Valpak Not So Confident About Their Direct Mail Marketing Services?
As I was watching a little television this past week, I saw a TV commercial from Valpak. Their message was directed toward both consumers and to small businesses. Basically, Valpak was encouraging consumers to look for great coupons and deals in Valpak mailers while trying to describe to small business owners how effective direct mail could be at finding new prospects in their local marketplace. For some reason, this struck me as very odd. I understand why they'd use TV commercials directed toward consumers (to increase awareness of their mailed coupon packs); but why to small businesses? If they were so confident that their direct mail services could effectively connect with relevant people in local markets, why wouldn't they rely on direct mail to find their own prospects?
As a marketer, I saw this TV commercial as a confusing message that conflicted with their value proposition for small businesses. On their own website they say:
National and cable TV and radio choices are too numerous to effectively and affordably target local audiences. However, almost everyone checks his or her mailbox daily.
So why launch a national TV and newspaper advertising campaign to convince small business owners to use direct mail? Are they sending the wrong message to their own target audience? What do you think?
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