Why Marketing Testing Fails and How Imagination Bridges the Gap by John Miglautsch, Published 10/2026 Direct Mail Insiders For decades, the marketing industry has been obsessed with data — specifically, the promise that if we collect enough of it, we can predict the future. We build sophisticated models, run hundreds of tests, and rely on
Time, Testing & Imagination Read More »
John Miglautsch We live on a ‘power island’. This was the 3rd outage in 9 months. But in almost 40 years it’s never gone out for 24 hours. 50 years ago, 1973-74 winter, there was a 3-day outage. This looked similarly dangerous. We live next door to a cattle pasture, so when our power goes,
Surviving Jan 24 Blizzard – How Business Principles Work in Crisis Read More »
John Miglautsch A few weeks ago, AdAge actually published a Direct Mail article (one of only 13 in 28 years). My attempt to read it was rewarded with a flood of email – 11 per day. Several were subscription offers. As much as we deny it, Direct Mail (Dmail), the second largest media in ad
Incremental Lift for ‘24 – Prove Your Worth! Read More »
John Miglautsch I was amazed by an article by Phoebe Bain in Ad Age “Why DTC brands are increasing direct mail marketing”. In my 40 yr + marketing career, the mass-media general ad world has not recognized the power of direct mail (or even acknowledged its existence). After repeated attempts to try to read her
Why I Will NOT Subscribe to AdAge Read More »
By John Miglautsch and edited by Mike Chiricuzio August 29, 2023 “With all the abilities to use the principles of psychology within DM and all the testing and measurement available to DM users, why does there appear to be so much bad DM, and why does it have a bad reputation?” Mike Chiricuzio I have
Why is Direct Mail Junk? Read More »
Miglautsch Marketing has now created the “Werewolf Variable” (though Jim has aptly called it the “Full Moon Variable”). Its historical roots are covered below. So far, it seems to have predictive power and certainly interesting dinner conversation potential. Read on for a discussion of variables in general… and if your modelers don’t include variables like
A friend sent me the above chart and asked me what I thought of it. The author suggests, “Shaded cells reflect that 80,495 customers reside in those cells that received a 2% or more response rate. So about 80.5% of the mailing went to customers who had 2% plus response rate. To the right of
Discover how Direct MAIL solves the age old issue of cause & effect in Marketing vs Sales. Use MAIL as your on-going laboratory… even if you’re are a digitally driven marketing culture. A perfect example of higher audience engagement with mail marketing shows the gambling industry. A significant percent of real money online casino players (almost 36%)
I still remember my first seminar on modeling. I was shown how, with proper statistical techniques, done by a Ph.D. Statistician, one could find the top 20% of the customers who produced 80% of the profits in a mailing. Neiman Marcus ran the tests and the graphics were impressive. However, questions arose in my mind,
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. Read More »
WHY MAIL – The most powerful weapon no one is using 10 minutes to touch on Digital Marketing confusion compared with the clarity that Mail Marketing brings. Case Study at the end. Power packed 10 minute overview of why Mail belongs as the foundation of your Marketing strategy. Are you frustrated with Digital attribution –
Mail, The Greatest Marketing Weapon No One is Using Read More »