From the point of view of the PR manager at Cabestan, permission-based e-mails must be highly personalized, not only addressing the customer by his or her name, but with content that reflects his or her particular needs. He viewed permission e-mails as a major customer relationship tool that completes the company Web site. In fact one of the main reasons customers visit a site is because of effective permission e-mail marketing. The CEO of E-mail Vision supported this and added, 'E-mail marketing maximizes each customer's value over time by building long-term relationships and loyalty.' To an online company, customer loyalty is extremely important.

The companies using permission-based e-mail marketing while working with an ASP are generally charged on a cost-per-message delivered basis and this can be very low. The CEO of E-mail Vision estimated that these costs are 80 per cent lower than those connected with postal direct marketing. The standard cost of an e-mail managed by E-mail Vision is about 0.03 euros. Also, companies using e-mail will probably only need the service of a Web graphic designer rather than a specialized advertising agency to set up their campaigns.

The CEO of E-mail Vision believed that permission e-mail marketing is highly effective and produces a good return on investment (ROI), and figures given to us by the interviewees are similar to those within the literature. The CEO of Cabestan pointed to companies that they deal with such as Bayard Press Publishers, France Loisirs and La Redoute, which have all benefited from a permission-based e-mail campaign that has not only shown a good ROI but has developed a good base for better customer relationships.

This compares with several weeks or months in other traditional direct marketing methods such as catalogue marketing. The CEO of E-mail Vision suggested that an entire e-mail campaign could be designed and executed within one single week, as the technology provided by an ASP enables companies to start collecting 'opt-in' names within 48 hours, and test results can be tracked in real time and conclusions delivered within 72 hours. Companies can even monitor customer reactions to e-mail campaigns by integrating customer satisfaction surveys into the message, to interrogate the readers' perceptions of ergonomics and content, and ask what else they might want.

The ability to measure the effectiveness of an e-mail campaign is an aspect of this approach that is potentially seductive to companies. Traditional approaches to direct marketing have required analysis of results over weeks or months after the campaign is finished, but e-mail campaigns can be analysed instantly using software tools at any point in the campaign through a Web browser.

Neither interviewee believed that permission-based e-mail marketing will replace traditional approaches, and both view it as a complementary addition to any company's marketing strategy. It is their belief that paper-based advertising media have a much better visual impact at present, and not everyone has access to computers.