Guys in their late 30s to late 40s are at the peak of their careers, burning themselves out with long work hours and their sexual lives are suffering. Pfizer is worried about competition from other drugmakers who have announced plans to come out with their own male impotence pill. You work for one of these competitors. Sales of the Explorer have suffered only a small dip, while the Firestone tire brand may be fatally damaged. Not at all.
People panic about nuclear power, but many more people are killed in bicycle accidents.
Driving big SUVs makes us feel in control of the environment, but tires do little for our self-esteem. A Russian mathematician may have the secret to keeping all those direct marketing pitches out of the trash. It isn t immediately obvious whether you are better off sending five pitches to your easiest targets and two to the long shots or, for the same postage and printing costs, doing four and three. The MarketSwitch program takes as a given the probability that customer X will respond to offer Y- those data having been culled form past results gathered by the client s marketing department. Direct marketing oldtimers though say writing a direct marketing letter is an art not a science.