Collective thoughts from the Catalog Choice team and inspirations from the world that make it easier to go paperless and lighten your footprint on planet Earth.
The graph above shows the steady growth in the number of registered members at Catalog Choice.
We are rapidly approaching a major milestone - one million registered users. As of this moment, we are just over 825,000 members. When do you think we will hit one million? Use the comments below to let us know.
You can help us get there by using the Invite a Friend feature.
Lenser, a premier, full service multichannel marketing agency, focusing on database marketing and creative services that drive results
through multiple channels of distribution- catalog, internet and stores, published their position about Catalog Choice in their May 2008 Newsletter.
Their clients have been asking them what they should do when contacted by Catalog Choice. John Lenser, the President, states in the Newsletter:
While the DMA has taken the position that Catalog Choice is unneeded given their own “Do Not Mail” preference services, I no longer believe this position is in the industry’s best interest. Catalog Choice now has over 736,000 registered accounts of those who have requested that one or more catalogs not be mailed to them and registrations are growing by thousands each week.
Therefore, I am recommending that catalog mailers move forward and accept Catalog Choice’s merchant agreement and accept their file downloads. The negative repercussions for not doing so, at this point, outweigh any advantages of not joining. It is naive to pretend they do not exist.
We are pleased to get the endorsement of Lenser, one of the industry’s leading service providers. The four major issues referenced by John in the Newsletter were 1) the staying power of Catalog Choice, 2) what can merchants do when valuable customers opt-out, 3) fear of Do Not Mail legislation and 4) on-going collaboration between Catalog Choice and the industry.
Time has proven that we are here to stay. As the largest mail preference service, outside the DMA, it is clear that our service is popular among consumers and adoption is growing among merchants. As John says “At this point, we believe they are here to stay and deserve our backing.”
What should merchants do about valuable customers that are now opting-out of the catalog? After many discussions with merchants, Catalog Choice has agreed that merchants can contact customers with a secondary confirmation. The confirmation should not require an action by the consumer, as you have already stated your preference in Catalog Choice, but it can provide other information about how to interact with the merchant such as requesting fewer catalogs or opting-into an email relationship. Merchants such as L.L. Bean and Crate and Barrel are conducting these types of secondary confirmations with customers in their database.
At no time does Catalog Choice release the consumers email address to the merchant. We will be adding a service for merchants whereby Catalog Choice will send an email to a merchant’s customer who has opted-out on behalf of the merchant. This email will not go to all Catalog Choice members, just those who are recent customers of the given merchant. The secondary confirmation process is all part of facilitating the dialog between consumers and merchants around the issue of mail preference.
The third reason that Lenser references in his letter of support is that he recognizes Catalog Choice as a viable market-based approach to mail preference. He states:
We expect that bills will be introduced in Congress and hearings held. If the industry wants to avoid such governmental intrusion, we need to demonstrate that viable alternatives already exist. While the DMA’s mail preference service is the industry’s own internal answer, Catalog Choice represents a solid answer to those that are distrustful of an industry-managed program. The last thing we need is Catalog Choice giving testimony that the industry torpedoed their efforts.
The fourth reason Lenser supports Catalog Choice is that we continue to meet with the Lenser Team and other industry leaders to listen to their input so that together we can use our service to meet “goals of eliminating waste and pollution, but actually makes our mailing programs more cost-effective and profitable.”
We are in total agreement with John’s closing sentence in his piece “A word about Catalog Choice”. John states “By working together, we can make a positive difference.”
Last week, Crate and Barrel rolled out a new feature on their website supporting your preference to receive fewer catalogs or none at all. For those of you that made an opt-out choice on Catalog Choice and have purchased from Crate and Barrel in the past (and you still use the same email that you provided to them), they may send you the following confirmation email shown below. If you would prefer to receive fewer catalogs from Crate & Barrel instead of none, click this link to set your mail preference.
This is an example of the processes that merchants are putting in place to confirm your opt-out requests and provide you with other mailing options that meet your needs. At Catalog Choice, we are putting more services in place to help merchants provide similar services.
Crate & Barrel has been honoring Catalog Choice opt-out requests since March. The email confirmation and mail frequency site are new features that they are rolling out. This is an example of the hard work that merchants are undertaking to respond to your request. While it all seems simple in the end, it takes months of design, development and testing to get it right before enhancements like this can be rolled out. We have been patient with Crate and other merchants who are working on responding to the opt-out requests that you have entered at Catalog Choice and we hope that you are too.
We applaud these new services and hope that other merchants will follow. Catalog Choice members can show their appreciation by going to the Bravo Merchants page and support Crate & Barrel or other merchants working to honor opt-out requests.
In an effort to better inform merchants about the benefits of honoring mail preference requests from Catalog Choice, we are holding a series of “webinars”.
Catalog Choice invites catalog mailers to participate in an educational teleconference to learn more about this free service and the business benefits it offers the industry. Launched in October 2007, Catalog Choice is a popular online service that gives consumers a convenient way to reduce unwanted catalogs received in the mail. The service offers merchants a way to honor consumer choices and reduce expenses associated with unwanted mailings. The session will be offered Wednesday, May 7th and Wednesday, May 14th. Each session will be held from 1 - 2 PM (EST). Executive director Chuck Teller, project manager April Smith, and industry consultant Larry Shaw will review all aspects of the service and answer your questions. Join in to learn how to benefit from the service, tips on implementation, and hear what’s coming next.
To register, please email April at april.smith@catalogchoice.org with the date you wish to participate, the names of those attending from your company, and phone and email addresses of each participant. Catalog Choice will follow up with call confirmation and details.
This past month the following merchants signed on to our service simplifying the process of honoring your opt-out requests. You will recognize some of the names and others are smaller merchants that you can discover here. April’s list includes:
Verilux, Body Shop of America, Hoofprints.com, W Atlee Burpee & Co., Shades of Light, Blue Canoe, Palumba, Hobby-Lobby International, Crosstown Traders, Dell, Nike, King Arthur Flour, J & R Music, Kelly’s Kids, Bra Smyth, Constructive Playthings, Lifetime Brands, Agri Supply, Tumi, Swanson Health Products and Blair LLC.
Once these merchants pull down the names to start processing the opt-out requests, they will appear on the Bravo Merchants page.
If you have visited the Bravo Merchants page lately, you will see that the list is getting quite long. We are working on making it easier to sort and organize the list of Bravo Merchants so that you can browse catalogs online and start your shopping by browsing the list of Merchants who are working with Catalog Choice to honor opt-out requests.
Catalog Choice would like to clarify our statement regarding the DMA’s Mail Preference service www.dmachoice.org that was in our recent email to Catalog Choice members.
The mail preference services provided by the DMA are described here.
The DMA has dropped the credit card verification requirement only for the catalog opt-in/opt-out aspects of its Mail Preference Service (MPS).
The DMA still requires credit card verification to remove your name from DMA member prospect lists, which decreases the chances of your name being rented, sold, or exchanged.
According to their website - “With DMA’s MPS you can remove your name from DMA member prospect lists.”
You can use Catalog Choice for those catalogs you no longer wish to receive, but avoid using our service to opt out of catalogs you are not currently getting in the mail.
Sorry for the confusion.
This morning we sent the following message to all Catalog Choice members.
In just six months, Catalog Choice has become a significant consumer
voice in the direct mail industry. We could not have done it without
you and the other 730,000 people who use our service. On our blog, the
voices of several Catalog Choice members, Tracy, Yvonne, and Mary to
name a few, is also loud and clear:
“Give us the power to decide what gets in our mailbox.”
We work hard every day to achieve this goal. But we know that when you
receive an unwanted catalog in the mail, you may wonder: Is Catalog
Choice working? We confidently report that yes, Catalog Choice is
working. Our approach is showing results, for you, merchants and the
environment.
Here are some important updates and thoughts we want to share with
you:
* Nearly 200 catalog mailers are participating in Catalog Choice, and
this number grows every day. Check out our new “Bravo Merchants”
page, which gives you a convenient way to shop online by catalog
brand. In the months ahead you’ll see more mailers post their
electronic catalogs.
* We are engaged with the catalog industry at the executive level,
working with key decision-makers, the US Postal Service, and
industry associations to ensure that merchants honor your mail
preferences.
* Please use Catalog Choice for those unwanted catalogs you receive in
the mail. We established our service to be title-specific. To
decrease the chances of your name being rented, sold, or exchanged
by catalog companies, consider the Direct Marketing Association’s
Mail Preference Service at www.DMAChoice.org. This service will
remove you from DMA member prospect lists. In response to Catalog
Choice, DMA recently dropped the credit card verification and fee
requirements. Please avoid using Catalog Choice for catalogs you’ve
never received.
These are challenging financial times for merchants. There is no legal
imperative for merchants to honor your opt-out requests; we depend on
the merchant’s good faith to respect consumers’ mail preferences. Some
mailers are reluctant to remove valuable customer names from their
mailing lists without a confirmation directly from the customer. If
you are a catalog customer, some mailers may reach out to you with a
phone call, an email, or a post card. Others may send you a catalog to
see how you respond. If you buy from that catalog, it is unlikely that
the mailer will remove you from their mailing list.
We stand by our mission to reduce the mailing of unwanted catalogs.
Our approach is to continue working collaboratively with the catalog
industry to embrace voluntary measures to reduce unwanted mail by
honoring your mail preferences. This requires a relationship of trust
between Catalog Choice and mailers - and this takes time. We ask for
your continued patience and support. So stick with us and tell a
friend. The larger our voice, the more progress we can make together.
Sincerely,
The Catalog Choice Team
April 22nd is the day of global observance originated by Gaylord Nelson that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment. In celebration, here are a few things that you can do to be kind to Mother Earth:
Most importantly – take some time today to spend a “Green Hour” outside, and really appreciate the wonder and beauty of our planet.
Happy Earth Day From Catalog Choice!
There is nothing better than having merchants inform their customers to come to Catalog Choice to set their mail preference. Today, we learned that Tools for Wellness will be printing a notice for customers in their next printed catalog. They announced their relationship with us on their blog in this post. Here is an excerpt:
The past few years has seen a greatly increased awareness of how precious our natural resources are. Greenhouse emissions, pollution from fossil fuels, and the depletion of the ozone layer are just a few examples of how were are slowly destroying the earth.
While we’ve made the switch to using recycled materials in our shipments whenever possible, we’re proud to have teamed with Catalog Choice, a free service that is a sponsored project of the Ecology Center.
We welcome any other merchants who are pointing customers to our site to let us know so that we can give you the shout out that you deserve.
As all the active Catalog Choice users know, we ask you to indicate the primary reason for making the opt-out request for each title. After several months, we have received almost 2 million responses to this questions. The results are as follows:
We know that many of you want to provide more than one reason, but that would make the results harder to interpret. So, what do the results say:
1. Lots of consumers want to help the environment by not receiving catalogs in the mail. Consumers and merchants working together can significantly reduce paper consumption when consumers specify their mail preferences and merchants honor them. This is one of the little things that we all can do to lighten our footprint on the earth.
2. Lots of catalogs are being sent to people who have no interest in the products. Honoring these requests will save money for merchants and reduce the clutter in consumers’ lives.
3. Lots of people prefer to shop online. eCommerce sites have matured and consumers are much more “internet savvy” than they were 10 years ago.
4 . Some people feel that they get too many catalogs. We have heard this over and over again and are working on a system that will allow you to “opt-down” - that is request to receive fewer mailing of a catalog rather than none at all. Stay tuned.
5. Duplicates, person not at residence and deceased (primary “other” response) are a small but important set of unwanted mail that should be straight forward to stop now that we make it easy for consumers to enter the request and merchants to honor it.