Dictionary of Marketing Terms: buy-or-die message
buy-or-die message
promotional copy directed toward inactive directmail customers stating that they will be removed from the mailing list unless they make a purchase. For example, the message may state, "Although we value you as a customer, our costs have increased to the point where we'll be unable to send you future issues of this catalog unless we receive an order from you soon." The marketer is betting that the customer enjoys receiving the catalog, wishes to remain on the list, and will make a purchase from which the marketer can more than recover the cost of mailing catalogs to that customer. Customers who respond to a buy-or-die message may become more frequent buyers in the future.
