Problem:

DecoPlus is a major home decorating company.  It offers home services to its prospects and buyers, but as it is growing, it has become somewhat overwhelmed with scheduling challenges and the number of appointments being cancelled.

The company presently maintains a list of its prospects and past customers and some other significant information such as customer needs and also its old customers' purchasing history. It has realized the value and the need in developing a marketing plan to these lost appointments and previous customers.

DecoPlus has found that it is more profitable to outsource its direct marketing activities to another expert company. Connect Marketing Solutions Ltd (CMS) has thus been employed to reset new appointments for those previously lost and new appointments for past customers to up-sell other product items offered by the decorator. The direct marketing initiatives show to be overwhelming and have led to not only immediate sales raises, but also to the development of effective and updated database tool for prospect marketing campaigns.

CMS responses with a database construction model and an outbound marketing campaign designed to take full advantage of the wealth of the data and qualify the prospects by their needs, budget and timeline.  CMS is planning to manage the marketing campaign for about 6 months and to set appointments daily for the national sales teams. The information to be collected with the direct marketing communications effort might prove to be of paramount importance for salespersons in their face-to-face meetings with the prospects and buyers.

Different marketing communication programs are also being considered. Each aims to target a specific prospecting audience. A direct mail campaign is also being planned to further support the communications effort by strategically offering discount incentives throughout different seasons of the year when these customers would be more likely interested in related seasonal products offered by the decorating company. 
 
problems

problem 1: Illustrate and discuss the consumer-decision making process of DecoPlus prospects?

problem 2: At the heart of successful direct marketing activity is database, and for this reason, it is often referred as database marketing.

problem 3: Outline 2 ways how the database marketing can help DecoPlus in its direct marketing efforts. Being the direct marketing consultant of CMS, describe the areas of information you need to consider in designing a successful marketing plan for DecoPlus.

problem 4: For the direct marketing campaign to succeed, the right message needs to be sent to the right audience at the right time.  As the CMS marketing consultant what procedures you would adopt to ensure the smooth development and implementation of the campaign?