3 Direct Marketing Myths That Are Killing Your Results: Echelon
Targeting Releases New White Paper


MCLEAN, VA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 03/08/06 -- Because direct marketing
practitioners live and die by measuring what went right and wrong,
Echelon Targeting, a division of IXI Corporation, has published a
white paper that explores three myths of direct marketing, explains
the realities -- and offers alternatives for marketers who are serious
about reaching their best prospects.


Available free of charge on Echelon Targeting's website
(http://echelontargeting.com/white_paper/release-wire.html), "3 Direct
Marketing Myths That Are Killing Your Results" dispels these myths and
offers sound, practical advice to marketers who want to pull ahead of
the pack. Specifically, this new and important White Paper addresses:


Myth #1 -- The more customers, the better.


The more customers, the better, right? Not really. Acquiring customers
without regard to their value and capacity to generate revenue over
time can become a losing proposition. Even so, most campaigns seek to
optimize response with little regard to what the responders are
actually going to spend with your brand. After all, what marketer can
resist boasting of a response rate that beats previous efforts?


The problem is that not all responders -- even those who buy --
generate significant revenue and create profit. The problem gets
compounded because once they're on the books, low revenue customers
are never actually "fired." Firms keep low revenue customers around
hoping they'll become high revenue customers, but instead, money gets
wasted on efforts to get these folks in the black.


Myth #2 -- If a repeat customer is spending at least average dollars
with you, you're doing well with that customer.


If a repeat customer is spending at least as much as your overall
average customer spends with you, you may assume you're doing well
with that customer. But often, that's not good enough. Many companies
assume that if customers continue to buy, they are loyal and should be
treated as valued customers. There's some truth to that -- after all,
repeat business is generally a good thing. But not all customers are
equal. And, even once a company has acquired a good set of customers,
many companies don't maximize the relationship and capture the
unrealized value of each of their customers. So while two customers
spending $400/year with you can look similar on paper, when you find
out that one customer spends $1600 with your competitors and the other
spends just another $200, the picture changes dramatically. You've
only got 20% of the first customer's wallet and 66% of the second
customer's!


Myth #3 -- When used properly, income and other demographic measures
will lead a company to those prospects with high potential value to
your company.


Marketing solution providers historically have followed the demands of
their client base by providing basic tools for targeting. Typically
these start with household income and other related measures. And
these solutions have worked reasonably in the past. But times have
changed.


In the old world, millionaires didn't shop in Wal-Mart and choices
were more limited. Old targeting solutions worked. But in fact they
provided only the first level of discrimination of affluence. In a new
world where people have an amazing array of choices, a more granular
approach is needed.


To download a free copy of "3 Direct Marketing Myths That Are Killing
Your Results," please click here or go to
http://echelontargeting.com/white_paper/release-wire.html.


About Echelon Targeting


Echelon Targeting provides a superior measure of consumer spending
power to consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, and service
providers of all types. Consumer marketers can use Echelon's systems
to gain intelligence on customer and prospect discretionary spending
capacity and purchase propensity in order to improve their
segmentation, targeting, and marketing strategies. As a division of
IXI Corporation, Echelon's products and services are based on the
proprietary wealth-measurement techniques of IXI. IXI directly
measures over 40% of all assets held by U.S. households through its
data consortium of financial institutions. By leveraging IXI's
proprietary financial databases, Echelon can help its clients
identify, target, and communicate with households that have both the
means and the desire to purchase their goods and services.


Editor's Note: For a copy of "3 Direct Marketing Myths That Are
Killing Your Results," to arrange a bylined piece based on this white
paper, or to arrange an interview for a staff-written article, please
contact Ginny Simon at 610-889-2036 or gsimon@projectmarketinginc.com.