Understanding how companies use consumer information can be difficult if you have never had a job or internship that required you to use databases or customer profiles.32
1. Save all the direct-mail advertising that comes to your mailbox for at least a week. You may ask your parents or friends to collect direct mail that they receive as well.
2. Once you have your stack of mail, organize it according to the household that received it. For example, if friends and family helped you collect mail, then keep mail sent to each address together. Make a list of all material in each group.
3. To what kind of customer is each piece of mail targeted? What makes you think as you do?
4. Based on the content of the mail pieces, determine what kind of information the various companies have about you, your friends, or your family in their databases. Are there indications on the mailers about what kind of interactions the recipient has had with the sender of the marketing piece?
5. Write out an aggregate profile for each address. If you were a direct marketer, what kind of products and services would you market to each? What kind of offers would you create?