Direct mail solicitations by professional and nonprofessional services

A literature review and empirical study are used to investigate consumers’ perceptions of the quality of professional and nonprofessional services that employ direct mail solicitations containing promotional offers. Findings indicate that recipients form less favorable quality perceptions of solicitations which contain promotional offers than of those without such offers. In addition, results indicate that service type mediates the effects of solicitations with promotional offers: (1) Quality perceptions formed upon exposure to professional services solicitations with promotional offers were far less favorable than those formed upon exposure to professional services solicitations without promotional offers; and (2) quality perceptions formed upon exposure to nonprofessional services solicitations with promotional offers were only slightly less favorable than those formed upon exposure to nonprofessional services solicitations without promotional offers. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings.