Are direct mail response rates on the skids?

while it can be argued that direct mail response rates are on the skids (caused by the significant amount of competition in direct mail) it has been proven that marriage mail is more effective.

Couple reasons:

1.) usually includes local restaurant bargains
2.) gives consumers multiple reasons to open the deck
3.) majority of household mail is opened up by women
4.) women do most of the "grocery shopping" for households
5.) marriage mail has a longer shelf life vs. solo mail.

I can keep going...but you catch the drift.

One of the weaknesses of marriage mail is the inundation of business types. This is one reason why exclusivity is an important decision factor.

Good information on our site: www.solutionsdirectmail.com and some on our competitors http://www.rsvppublications.com/

Originally Posted by ilovesuperpages.com while it can be argued that direct mail response rates are on the skids (caused by the significant amount of competition in direct mail) it has been proven that marriage mail is more effective.

I'm interested in this statement, not merely to be confrontational but because direct marketing trends in the UK are often 12-24 months behind the USA. Couple of questions if you don't mind:

a) Proven how? Statistics? and if so where can I view them?
b) Proven more effective in what way? higher response rates? better campaign ROI? etc
c) How do you compile your statistics for marriage mail? By that I mean if you mail a deck of 20 postcards and somebody responds to one offer/ad in the deck is that classed as 'hit' for the pack, a 1/20th hit for the pack or is each postcard viewed in isolation so you get varying response rates within a deck?