Abstract:

This paper will discuss a highly successful and cost-effective direct-marketing/image campaign at MCTs Central Division that returned $299,000 in monthly revenue in six months on an initial investment of $16,000. The program was the result of secondary research performed in the Vertical Marketing Department at the Central Division Headquarters of MCI Telecommunications in Chicago, Illinois and was designed and implemented by that department in conjunction with its advertising agency, Griffin & Boyle, also a Chicago-based firm. Library and field research on the insurance industry and the department’s knowledge of the industry indicated that insurance providers were concerned with productivity increases and not necessarily cutting costs. The research also indicated that the industry was relationship-oriented and hence slow to change vendors. A program was developed which would break through the barriers of entry to the executive suite and allow MCI to present applications-oriented solutions to the C.E.O, President, and Vice President levels within the targeted companies. This program, which involved a series of targeted, applications-oriented mailings over a series of four months and integrated the participation of the sales force, is applicable to any niche-marketing situation where price is not the primary decision factor and the niche is relationship-oriented. Follow through by the sales force is also a necessary component of such a program.