Sam Meers wrote a clear and concise post about Catalog Choice over at his blog “Smoke & Meers”.

Sam states in his post titled A Win/Win/Win:

There are lots of benefits to this idea. First, it just makes sense. If people don’t want a catalog, then they shouldn’t receive it. It will either go in the trash or, if we’re lucky, get recycled, which uses energy that would have never have been needed if the catalog had never been produced and mailed in the first place.

But the thing I love about this idea is that it puts the decision in the hands of the consumer, not the company. And because it is done so well, both the consumer and the company benefit. Consumers get only the catalogs they desire and companies don’t waste money and natural resources sending a catalog to people who will only throw it away.

I raise my glass and toast the founders. Well done!

Sam - our glasses are raised to you, thanks!

Catalog Choice Team

We are at the Annual Conference for Catalog Mailers in Orlando this week.  We regret not having a booth on the exhibit floor, but we are busy meeting with merchants and service providers.  The tenor at this event is much less heated than we experienced at the NEMOA event this spring.  In fact, one active industry blogger reports that: “Attendees overwhelmingly shared with me that they were willing to speak with or work with Catalog Choice — only a few individuals expressed frustration with constant calls from Catalog Choice to accept opt-outs.” Another industry blogger reports: From my vantage point, this socially-green movement is inevitable, has gained critical mass and should be worked with.

From out vantage point, we are seeing the tide shift to more and more companies honoring consumer’s requests to no longer receive a catalog in the mail.  While you may still be getting catalogs that you have opted-out of on this site, rest assured that we are contacting the merchants everyday to get them to honor your requests.  Progress is being made.

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.