Game-Changing Brands

From AOL's mass-mailed diskettes and CD-ROMs to JetBlue's customer-retention efforts, most well-known US and international corporations have used direct marketing, e-commerce and digital efforts to engrain themselves in American popular culture.

Whether it's one generation looking back fondly at the Sears Holiday Wishbook, or a latter generation sharing shoe deals from Zappos on a social network, many direct marketing efforts are legendary in and of themselves.

Moreover, many were instrumental in developing relationships between marketers, such as Orvis, LL Bean, Hilton and Wal-Mart, and consumers that have lasted decades.

DMNews chose to note 30 distinguished brands for their efforts over the past three decades, which, in some cases, continue to resonate in consumers' minds long after the brands have diminished in importance.

The list is a trip down memory lane for some, with the first top e-retailers, catalogers and CRM specialists, and it has praise for brands that are innovating – or Tweeting – their ways forward as groundbreakers.