Some consumer product marketing dilemmas

This article examines key factors in certain shifting trends from the predominating mass marketing traditions to the growing refinement and sophistication of direct marketing techniques. It explores the crucial roles-of sales promotion, database development and use, changing brand-name concepts, and other aspects of the field's rapid development. Anticipations for the future include an evolutionary, emerging pattern of what works best, suggesting further erosion of the mass market and increasingly conscious streamlining of direct methods.