Direct (junk) mail interactive marketing in residential homes in the united states: trends in the san francisco bay area

With increased business use of electronic media to advertise to individual consumers today notwithstanding, direct mail continues to be a big part and concern in our everyday lives. At the same time, direct mail advertising continues to be a major source of revenue to many businesses and government agencies like the United States Postal Service. For a period of about six months, a total of 39,663 direct mail items were collected from residential neighborhoods of the nine county San Francisco Bay Area, with a combined total population estimate of 7 million people. Results show that three major business categories: retail corporations, miscellaneous companies, and credit card financial institutions contributed about 56% (22,197) of total direct mail received (n=39,663). This business trend is supported by the continued growth in the U.S. economy plus the many benefits accruing to businesses using direct-mail advertising as they target and individualize direct mail advertising to potential consumers. To many businesses, the direct mail remains highly measurable, cost effective, flexible, and customizable. As consumers learn and adopt better strategies to reduce direct mail delivered to their mailboxes, they will continue to face increased challenges considering the substantial revenue and the many jobs created by direct mail advertising.