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WE TEND TO REPEAT DOGMA BECAUSE IT'S THE easiest and — in the absence of education — most defendable argument we can mount.

So when somebody asks us what response we can expect from a direct mail package, the knee-jerk answer is “Two percent.” When somebody asks us whether to send e-mail on a Sunday, the auto-reply is “No.”

Do we have any evidence to the contrary in either case? Ah, that's the problem…because chances are we're spouting a reply without having — or, worse, without paying attention to — any evidence one way or the other.

(One of the 7,845 ongoing surveys of e-mail use says that Sunday has low “open” rates but the highest “clickthrough” rate. And an admission: I'm guessing at the 7,845 number. It might be 7,850.)

The first syllable of “dogma” is “dog.” And dogmatic reliance on folklore, comfortable though it is, is itself an intellectual dog that can't compete with cold-blooded contemporary analysis untainted by a dogmatic “We've always done it this way.”

Ever since some Stone Age direct marketer proposed the notion that a successful mailing produces a 2% response, we've been subject to — and sometimes victims of — folklore.

(Want a dogmatic comment? Here's one: A continuity program that pulls 2% is extraordinarily high. A one-shot that pulls 2% is a dog.)

In the various pages of this publication, from time to time you'll read dispassionate analyses of direct response projects. What a pleasure to read dispassionate analyses instead of “This is what I did, so look at me!”

When personal ego vanishes into the cerebral wastebasket, we actually may get usable information. One such nugget that has fascinated me because the “What” is there for inspection while the “Why” remains a semi-enigma is that in so many instances heavy production suppresses response.

Strange, isn't it, that we so readily accept change in fields other than our own. We don't write copy on yellow tablets or on typewriters. We don't even consider how both our professional lives and our personal lives would suffer or even collapse if we didn't have e-mail and cell phones.

But within our familiar sphere, our experiential background muzzles new ideas and blames the bullets, the target and maybe the phase of the moon because our creative gun is a blunderbuss instead of an AK-47. Too many of us are gorilla-glued to a sad psychological factor that becomes an unglueable truism: It's easier to renounce the obvious than it is to renounce the traditional. Pouring cerebral acetone to dissolve that glue is the mark of a disciplined professional, one whose mind isn't cemented shut.

You, as I, may have been privy to mailings (especially in the financial sector) in which a two-color brochure outpulled a four-color brochure. How can that be? Full color costs more. And here's that dinky monochrome envelope trying to compete with a custom-converted four-color envelope…and beating it. How can that be? Full color costs more.

Hey, what's this? You expected text to bring more e-mail response than a produced message? And that expectation turned out to be prophetic? How can that be? Produced media costs more.

We know from movies (remember “Ishtar” and “Gigli” and more recently “The Island”?) that tossing money at a project isn't as effective as thinking the project through. In which movie would you have preferred to be an investor — the $100+ million “The Island” which lost about $50 million or the $1 million “March of the Penguins” that made about $50 million? Somebody let ego get in the way of sound judgment. Somebody else didn't.

I'm gathering ammunition for a future communication in these pages, discussing the logical and illogical use of celebrities as spokes-people. Joe Namath comes to mind as a peculiar choice to front an investment fund, and chances are strong my analysis won't be favorable. Why not use Osama? He's available. He has financial experience. He's a known name. If that won't work because of gender bias, Britney Spears seems to be a solid past-her-prime choice.

(If you're an executive at an advertising agency, no, no — ignore that suggestion. Put down that phone. I'm only kidding.)

Television is a primary “Look how clever I am!” medium. Manufacturers of 2007 cars now are principal time-buyers. How many car commercials actually give you a reason to buy the car? Would you ever consider sending a direct mail package on behalf of a dealer, using the same flashy-but-non-selling imagery the TV spots use? We learned — or should have learned — generations ago that claims of superiority are impotent unless they include ostensible proof of buyer benefit.

One aspect of what we do remains immutable: A properly targeted message, underproduced, will outpull an improperly targeted message, overproduced. So think twice before you print in six colors, especially if one of those extra colors is black and the other is white.

In more understandable, if more irritating terms: Producing a communication that maximizes response should be more satisfying than producing a communication designed to give you a sample for your personal portfolio. If collecting samples is even a secondary motive, good luck in your next job.

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HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS (www.herschellgordonlewis.com) is the principal of Lewis Enterprises in Fort Lauderdale, FL. He consults with and writes direct response copy for clients worldwide. “Burnt Offerings,” his newly published 30th book, is a dissection of DR fundraising techniques. Among his other books are “Open Me Now,” the curmudgeonly titled “Asinine Advertising,” and “On the Art of Writing Copy” (third edition).