ABSTRACT
Investments in direct marketing have been increasing by the organisations. More and more resources are nowadays being allocated to direct marketing activities by organisations. The primary reason for the moving of budgets toward direct marketing is the failure of traditional mass marketing approaches in recent times. Direct marketing, unlike traditional mass marketing approaches, offers better targeting and a direct, measurable response. Moreover, direct marketers also have the advantage of being flexible and the ability of personalising their campaigns. This has led to more and more organisations adopting direct marketing strategies including British Gas. British Gas has been one of the top users of direct marketing in terms of spending and volume.
However, despite of adoption of direct marketing model, the British Gas market share has been decreasing. The responses of the consumers to the direct marketing activities also have not been encouraging. This dissertation tests the effects of direct marketing strategies adopted by British Gas on its performance. Further, the impact of direct marketing activities by the organisation on the consumer and the responses of consumer towards these direct marketing strategies are also studied. Results showed that direct marketing has been a successful approach by British Gas and it has actually contributed to bottom line results positively and significantly, whereas the consumer survey revealed negative responses of consumer towards direct marketing activities. Most consumers were apprehensive towards direct marketing and believed that direct marketing infringes on their privacy. Therefore, direct marketing appears to be having a bad reputation among consumers.
