Another type of direct marketing has occurred of the market prevalence of personal voice mailboxes, as well as business voicemail systems. Due to the ubiquity of email marketing, and the expidenture of direct mail and telemarketing, voicemail marketing presented a cost efficient means by which to reach potential clients with the warmth of a human voice.
Mistreatment of consumer marketing applications of voicemail marketing resulted in an large quantity of “voice-spam”, and prompted many jurisdictions to pass laws regulating client voicemail marketing.

For a lot of marketers, a comprehensive direct marketing campaign employs a combination of channels. It is not strange for a large campaign to combine direct mail, telemarketing, radio and broadcast TV, as well as online channels such as, for example, email, search marketing, social networking or video. In a report that was conducted by the Direct Marketing Association, it was established that 57% of the campaigns studied were employing incorporated strategies. Of those, almost half (47%) launched with a direct mail campaign, characteristically followed by e-mail and then telemarketing.

A related form of marketing is considered to be infomercials. They are usually called direct response marketing more than direct marketing for the reason that they try to achieve a direct response with the help broadcast on a third party’s medium, but viewers reply directly via telephone or internet.

TV-response marketing like infomercials -can be measured a form of direct marketing, since reaction is in the form of calls to telephone numbers given on-air. This both makes possible for marketers to sensibly conclude that the calls are due to a special campaign, and allows the marketers to get customers’ phone numbers as targets for telemarketing.

The second most used form of direct marketing is considered to be telemarketing in which marketers contact consumers via phone. The disrespect of cold call telemarketing (in which the consumer does not expect or asks for the sales call) has led some USA states and the USA federal government to create so called “no-call-lists” and legislation counting heavy fines. This process can be outsourced to specialist call-centers.

In the United States, a nation do-not-call list came into effect on October 1, 2003.

Pricing as the most efficient profit lever. Pricing can be come within reach of at three levels. The industry level, market level, and transaction level.

Pricing at the industry level normally focuses on the overall economics of the industry, counting supplier price changes and client demand changes.

Pricing at the market level bases on the competitive position of the price in comparison to the value degree of difference of the product to that of comparative competing goods.

Pricing at the transaction level bases on managing the implementation of discounts away from the reference.

Demand-based pricing is any kind of pricing technique that uses consumer demand – derived form perceived value - as the central element. Demand based pricing includes : price skimming, penetration pricing, bundle pricing, psychological pricing, geo and premium pricing, price discrimination , price lining, and premium pricing as well.

Among pricing factors are manufacturing cost, market position, competition, market conditions, and quality of products.

To a certain extend less frequent example of contemporary approaches to channels is where two or sometimes even more non-competing organizations decide on a joint venture - a joint marketing operation – for the reason that it is beyond the capacity of each individual organization itself.

As a general rule, this fact is less likely to revolve around marketing synergy.

Some researches indicate that vertical integration is a strategy that is best pursued at the mature stage of the market (or certain product). At earlier stages it can really reduce profits. It is open to question that it also diverts attention from the actual business of the organization. Suppliers seldom excel in retail operations and, theoretically, retailers should focus on their sales outlets rather than on manufacturing amenities (Marks & Spencer, for example, very intentionally provides significant amounts of technical assistance to its suppliers, but does not have them).

Unusual approaches are ‘contractual systems’, frequently led by a wholesale or retail co-operative, and `administered marketing systems’ where one (chief) member of the distribution chain uses its place to co-ordinate the other members’ activities. This has customarily been the form led by manufacturers.

The intention of vertical marketing is to give all those concerned (and mainly the supplier at one end, and the retailer at the other) ‘control’ of the distribution chain. This takes away one set of variables from the marketing equations.

This relatively current development integrates the channel with the unique supplier - producer, wholesalers and retailers working in one combined system. This may arise for the reason that one member of the chain possesses the other elements (often called `corporate systems integration’); a supplier possessing its own retail outlets, this being ‘forward’ integration. It is probably more likely that a retailer will possess its own suppliers, this being ‘backward’ integration. (For instance, MFI, the furniture retailer, possesses Hygena which makes its kitchen and bedroom units.) The integration may also be by franchise (such as that provided by McDonald’s hamburgers and Benetton clothes) or easy co-operation.