Sponsored Content WEBINAR: ELECTION 2008: E-mail Tips from a Political Insider   WEBINAR: Becoming the Illusionist: The Magic of Using "Brand" to Drive Response without Results Disappearing in the Process   WEBINAR: Score and Win Through Cooperation   TOOLS OF THE TRADE: Holiday's are prime-time for email marketing - maximize your ROI by getting to the inbox   ON DEMAND WEBINAR--MASTER CLASS: High Performance Online and Off-line Strategies for Large Scale Customer Acquisition   FREE WHITE PAPER - Direct Mail and the Internet Find any supplier you need - agencies, CRM, fulfillment, lists, e-commerce, paper, printers, telemarketing, and more. Featured Categories Lists and Data Telemarketing Database Marketing E-commerce Web Marketing Agency & Creative Services Print, Production & Paper Lists and Data Processing :: view all categories Get free access to more than 50,000 list data cards - one of the most comprehensive databases in the industry. >> Search Now DIRECT Buzz Blog Webinars Buyer's Guide Calculators JobZone ListFinder Promo Calendar Research Store E-Newsletters Print Magazine This Month in Direct Magazine Deal With It Direct had a full house for this year's list roundtable. Considering all the additional responsibilities on brokers' plates, that's impressive... See Full July Issue

In the theater, the “fourth wall” is an invisible line at the end of the stage that separates the actors from the audience. Actors break the wall when they address the audience directly. Think Hamlet's soliloquies, or George Burns speaking to the camera in Burns and Allen reruns.

But to Bob DeSena, the fourth wall is the line that prevents communication between a company and its customers. DeSena should know: As director of relationship marketing at Masterfoods USA, he's responsible for breaking down the walls that separate the maker of Whiskas cat food, Uncle Ben's rice, Snickers candy bars, Pedigree dog food, and M&Ms from its customers.

DeSena quoted figures from McKinsey stating that by 2005, 49% of all media will be two-way, or interactive, up from its single-digit level today.

Masterfoods believes that any communication coming from a customer should be treated as if it came from the boss — which in a sense it is, he said.

DeSena already spearheaded one of the largest two-way marketing efforts ever hosted by a packaged goods firm: When Masterfoods let consumers vote on which color it would add to its M&Ms, the program reached 200 countries and was translated into 15 languages.

The campaign went hand in hand with the firm's Colorworks Web site (www.colorworks.com), which allows consumers to customize M&M mixes among 22 colors, including several not normally found in retail packages.

“There were requests for certain color combinations, such as school colors, company colors and favorite sports teams,” DeSena said. “We took that as advice from the boss. The site increased our R&D department by several hundred thousand people.”

One resulting innovation will launch this fall, when M&M rolls out a series of packages containing candies bearing the colors of their favorite National Football League teams. While this may not be a big change for followers of the Cleveland Browns, fans of the other teams should be very excited, DeSena noted.

Two-way communication goes beyond making sure customers are satisfied, he continued. The goal is to get customers involved with the brand, even if they're dissatisfied. Uninvolved satisfied consumers defect at a rate four times greater than those who are dissatisfied but feel that companies are reacting — and attempting to resolve — their discontent.