True Direct goes right back to what is at the heart of Direct Marketing â€" the customer. Our industry has been experts in understanding the customer and subsequently we have built our tool base around it. Firstly, we have Data, and in the case of True Direct its alignment with new research - Ethnography (the study of people) to be precise. By understanding ethnography we can understand consumer behaviour and use data to find specific customers. The combination of the two allows us to look forward and know future behaviour rather than looking at past trends and trying to predict the future (Old Direct). It is also worth noting that data in True Direct is easily accessible â€" data no longer needs to be held by massive data houses and sent via spreadsheets. Now we can hold it in clever pools, cross reference it, use it as many or as few times as you like. It is cheaper to store and easily presented in dashboards. The next tool True Direct has is Planning. In True Direct we combine Communications and Data Planning to create Customer Journey Paths whereby we understand the route that the customer will take and therefore, when and how to supply our communications effectively. Our final tool is Media. The media landscape has dramatically changed and we must not be nervous of it. In fact, in True Direct we embrace the fragmentation of medias as it allows us to communicate with far smaller and specific customer groups. This allows us to interact with them on a far more intrinsic manner and start customer journeys in different places. True Direct sees the combination of all 3 tools â€" Data, Planning and Media and its outcome is the ability to change customer behaviour in an effective and measurable way.
