Decks are very accountable because results are easily measured by cost,number of leads and conversion into sales. Key codes are used by publisherand advertiser. Barbara Hanson, media services manager for the Fluke Corporation, hasused decks for the past six years, and has found them to be necessary forcontinually adding new names to her customer database. Hanson uses decks togenerate inquiries and to explore potential markets. Professional associations and publishers use decks to promote andsell their publications, subscriptions, and memberships.
Decks can testresponse rates, new copy, artwork, products, prices, and combinations ofoffers.
They can also be used for obtaining marketing data, serving as avehicle for sending out short questionnaires. One deck publisher alonedistributes 30 million pieces a year. Since deck publishersare usually publishers of periodicals or magazines, this relationship isoften the deciding factor in selecting a deck. However, attention should bepaid to the quality of the list used by the deck publisher. Response listsinclude subscriber lists and lists from an active customer database, aswell as names from sweepstakes entries.