MERYL GARDNER JENNIFER KAPLAN CARL PARIS1 ROBERT zyxwvutsrq STERN FEUCU WEINSTEIN zyxwvutsrq Direct Mail Solicitations by Professional and Nonprofessional Services zyx Effects of Promotional zyx Offers on Perceptions of Quality zyxw MERYL zyxwvutsrq P CARDNER is an associate professur of marketing at the Graduate School of Business Administration, New York University- She received her PhD and MS degrees from the Graduate zyxwvutsrqpo School of Industrial Administration, Camegie- Mellon University-and her zyxwvutsrq AEl degree from the Johns Hopkins University. JENNIFER KAPlAN. CARL PARISI, ROBERT STERN and FELlClA WEINSTEIN are MBA students at the Graduate School of Business Administration, New York University. Ms. Kaplan earned her BA degree at Bamard College. Mr. Parisi received his BA degree from the Uni- versity of Michigan. Mr. Stem earned his 8A degree at Vassar College. Ms. Weinstein received her BA degree from Boston University. ABSTRACT A literature review and empirical study are used to investigate consumers' perceptions of the quality of professional and nonprofessional services that employ direct mail solicitations containing promotional offers. Findings indicate that recipients form less favorable quality percep- tions of solicitations which contain promotional offers than of those without such offers. In addition, results indicate that service type mediates the effects of solicitations with promo- tional offers: (1) Quality perceptions formed upon exposure to professional services solicitations with promotional offers were far less favorable than those formed upon exposure to profes- sional senn'ces solicitations without promotional offers; and f2) quality perceptions formed upon exposure to nonprofessionalservices solicitations with promotional offers were only slightly less favorable than those formed upon exposure to nonprofessiona I services solicitations without promotional offers. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings. 32 JOURW OF DIRECT MARKETING 1.2 SPRING 1987