The evolution of direct marketing in Italy

Abstract

Many researchers have suggested that marketing is currently going through a revolutionary phase (4,13,15,17). The transition that is taking place can be ascribed mainly to the shift from a mass-production economy to a flexible-production or mass-customization economy (3,15,16), which is marked by the increasing availability of low-cost information that enterprises can use in the planning, development, and marketing of their products and services. It is now possible to obtain more detailed and varied information on markets than in the past, an advantage that can be useful in customer management (20), in the design and development of new and innovative products (I 1) , and in the creation and management of a customer service system (10,20). In an advanced economy, the state of transition from a mass-marketing era to a direct-interactive one can be empirically assessed by looking at the evolution of marketing investments by the companies in that economy. Italy provides a significant example. Although Italy was a latecomer to direct marketing (OM), Italian OM investments are definitely approaching the rates seen in countries where this form of marketing is more solidly established.