Siegfried Vögele Institute for Dialog Marketing

Promoting the science and practice of dialog marketing

The classic marketing tools for attracting customers are becoming less and less efficient and thus less and less important today, the reason being that markets and sales channels, and customer behaviour itself are changing rapidly. Various underlying conditions are responsible for this, including the new global communications and information technologies, market fragmentation, growing individualization of customers and increasing information overload and oversaturation.

Anyone who wants to engage in a successful dialogue with customers in the long term must be able to recognize new market mechanisms as quickly as possible and react to them using the right dialogue method. Establishing and maintaining direct relationships with customers require, above all, exclusive knowledge, market research, flexibility and ongoing development as well as entrepreneurial thinking in the area of dialog marketing.

Deutsche Post World Net has responded to these challenges by founding the Siegfried Vögele Institute for Dialog Marketing in Königstein near Frankfurt/Main, which was founded and opened in March/April 2002.

The institute is named after Professor Siegfried Vögele, who successfully integrated postal tools into marketing by developing the dialogue method. His idea of using "written sales interviews" as a means of attracting new customers and of achieving customer loyalty has had a lasting impact on dialog marketing. The institute's key objectives involve the further development of Professor Vögele's dialogue marketing philosophy on the one hand and, on the other, the transfer of knowledge, research and further training in the area of modern dialog marketing methods. These objectives are being pursued in the Dialogue Academy, Basic Research, Contract Research and Networking Departments.

The Siegfried Vögele Institute attaches a great deal of importance to main- taining contact with Deutsche Post World Net's customers. From 2003 onwards, major trends and innovations in the area of dialog marketing are to be elaborated and communicated as part of regular international work- shops and an annual central dialogue conference. In addition, the institute is developing a network with institutions of higher education and universities.