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You are here: Home > Membership Committees and Councils > Councils > List Brokers Council > List News > Article
Italian Direct Marketing Market - An Overview Mr. Sergio Pilu, Marketing & Communications Manager at Addressvitt (Italy), a FEDMA List Council member, has contributed with the following article on the Italian direct marketing market.ITALIAN DIRECT MARKETING MARKET - AN OVERVIEW Preferred media and weight of investments in direct marketing on traditional advertising The advertising expenditures in Italy are highly focused on television and press. The sum of these two voices amounts to roughly 13.7 billion Euro, 74.8% of total expenditures. Taking into account the last two years, the variance of the relevance of each media compared to total investments was limited, as well as for the period 1996-1999, throughout which only a moderate switching from TV and magazines towards radio took place.
Sources: AC Nielsen - FCP/FIEG - AIDiM Over the last few years, the total investments in direct marketing have constantly grown. The only exception happened in 1997, when the Data Protection Act 675/96 became operative: the deep psychological impact that this Act aroused among both the public opinion and the business community and the uncertainties about how the new rules would be implemented, triggered a remarkable decrease in overall expenditure. Taking 1996 (the last year not influenced by any data protection regulation) as starting point, direct marketing expenditures grew by 30.4%, at an average annual rate of 7,87%. Investments in direct mail grew by 18,4%, at an average annual rate of 5,6%. Investments in telemarketing and teleservices reported a quite steep increase, up by 79% at an average annual rate of 20%.
Sources: AIDiM - FEDMA Figures are in millions of Euro - 2001 and 2000: estimates Average number of direct mail pieces per head and comparison of direct mail use between Italy and other European countries Italy ranks fifth in terms of number of direct mail pieces delivered per year, covering 7% of the whole European market. Italy falls sixth in the pieces-per-head ranking: the average Italian receives one third of the direct mail delivered to his German, English or French counterparts, while Dutch and Belgian citizens receive four times more direct mails per year.
Data are referred to year 2000. Sources: FEDMA - McKinsey - CIA World Factbook MAILING LISTS IN ITALY Here under, a brief overview of the Italian list market. 1) Publicly available lists
Data include the address and other information to contact the firm, as well as branch of activity, financial and administrative information (e.g.: share capital, balance sheet). : telephone directories and electoral registers. Data include address and telephone number, or – in the case of electoral registers – date and place of birth, qualification and job. Electoral registers are run locally (municipality) and often available only on paper or at disposal for consultation at the premises. E-mail addresses and mobile telephone numbers referred to individuals can be collected from no public source. A general telephone directory will soon be printed and will contain e-mail addresses, mobile telephone numbers and other data not available in the current directories, provided that specific provisions regarding privacy are complied with. Data taken from public sources are often processed by direct marketers and list brokers together with social and demographic statistical data; trend and status indexes are calculated and clusters created. Their reliability cannot be completely granted, but they are certainly better targeted than lists derived from the above mentioned public sources. 2) Life-style and profiled lists
Subjects who have taken part in prize draws can be classified as highly responsive of promotional campaigns so that this profile offers a decisive clue for direct marketing initiatives. Profiled lists are available with both elementary and processed data, the latter being the result of operations of elaboration, comparison, selection, interconnection, also concerning different lists or statistical researches and analysis. ITALIAN POSTAL SERVICE It is common opinion that the average quality of the services supplied by Poste Italiane (the Italian state-owned postal service) has gradually improved over the last few years, due to the reorganization of the company and its production processes. Poste Italiane has recently published data concerning an internal survey about efficiency and speed of delivery of direct mail pieces sent under the common DM rate called PostaTarget (for rates, see below). The survey has been conducted placing a reply coupon inside the customers’ direct mail package, addressed to Poste Italiane; the addressee was asked to reply, reporting the day the package had been received. 95% of the shipment was delivered within 4 working days (Mon-Sat) after the day of shipment. PostaTarget "Money Maxx" campaign – Aegon Group
Source: Poste Italiane, internal survey, year 2001 Data are also available to evaluate efficiency and speed of delivery of different kind of items, like magazines. Figures come from both a Poste Italiane internal survey and a similar survey run by ANES (National Association of Technical Publishers). The two surveys show rather different figures for the first 4 delivery speed ranges (J+1-J+4), but – starting from range J+5 – they tend to converge; it therefore sounds reasonable to say that approximately 80% of periodicals are delivered within 5 working days after the day of shipment. Magazines, journals, periodicals Magazine: "PC Open" – Agepe Publishing Group ANES Survey
Source: Poste Italiane, internal survey, year 2001 Source: ANES, year 2001 Limi tations on sizes and weights – Impact on postal rates The postal rate of a "direct mail package" depends on four main elements:
As the possible combinations are extremely numerous, this article will describe only PostaTarget (common addressed direct mail) and VPC (mail-order offer) specifications. PostaTarget It is the postal rate usually chosen for direct mail campaigns; customer is allowed to enclose promotional items or zero-value samples, and it is furthermore possible to use non-paper media (CD-ROMs, videotapes, etc.). It is not allowed to send goods intended for sale under this rate. PostaTarget – Sizes and weight
PostaTarget – Rates (EUR)
VPC (mail-order offer) This rate can be applied to any mail-order offer, whether for products or services. Mandatory condition is the enclosure of a reply order coupon. VPC - Sizes and weight
VPC – Rates (EUR)
VPC special conditions for publishing houses – Rates
DATA PROTECTION IN ITALY
Consent affects s only natural persons (B2C lists) and has great importance for e-mail and fax messages. Apart from Act n° 675/1996, laws regarding mail order and similar contracts and telecommunications require subject’s previous express consent for marketing messages sent by e-mail, fax or telephone without an operator, SMS, and for analysis researches. Even if an opt-in system is an obstacle for the creation of mailing lists, it is a decisive clue to discriminate and select one’s target group: a subject having given his consent is highly interested in receiving advertising messages. Opt-in produces smaller but more responsive lists. Opt-in is not required for data regarding subjects different from natural persons: any information about a firm can be processed and communicated provided that the subject has been given information and the right to object to the processing of data for purposes of direct marketing, commercial communication and advertising For further information on the business activities of Addressvitt, please refer to Addressvitt or check their company profile included in the FEDMA online membership directory.
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