Green is not below Bates job

Paul Lambert’s letter (MW April 29) about Graham Green’s appointment to head up Bates’ new integrated marketing operation, apart from being personally rude, was fundamentally wrong.

As an early sales promotion protagonist (who fits Lambert’s strange list of criteria as a guru) who now works in response management and customer support at the heart of direct marketing, I feel that I can have a more balanced view of the relationship between sales promotion and direct marketing.

Much of DM was “SP in an envelope”, as John Hooper put it, often implemented with incentives that were poorly understood and wastefully implemented.

SP, meanwhile, ignored the value of the responses it collected.

Now with the power to mine and manipulate data, coupled with new channels of distribution, DM and SP are converging with a new-found focus on the customer and not the respondent.

The planning skills of DM should therefore be tuned to using the likes of RFM and Churn modelling, while the creative skills of SP bring an appropriate message and offer to a very precisely profiled target group.

Both disciplines are blending into one new skill set, and the new thinking is being developed and enhanced by good management.

Anyone who knows Graham Green or who has watched his career knows he is a strong character who will grasp new issues and develop a successful team. Just what any new agency group needs. Guru or not, Graham Green’s the guy for the job.

Tim Arnold

(e-mail)