Background History, Marketing Capital Corporation

Identifying the opportunities and meeting the challenges in direct marketing

Marketing Capital Corporation is a privately held marketing consulting and investment company providing specialized consulting services to the direct response industry.

Both domestically and internationally, direct marketing has become one of the largest, and fastest growing, marketing areas available to any organization providing goods or services to business and individuals.

Direct marketing is unusually flexible; it can be utilized through mass marketing to the largest possible audience through a wide range of media, or narrowly targeted to a specific "niche" market segment. And direct marketing is precisely measurable; a carefully planned test-marketing program can be expanded within clearly defined parameters, producing sales response, and profits, that closely replicate test model performance.

Whether targeted at a broad market or a specific "niche", direct marketing offers virtually any company a unique opportunity to enhance its customer base and increase sales in a controlled, cost effective manner.

And, because of our extensive experience in all phases of direct marketing, both in the United States and abroad, Marketing Capital Corporation can bring its unique perspective to your business, offering solutions in strategy, information technology, finance and operations to meet your company's direct marketing objectives.

Marketing consulting services

In recent years, tremendous advances in information and communications technology has revolutionized the way business does business. Direct marketing is at the cutting edge of this information revolution; indeed, creative and sophisticated new ways of identifying, tracking, and serving potential customers has made direct marketing even more attractive and cost-effective than it has been in the past, for an increasing number of business.

Whether your company presently concentrates its sales and promotional efforts in direct marketing, or you are interested in adding a direct marketing component to your overall marketing efforts, Marketing Capital Corporation can help you define your objectives and realize your marketing goals in an efficient and effective manner.

Utilizing sophisticated direct marketing techniques, carefully targeted sales messages can be delivered to prospects through a variety of focused media, including direct mail, space advertising, television commercials and "infomercials", telemarketing and emerging interactive marketing media, either as the main thrust of a marketing effort, or as a valuable addition to traditional marketing approaches.

Working closely with your project development or operations people, Marketing Capital Corporation will help you identify potential customers and develop a marketing strategy to target and solicit those customers in a cost-effective manner.

Developing a successful marketing program

First and foremost, Marketing Capital Corporation provides a single, easily accessible source to direct marketers in two critical areas.

For "start-up" operations, we provide expertise spanning four decades of on-line experience in all phases of direct marketing, to avoid all-too-common and costly errors and false starts where a client may lack specific experience in a given area.

For on-going direct marketing programs, Marketing Capital can provide a fresh, new approach to present marketing problems that often provide breakthrough results.

Marketing Capital Corporation can also assist your company in developing marketing strategy and implementation of an action plan with its many interlocking tactics and facets.

Central to our philosophy of successful direct marketing is the creation of a single dominant "offer" to sell a product or service, based on a painstaking analysis of customer benefits and features of the product or service, coupled with appropriate database knowledge of the needs, expectations, desires and demographics of the target customer.

Marketing Capital Corporation will help your marketing staff develop and position your product or service to create the powerful, compelling "offer" that is central to any direct marketing program. And, equally important, we will provide an objective "outside" viewpoint regarding proposed or existing marketing and creative plans.

This sharp focus on the "offer" and careful control of all facets of your marketing effort will enable your company to enjoy planned growth, maximizing opportunities while minimizing the possibility of unpleasant surprises. It is this concept of planned growth that enables Marketing Capital clients to grow steadily in both revenue and profits, despite operating in highly competitive business environments where they may be out-spent by larger competitors.

Furthermore, our experience and expertise will prove to be invaluable to any company interested in developing an international direct marketing operation. We will work with your existing marketing staff in developing feasibility studies and financing requirements, and in analyzing the potential of various overseas markets. And, through our many contacts both in the United States and overseas, we can assist in establishing joint ventures with in-place foreign operations to minimize time and cost considerations in starting de novo in unfamiliar markets.

Implementing a successful marketing program

Developing an intelligent, cost-effective marketing program is only the first step. Equally important is its implementation.

In today's increasingly competitive environment, direct marketing encompasses a wide range of activities, ranging from advertising in traditional space media, television and radio spot advertisements and "infomercials", direct mail, catalog sales, package insert programs, and various alternate media.

The development and placement of direct marketing campaigns often requires skills, insights, and methodologies not readily available at traditional advertising agencies. Furthermore, the day to-day operation of a direct marketing program utilizes banking, data and order processing, fulfillment and customer service facilities many companies are unable to provide "in house".

Because of our close relationship with award-winning creative facilities specializing in direct response marketing, our intimate associations with media buying services, and our long-standing affiliations with data -processing and order- fulfillment facilities, Marketing Capital is able, where appropriate, to provide clients with virtually "turn-key" programs for direct marketing operations of almost any size.

Our track record speaks for itself

Marketing Capital Corporation is in the business of creating business for our clients. It is not surprising, therefore, that more than 70% of our clients have remained with us since the inception of our consulting business in 1972.

Our distinguished roster of clients includes both large and small firms with marketing operations in five countries, the United States, Canada, Switzerland, France and the United Kingdom. Each of these clients has annual sales ranging from $10 million to $2 billion.

The industries which we currently serve include publishing, consumer electronics, insurance, jewelry, collectibles, health and beauty aides, household products, horticulture and gardening, and general merchandise.

Equity funding division

Perhaps unique among marketing consulting firms, Marketing Capital Corporation has provided funding for "niche" marketers with unusual potential for growth, by taking an equity position. To our clients, this means we have "hands on" managerial experience in direct marketing companies at every stage of their development.

We believe, in the current international economic environment, the less specific a marketing objective is, the more difficult it is for a company to survive. Conversely, a carefully focused operation structured around key niche markets, coupled with the growing power of computerized databases to identify and exploit narrowly targeted audiences, can be the key to dramatic marketing success and rapid corporate growth.

Acting on this belief, Marketing Capital Corporation has taken a significant ownership position in a wide range of companies exploiting micro-marketing opportunities both in the United States and abroad. Our current portfolio includes investments in music continuity programs, horticulture, jewelry, high performance automotive products, and genuine leather products.