The rapid growth and development of database marketing.Many companies are
building databases containing customer names; geographic, demographic, and psychographic profiles; purchase patterns; media preferences; credit ratings; and other characteristics. Marketers are using this information to target consumers through a variety of direct-marketing methods such as telemarketing, direct mail, and direct-response
advertising, rather than relying on mass media. Advocates of the approach argue that
database marketing is critical to the development and practice of effective IMC