because it was a new concept at the time. In today’s world, marketers expect personalization to reflect the interests of the customer. In order for VDP to be successful, the company must first know something about the customer. For example, a customer who loves baseball might be given a VDP postcard containing an image of their favorite baseball player. Compared to a generically printed marketing postcard, such a VDP postcard is more likely to be effective, because the customer is more likely to read the material that it carries. Conversely, an example of an ineffective VDP piece would entail mailing a postcard to the same customer with an image of a soccer player. If the customer has no interest in soccer, then he or she might or might not pay attention to the postcard. The ultimate goal is to attract the customer's attention to a sales pitch of some type, with the intent of generating demand for a product or service (which might be something that the customer has no need for, but which the advertising manages to convince the customer to pay for anyway). As a communication tool, personalization enables the company to communicate in such a way as to develop business relationships with prospective customers and also to maintain relationships with their current customers. In this way, a prospect who is converted to a customer can then be converted to a loyal customer, who continues to buy goods or services from that company. A company that produces good-quality products or provides useful services will retain the loyal customers that it has created. Another benefit of VDP is the increase in the response rate and the reduction in response time. Because personalization more effectively catches the attention of the consumer, the response rate of a mail campaign increases. Personalization also decreases the response time, because the mailed piece generally has a more profound and more meaningful effect on the consumer. This effect, in turn, induces the consumer to respond more quickly, especially if the mailed piece contains a call to action such as a time-limited offer with a clearly enunciated deadline. In contrast, a mailed piece that is not eye-catching may instead be set aside and forgotten until a later date. Therefore, in such a case, it might take weeks or longer for a response to be obtained, if one is in fact obtained at all. Integration Variable data