Room & Board leads the way

June 30th, 2009

We spend a lot of time looking at how and where catalog merchants communicate mail choices to you, the consumer. Typically, you can find an unsubscribe email address, form and/or a telephone number in a merchant’s Privacy Policy on their web site. Many members of the Direct Marketing Association also provide a link to the DMA’s mail preference service. And now, slowly but surely, our participating merchants are letting consumers know they can use Catalog Choice as well.

We were thrilled to see this statement in Room & Board’s Privacy Policy:

“We love to send you our annual catalog but only if you want it. Because of that, we’ve joined Catalog Choice, an organization that lets consumers indicate which catalogs they no longer wish to receive. If you would prefer to not receive our catalogs in the postal mail, or if you are receiving extra copies that you do not need, please visit catalogchoice.org.”

Room and Board has also printed a version of this statement on the back of their catalog.

John Schroeder, Business Intelligence Manager for Room & Board, has this to say about the service:

“We love CatalogChoice.org! It is a perfect fit with our overall philosophy of sustainability and respecting our consumers’ wishes on how we engage them throughout the year. With our web site becoming a more frequently used tool it only makes sense that customers have the option of their preferred method of engagement with our company. Catalog Choice is one of the many ways we capture this. Thank you Catalog Choice for your services!”

Thank you, Room & Board. We hope other catalog mailers follow your lead!

Posted in Catalog Choice, Merchants | No Comments »

Yahoo - let our members get our email!

June 24th, 2009

We are trying to send our News and Information email to our members and we are not able to get our email delivered to Yahoo.  We have gone through all the necessary steps to ensure that our mail is properly formatted with unsubscribe links, we use the Yahoo Feedback loop to remove addresses that mark our mail as spam, and we are certified by Return Path/Sender Score, a Yahoo partner.

We only send our emails to Catalog Choice members who have double opted-in to our service and requested that they receive our email news.

Yahoo tells us to have our members add Team@catalogchoice.org to their address book.  Great idea - everyone should do this …. but we also need Yahoo to let your email through the door.  We will keep on trying …. this is just extremely frustrating.

Posted in Catalog Choice | No Comments »

A digital alternative: introducing the iCatalog

June 16th, 2009

When convincing a direct marketer to reduce the volume of catalog mailings for the good of the environment, it is very helpful to have an alternative for them to consider.  Today, Catalog Choice is launching a digital alternative to the paper catalog, the iCatalog.  The iCatalog has been designed for the Internet and Mobile platforms from the ground up.  It is easy to use (no manual required) and designed for sharing.

The iCatalog:

  1. lets you browse products from your favorite retailers in the privacy of your digital home - your computer’s desktop, your personalized homepage (iGoogle, MyYahoo, etc.), your Facebook page, or your secure Catalog Choice account.
  2. lets you build a collection of your favorite retailers all in one spot
  3. provides real time updates from retailers on new products, special deals and closeout sales, without inundating your email inbox
  4. lets you share your discoveries with friends via email, bookmarks and messages in your favorite social network.
  5. lets you go entirely paperless, saving natural resources and having fun at the same time.

Let’s take a closer look at an iCatalog from one of our launch partners, Crate&Barrel. Roll your cursor over the widget below and you’ll see a series of category tiles that correspond to the major product categories at Crate&Barrel’s website.  Click the blue arrow > to see the other categories.  It is summertime, so let’s check out what is available in the Outdoor Living category.  To make your browsing easy, each category is divided into various subcategories shown in a convenient list view.  Let’s take a look at the Bristol family of products.  Now you can quickly browse through the products by using the right or left arrows (<  >) along the product strip.  At any time, you can skip back to another category by using the breadcrumbs located in the upper right hand portion of the screen.  See something you like, click Save and a copy is saved to My List or Buy Now to go directly to the product page at www.Crateandbarrel.com.  Want to share you discovery with a friend, select Share and send a quick email with a link to your find.

The best part about the iCatalogs are that you can put them on your desktop or your personal homepage.  I am an avid iGoogle user. I visit my iGoogle page throughout the day to get headline news, weather, stock information. Now, I have set up my iCatalogs page, so I can shop from the privacy of my digital home.  Here is what my personal shopping page looks like.  You can add this set of iCatalogs to your iGoogle page by clicking here (it comes with the cityscape).

igoogle

We will be building many more iCatalogs in the weeks and months ahead.  Let us know what you think and who else we should add to the iCatalog gallery.  If you are a retailer and you are interested in getting your own iCatalog, contact us at team(at)catalogchoice.org.

Proceeds generated from iCatalogs help us fund our free mail preference service.

Posted in Catalog Choice, Featured | 1 Comment »

The Growth of Product Eco-Labels: Clarity or Confusion?

June 10th, 2009

We know that when many of you shop you look for products that are clean, green, organic, and efficient.  As more and more green products enter the marketplace, a growing number of environmental labels are popping up to validate eco-friendly traits.

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal spotlights the growth and validity of these eco-seals. “As green marketing has proliferated, so has the number of ‘eco-labels’ competing to be the environmental equivalent of a Good Housekeeping seal of approval.”  The article states that there are more than 300 such labels putting a green stamp on everything from cosmetics and seafood to bird-friendly coffee. Is the result helping consumers or creating confusion?   Both, it turns out.  The federal government may need to play a stronger role in shaping eco standards so consumers can trust green marketing promises.  To read the entire article here.

Here’s a sampling of some of the many environmental offerings available through our participating Catalog Choice merchants:

Blue Canoe:  Organically grown cotton clothing – all made in the U.S.A.
Crate & Barrel: An assortment of ecologically harvested and FSC certified outdoor and indoor furniture
Cuddledown:  Many certified eco-friendly items from towels, sheets, blankets and sleepwear
Fair Indigo: Full line of fair trade clothing and jewelry and fashionable organics
Fetch Dog: Eco-friendly dog supplies from dog beds to leashes to toys
Garnet Hill:  Organic cotton clothing, bath accessories, and sleepwear
Johnny’s Selected Seeds:  A variety of organic seeds and tools to help organic growing
REI:  A variety of outdoor gear made from recycled fibers
The Y Catalog:  Organic yoga and fitness clothes, beauty products, and eco-friendly yoga mats
UncommonGoods:  An assortment of handmade, recycled, and organic merchandise

Posted in Environment, Featured | No Comments »

Too many solicitation letters?

June 5th, 2009

Interesting article in Slate about contribution solicitations titled: Stop Pleas! The charities I support send me way too many fundraising letters. I’m sick of it. What can I do?

The story is reminisant to the too many catalogs issue we are addressing.  One solution to the give to your favorite charites online.  We use Network For Good for our online donations.  You can find lots of great causes to support there.

Posted in Environment | 4 Comments »

Paperless Marketing

May 28th, 2009

Check out the cool coverage we got in CRM Magazine. Jessica Tsai covered our recent release of digital marketing tools in this article titled Paperless Marketing for the Digital Customer.

We figure that providing merchants with new digital marketing tools gives them one more reason to collaborate with us and honor our member’s mail preference requests.  We’ve learned that you can not push merchants away from paper marketing tools, you need to provide compelling alternatives.

Look for more exciting announcements and new features leveraging our new catalog widgets in the coming weeks.

Posted in Catalog Choice, Merchants | No Comments »

down to an occasional straggler

May 21st, 2009

Our User Feedback inbox is diligently managed by Jen, our Customer Service Hero. She personally responds to each email and works with the rest of the team to make sure that the service is meeting the needs of our members. On occasion, we get angry emails from members who complain that the catalogs have not stopped. We look into each complaint and work with mailers who are not getting the names suppressed in a timely manner.

Jen also gets alot of fan mail, on behalf of the team. Here are several that have come in over the last couple weeks.

Just wanted to say THANK YOU so much for providing this great service! Not only am I not receiving unwanted catalogs but I’m also helping to save the environment! Your website also provides me with an easy way of finding any merchant and their website, also saving the environment. Thank you to all those merchants that have honored my request!
Barbara

Thanks so much for this service! I have been inundated with catalogs, so this site has been a tremendous help to me. I will be mailing a donation.

Kind regards, Jade

I am down to an occasional straggler as far as catalogs go! Many thanks for your help. I really appreciate your service and have been telling as many people as possible about it. In the latter part of 2007, I began using Catalog Choice. Initially, I visited the site frequently in my quest to end the onslaught of unsolicited catalogs in my mail box. That mission has been accomplished with your help.  Since then, I continue to visit Catalog Choice periodically to check on the status of my choices. Each time, I have been impressed with the ongoing improvements to the site. It’s easier than ever to use the site and access/review the information about my choices.  Interestingly, it’s very easy to request a catalog online but next to impossible to “unsubscribe” to one online. All the more reason to thank you for creating Catalog Choice, an ideal solution to that lack.

An appreciative fan,  Lynn

You are nothing short of phenomenal! I was listed on over 200 catalog mailing lists. We literally had to buy a larger box to accommodate them all. Yes, it took a while for me to “opt out” of so many of them, but going to my mailbox these days is a pleasure… I now average about 6 a week…almost all of them are welcome.  Thank you for your remarkable service…it truly works.

I want to share with you how Catalog Choice is making a difference. In
2001, at the urging of my spouse, who was amazed and disgusted with how
many catalogs were arriving in our mailbox, I collected, counted, and
catalogued all the catalogs for the entire year. By the end of the
year, we had a 3-foot high stack of catalogs — a total of 396. I kept
track of how many we received each month, and how many from each
company. (I’m an evaluator by profession). I signed up with Catalog
Choice in late 2007, and after a full year of using Catalog Choice, I
decided to track the catalogs coming in the door again this year (2009).
For the first three months of this year, we have seen a 69% decline in
the number of catalogs compared to the first three months of 2001.
That’s a huge difference!!! I’m going to collect them all year, and
maybe as some of the reluctant-to-stop companies finally get on board, I’ll see even fewer in
my mailbox.
Thank you,
Carole

I have definitely noticed a difference–42 catalogues confirmed! I am so pleased! Congratulations on pulling this off!  Thanks so much, Josie

If you have a story that you would like to share with us about how you have taken control of your mailbox, send us an email at Team(at)catalogchoice.org - we would love to hear what you have to say.

Posted in Catalog Choice, Customers, Featured, Fulfillment | 1 Comment »

More Merchants Support Choice

May 16th, 2009

We are pleased to welcome a great array of new catalog merchants to the Catalog Choice service.  From lobsters to jewelry to gifts, there are more great brands joining Catalog Choice and honoring your requests.

Charles P. Rogers Co.
Fetch Enterprises, LLC
Stauer
The Popcorn Factory
Container Store
Brooks Brothers
Museum ofJewelry
DHC USA, Inc.
Lobster Gram
Old Harbor Outfitters
1-800-Homeopathy
Miles Kimball Company
Walter Drake
Exposures
As We Change
Home Marketplace
Easy Comforts
EuroSport/Soccer.com
National Geographic
Chasing Fireflies
Uno Alla Volta
Cooking Enthusiast
Ben Silver Collection
Southwest Indian Foundation
West Coast Computer
Smithsonian Journeys
The Heritage Store
DreamSacks, Inc.
The Barn Door, Inc
Thomson Family Adventures
Cyberguys!
X-treme Geek
Abercrombie & Fitch
American Science & Surplus
Coach
Colonial Williamsburg
World Rugby Shop
Tafford Uniforms
Sam Ash Music Corp
Yogabela
Ben Bridge Jewelers
Jockey Intl., Inc.
Malley’s Chocolates
Save the Children Federation
Banyan Botanicals
Dakin Farm

Posted in Catalog Choice, Merchants | No Comments »

How we line up with the Abacus questions on mail preference

May 11th, 2009

Over the past year we have had the opportunity to work with the executives at Abacus as our mail preference service rapidly gained popularity.  Abacus is an important player in the direct mail business.  They run the largest cooperative database for the merchant community.

Many merchants asked their Abacus colleagues about participation in Catalog Choice.  As a result, Abacus published a paper - Abacus Viewpoint - “Opt-outs” and Name Suppression.  The paper poses the following questions for merchants to consider when deciding whether to work with a mail preference service.  Below are the Abacus questions and our answers.

1. What is the organization’s intent in capturing the names of your cusotmers?

Catalog Choice provides secure consumer accounts so that the names can be provided to mailers to honor the customer’s mail preference choice.  We do not release the names for any other purpose.  We do not rent or sell the names of our members.  We are acting on behalf of our members to contact mailers because the process to do so is time consuming for consumers.

2. What is their verification process?

Catalog Choice uses a double opt-in verification system.  A consumer must establish an account and then respond to an email we send to them to fully activate their account.  This is the same verification model used by DMAChoice and Donotcall.org.

3. What is the organization’s underlying philosophy about direct mail?

Catalog Choice wants to make direct mail more resource efficient by connecting consumers and companies to reduce unwanted mail and go paperless.  Our website and blog are clear that we are working on behalf of both companies and consumers.  Our funders are leading organizations working to encourage sustainable business practices.

4. Does the opt-out service require payment from the consumer?

Catalog Choice is free to consumers.

5. Does the opt-out service offer consumers the opportunity for seasonal, channel, or specific opt-outs?

Catalog Choice is the only service in the nation that supports “opt-down” - the ability to offer fewer mailings rather than none at all.  Our “opt-down” system can be customized to the unique mailing requirements of the company and can be implemented without changing the mailers customer database.

6. Will the opt-out service allow an email contact to the consumer to confirm an opt-out request and allow a request for the consumer to opt-down?

Catalog Choice provides a unique email address for each request that the mailer can use to confirm the request and offer opt-down options.  The email is presented to the consumer within their Catalog Choice account associated with the specific mailer.  Consumers can choose to have confirmation emails forwarded to their personal email address in their profile settings.

These are great questions and we are pleased to be able to provide clear and concise answers to each question.  If you, the mailer, wish to discuss the service in more detail, please review the information on our Merchant site, contact us to ask any question and hopefully activate your account.

Posted in Catalog Choice, Merchants | 2 Comments »

Go Paperless with Catalog Choice

May 8th, 2009

Did you know that you can receive a catalog in a digital format? Catalog Choice has teamed with V-Mags Media to provide our merchants the opportunity to publish their paper catalogs in an easy to read digital format.

Our first customer for this new service is Thomson Family Adventures. Take a look at their gorgeous digital catalog and pick your next family adventure.

Thomson Family Adventures

When you go to request at catalog at Thomson’s site, their first option is to send you the digital version as shown in the snippet of their form below.

Family Vacation Brochure

If you are interested in going paperless with our digital catalog service, drop me a note at chuck (at) catalogchoice.org.

Posted in Catalog Choice, Merchants | No Comments »

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