advertising Something else will change in the future: There will be fewer solo appearances and more co-marketing and co-advertising. More and more brands will enter into communicative relationships with each other. What Cola Light demonstrated in the summer of 2002 with the new Mini Cooper and the credit card provider Eurocard with its silver appearance will become the rule. On August 26, 2002, the German trade magazine One-to-One quoted Jürgen Grundmann of Dialoghaus as saying: "The response of cooperative advertising is three to five times higher than with classic DM campaigns, in which third-party addresses are rented.
If wholesalers like Coop and Migros and the airline Swiss are already directing more and more people to partner forms in Switzerland through exchangeable points and premiums, this will be the rule in the future. Qualiflyer customers fly with Swiss, make phone calls with Sunrise, and shop with Migros. 2.6 million Swiss households have Migros' Cumulus Card, 2.9 million Coop's Supercard. And customers are actively engaging in bartering. More than 6,000 members of the car-sharing cooperative Mobility had their trip revenues converted into Cumulus points in order to score points with Migros. In return, Mobility has gained 200 new members through its partnership with Migros.
Soon, target group-specific combination customer cards are to be supplemented by age-based cards. The Swiss customer loyalty company Loyalty in Thalwil is already targeting senior citizens. Following the Australian model, Loyalty plans to soon provide Silver Customers with a senior citizen card that is valid in a predefined shopping network. Co-marketing makes it possible.
* Friedhelm Lammoth is head of the advertising agency Lammoth Mailkonzept in St.Gallen and honorary president of DDV.

No longer a nightmare: personalized and emotionalized mailings replace mass mailings.
Partnerships become the rule: Migros and Mobility share Cumulus points.
Friedhelm Lammoth*

Direct Marketing I The downturn has hit the dialog sector less hard than most other communication disciplines. Nevertheless, it is only cautiously optimistic, and the potential of the loyalty cards introduced a few years ago by the major distributors Migros and Coop had many a marketing manager in raptures. Thanks to the dialog permission obtained, it was hoped, the DM sector would be able to tap into opportunities it had never dreamed of. However, data protection and the exorbitant costs of efficient data processing thwarted the ambitious CRM goals, and the fact that the DM industry has not become disillusioned is due to the longest recession phase in Swiss advertising history, during which the DM industry was able to grow at the expense of other traditional advertising disciplines. In recent years, social developments such as information overload and the rapid spread of innovative communication technologies have been accompanied by stricter performance reviews and thus an increase in integrated communication concepts with DM as the lead discipline. According to calculations by the German Direct Marketing Association, around half of all advertising campaigns today are DM campaigns. The Swiss Direct Marketing Association (SDV) is no less self-confident. Despite its lower share of commercial communication (2001: 41 %) and a 2.8 percent drop in spending on DM last year, it is still in a better position than the communications industry as a whole (minus 4.5 percent)
.growth market
SDV President and OgilvyOne CEO Guido Wietlisbach cites internal association projections, which assume industry turnover of well over three billion Swiss francs. "In recent years, DM has recorded growth rates that, although no longer as pronounced as in the 1980s and 1990s, are still well above the development of the market as a whole." However, the SDV approximation calculation shows a figure almost three times higher than that of Wemf. Their advertising statistics show a DM share (CHF 1.14 billion), excluding production costs and telephone, e-mail and SMS/MMS marketing, of 21.2 percent of total advertising expenditure. Unlike the SDV, the Wemf only takes into account the DM distribution costs and not the production costs, which until ten years ago were extrapolated on the basis of an average letterbox.
Unperturbed by the dispute over the survey method, the DM sector is shining thanks to larger budgets and the increase in advertising budgets that pursue brand management or sales promotion goals - concepts that were previously withheld from it. Whereas five years ago around ten percent of the Swiss companies surveyed used DM campaigns for image advertising, today the unmistakable DM stamps are increasingly being discovered in image implementations. Whether poster, TV commercial or advertisement: the proportion of those with response elements has risen visibly.
Where does the barometer point? Alex Schmid, co-owner of the dialog agency of the same name, compares mailings with tornadoes in terms of brand building: "DM has generally become strongly associated with image. Top brands in particular - such as computer manufacturer Dell - rely heavily to exclusively on DM. Admittedly
During the recessionary phase, we have observed a shift towards promotional campaigns, which are also expected to fulfill branding objectives." A survey conducted by the German Mercer Group branch among the 270 largest advertising clients also indicates a paradigm shift, concluding that "targeted and personalized communication will be the assets of the future and is likely to push broad-based communication into the background". Whether strategic or tactical DM users, an active dialog has a positive influence on the brand image. This trend can be observed without significant differences in all three German-speaking countries, as a survey conducted by TNS Emnid in spring showed.
According to this study, which the Bielefeld-based market research institute conducted in late summer on behalf of industry associations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the market is expected to stagnate or grow slightly this year. According to TNS Emnid, the positive sales trend in the first half of the year does not appear to have been a flash in the pan, as the confident mood has gained a foothold in the industry: More than half of all companies surveyed expected an equally pleasing development in the current semester, adds the SDV. Just six percent feared a decline in sales. "And DM agencies are expecting slight growth in 2004," says Wietlisbach, summarizing the forecasts. Schmid specifies: "DM has benefited relatively during the recession, but has also suffered." Gilbert Fisch, CEO of Switzerland's largest DM agency Fisch Meier Direkt, takes a more differentiated view of the situation: "It may be that the number of DM users is on the rise. As far as I know, agency-related expenditure fell significantly in 2003. Everyone has been hit in this recession."
Opportunities and weaknesses of DMThe DM professionals agree on the weaknesses and opportunities of their industry. Wietlisbach points out that the new media with their low cost thresholds have changed the dialog business, but that the lack of effective regulations has led to uncontrolled growth and sweeping value judgments, which has not exactly helped the industry's image. The quality level is also to blame. Alex Schmid attributes this to shortcomings in our university education system, i.e. where the decision-makers who will later create concepts study. "DM is either non-existent or optional in many marketing courses. That's a big mistake." Leading a value-creating and sustainable dialog with target groups requires a great deal of know-how and an understanding of communication and brands. "Unfortunately, there is still a lack of professional commitment in this demanding communication discipline," Gilbert Fisch also complains. There is often a lack of understanding of dialog as a step-by-step process, which results in amateurish rapid-fire exercises.
Wietlisbach adds: "It is often the case that too little attention is paid to the central idea and its strongest realization. A message is implemented too quickly without dramatization." According to the OgilvyOne CEO, this does not distinguish DM from other forms of communication, in which clients and sometimes creatives are often guided by existing solutions that have been seen many times before. However, as in other disciplines, this is precisely where the shoe pinches in DM: "We would like to see more courage to shape the market again." And this is not a financial issue, Gilbert Fisch is certain: "Ideas cost nothing, only the implementation."
Increasing the efficiency of the advertising franc is often cited as a major challenge for DM. Whether in this context, in addition to
It remains to be seen whether the significant data management will lead to a coupon boom like in the USA or Germany. What is clear is that "couponing is still very underrepresented in Switzerland and is far from exhausted," explains Alex Schmid. Yet our rapidly ageing society in particular offers great potential. In the USA, bargain hunting with coupons is extremely popular with the affluent and growing Gren.
Dialogue marketing with brand expertise: Saatchi & Saatchi realized an integrated image and advertising concept for the "Shopping" exhibition at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, which DM satirized with its own resources and won ADC silver.
Large companies tend to use more addressed mailings, which is also increasingly attracting the attention of SMEs.
Luca Aloisi

Wädi-Brau-Huus AG is launching a new premium beer on the Swiss market in spring 2004 and is having the launch campaign designed by the agency Clus Communication in Chur.the specialty drink for a young audience will be available in the greater Zurich area and is to be positioned as a trend beer of high quality.

Direct Marketing II With the Directpoint web platform, Swiss Post is becoming a competitor to its industry customers Is Swiss Post running out of letters? It has long had competition from electronic mail systems: in the banking and insurance sector alone, considerable volumes of payment orders, account statements and other correspondence have disappeared. Letter volumes are expected to fall by one percent annually over the next few years. Added to this is the fact that the letter delivery monopoly is to be largely abolished by 2006 at the latest. No wonder the yellow giant is increasingly focusing its attention on what continues to flow through its big belly in huge quantities: Promopost. Although unaddressed bulk mail also recorded a significant decline in the first half of 2003 (by 6.2%), it still accounts for a considerable share of the advertising pie at CHF 481 million.
It is difficult to determine what proportion of the total letter volume is accounted for by addressed direct mail items. The envelopes rarely show what's inside. A survey carried out on behalf of the Swiss Advertising Statistics Foundation puts the cost of direct advertising in 2002 at CHF 1.14 billion - although this only includes postage and distribution costs. Even so, that's a considerable slice of the pie that is worth fighting for.
Dialogmarketer Post
It is therefore only logical that Swiss Post is committed to dialog marketing, particularly in the Promopost segment. It not only sponsors the annual Dialog Marketing Prize and invites people to the DirectDay symposium (see box) - it has recently moved even closer to its customers: Via the DirectPoint Internet platform, it delivers DM know-how directly to office screens. Visitors are guided through the various process stages of a direct marketing campaign, from planning, address handling, production and dispatch to the question of how the creative message needs to sound in order to be heard. Checklists, templates, budget grids, order forms and much more are available for download. Swiss Post maintains four competence centers for questions and projects. These offer comprehensive specialist knowledge and personal advice at conferences, seminars and events. After all, the "Service providers" section provides space for traditional industry providers to present themselves and their expertise.
In principle, Swiss Post's efforts are welcome, confirms Guido Wietlisbach, President of the Swiss Direct Marketing Association. "The fact that Swiss Post is promoting dialog marketing as a whole is a positive aspect for the industry." However, he also considers the situation to be ambivalent, as Swiss Post is not just any DM service provider, but also a monopolist in letter mail delivery. This means it is competing with its own customers - and its biggest ones at that.
When asked about the delicate dual role of Swiss Post, agency managers react calmly. Jürg Ulmann, Managing Director of Lucerne-based Ulmann+Partner AG, is convinced: "You can't change the image with a platform, and Swiss Post has no image as an advertising agency." Nadja Kistler from St.Gallen-based DM-Plus Direktmarketing AG also doesn't believe that Swiss Post will snatch customers away from her: "We offer other solutions." The general assumption seems to be that Swiss Post's target group is not identical to that of the agencies. The know-how offered on the Internet platform would encourage small to micro companies in particular to launch their own mailings. For traditional agency customers, Swiss Post's experience - which has so far been more machine-oriented than customer-oriented - is unlikely to be sufficient. Not yet, fears Peter Stössel from MS Mailing Service in St.Gallen: "At the moment, Swiss Post does not have the same starting position as we do in terms of human resources - but in time, the competition will have to be taken seriously."
Love-hate relationship in yellowLike Stössel ("Swiss Post should concentrate on its core business"), Erwin Schnee, Managing Director of Adim Agentur für Direkt-Marketing AG in Hünenberg, sees the situation, but formulates his assessment more provocatively: "Swiss Post is trying to offer DM services with subsidized francs - that's protectionism!" He also finds it offensive that, as a reseller for Swiss Post, he does not receive any significant resale discounts: "With my work, I generate business for Swiss Post and in return, I'm competing with them!" Nevertheless, Schnee, who describes his relationship with Swiss Post as a love-hate relationship, also has praise for them: "The sales people at Swiss Post make an extraordinary effort to do a good job." Could other areas of Swiss Post be more supportive? "Better tariffs would help us the most," Wietlisbach explains laconically, speaking from the hearts of many association members. However, he admits that the issue of rate setting is complex and depends more on politics than on the management of Swiss Post.
There are plenty of good reasons for agencies and Swiss Post to step up their cooperation. By 2006 at the latest, when the monopoly on letter post transportation is scheduled to be abolished, more foreign carriers and with them larger European DM service providers are likely to be clogging up Swiss letterboxes. Whether they will really wait that long is questionable. For Susanne Hornikel, an expert in international address handling and Managing Director of the Stuttgart-based agency Directsuccess, cross-border mailing campaigns are already part of everyday life: "There are many companies that now manage a large part of their DM measures from one country." Erwin Schnee fears that increasing foreign competition will only exacerbate the delicate situation with Swiss Post: "Swiss Post International makes these producers a favorable offer and distributes the mailings produced in Germany in Switzerland - bypassing us."
So it's high time for customers to get closer to their service providers for once and to inform them in detail about their needs: joint strategies instead of short-sighted battles for market share.
From 2006, more foreign carriers are likely to flood Swiss letterboxes.
4th DirectDay
On November 27, 2003, Swiss Post is holding a conference in Freiburg on the topic: "Direct marketing on the brink of extinction? The transparent customer in the field of tension between politics and marketing". Speakers include publicist Roger de Weck, data protection expert Hanspeter Thür, consumer advocate Jacqueline Bachmann, SDV President Guido Wietlisbach and Swiss Post CEO Ulrich Gygi. Special guest is Alinghi sports director Jochen Schümann.
For information see page 28.
Helps small businesses to get on the right DM track: Information material from Swiss Post in the form of work aids for mailing campaigns.
Katrin Piazza