Database marketing
Database marketing is a form of direct marketing
using databases of customers or potential customers
to generate personalised communications in order to
promote a product or service for marketing purposes.
The method of communication can be any addressable
medium, as in direct marketing.
The difference between direct and database
marketing stems primarily from the attention paid to
the analysis of data. Database marketing emphasizes
gathering all available customer, lead, and prospect
information into a central database and using
statistical techniques to develop models of customer
behavior, which are then used to select customers
for communications. As a consequence, database
marketers also tend to be heavy users of data
warehouses, because having a greater amount of data
about customers increases the likelihood that a more
accurate model can be built.
 The "database" is usually name, address, and
transaction history details from internal sales or
delivery systems, or a bought-in compiled "list"
from another organization, which has captured that
information from its customers. Typical sources of
compiled lists are charity donation forms,
application forms for any free product or contest,
product warranty cards, subscription forms, and
credit application forms.
The communications generated by database
marketing may be described as junk mail or spam, if
it is unwanted by the addressee. Direct and database
marketing companies, on the other hand, argue that a
targeted letter or e-mail to a customer, who wants
to be contacted about offerings that may interest
the customer, benefits both the customer and the
marketer.
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