Archive for December, 2008

Catalog Choice 2008 Retrospective

Saturday, December 27th, 2008

2008 was an amazing year for Catalog Choice.  We started the year battling a widespread boycott of our service, encouraged by the Direct Marketing Association.  We ended the year with almost 400 merchants under license, guaranteeing the suppression of over six million catalogs to almost 1.1 million households. To top it off, the DMA launched a service that mimics Catalog Choice in many ways – including the name (dmachoice.org).

In 2008, our first full year of operation, here is what we accomplished:

  • Secured the participation of over 400 companies in our secure online merchant service. See Cool Catalogs for the list of all the participating catalog titles.
  • Delivered and confirmed over 6 million mail preference requests to merchants.
  • Preserved over 250,000 trees per year in collaboration with participating merchants and our members’ requests.
  • Introduced the concept of mail frequency, which allows merchants to offer less frequent mailings rather than none at all.
  • Received endorsement from the American Catalog Mailers Association.
  • Provided our service free of charge to consumers and merchants, thanks to the generous support of our funders.
  • Gained recognition in the mail industry as the leading independent mail preference service.
  • Facilitated the most active conversation on the topic of mail preference on the Internet on our blog.  Our blog includes over 100 postings and over 1,400 comments.
  • Built the most effective team of merchant account managers.  We all owe thanks to April, Jen, Paul, Syd and Christine for the endless hours they spend on the phone with merchants in order to get your requests honored.
  • Created secure online accounts for over 1 million households to manage their catalog mail preferences.
  • Developed the rules that govern your mail preference request through months of negotiations with leading catalog mailers (Williams-Sonoma, LL Bean, Crate & Barrel).  The rules are the foundation of the license agreement that participating merchants sign with Catalog Choice.

Over the year, we learned a tremendous amount about what is needed to make our mail preference service work for both consumers and merchants.  We are translating this knowledge into exciting new features for the coming year.

We are grateful for the on-going support of so many of our members, both consumers and merchants – we could not have accomplished a fraction of this list without your participation and support.  To all our consumer and merchant members, we wish you a happy and healthy new year.

Posted in Catalog Choice, Featured | 21 Comments »

Get on the wagon to listen to your customers’ needs

Wednesday, December 24th, 2008

A recent article by Mike Kraus, a business columnist for Allbusiness.com, concludes by saying: “Get on the wagon to listen to your customers’ needs when it comes to direct marketing (and everything else).”

This is Mike’s second article about the business perspective on junk mail in an article titled Junk Mail Be Gone.  Mike provides other sage advice that I hope more direct marketers will reflect on as they develop their direct marketing strategies for 2009.  Mike states:

1.  Consumer backlash continues to grow as direct marketers ignore their wishes.  I, for one, continue to work to reduce junk mail whenever possible and continue to grow increasingly frustrated with retailers that ignore my wishes.  I don’t own a pet and I don’t want to get your pet catalog no matter what my demographic profile is.  And your catalog geared toward women’s clothes isn’t relevant to me either.

2.  Consumers are greener than ever.  Retailers that ignore consumers’ wishes to be removed from their lists are viewed as non-green in their efforts, choosing capitalism over the environment.  Citibank take note:  I do not want to earn up to 25,000 miles with a Citibank/American Airlines credit card, so stop sending me your weekly direct mail!

….

So here are a couple ideas to maximize your efforts:

1.  If you’re going to advertise in val-pack, or any number of similar coupon packs, ask them for data about how many consumers are opting out of receiving their mailers in the zip codes you’re targeting on websites like the ones listed above.  You may find that more and more of your target demographic doesn’t want to receive those mailers, thereby wasting your marketing dollars.

2.  Most retailers sign people up for email at their stores, which has an easy opt-out function in every email.  Try to do the same for direct mail.  Create a sign up list or form that asks them to check a box for each type of communication they’d like to receive (or not).  These days, most people just opt for email because it’s quick and easy (to write when they’re signing up and to unsubscribe when they dont’ want to receive it anymore).  But doing a check against your database when they’re checking out just to confirm they still want to receive mail will help cull your list down and save your money in the long-run.  You can even explain that this is another effort to make your company more green.

Posted in Blogs, Media Coverage, Merchants, Recycling | 5 Comments »

A Member Testimonial

Friday, December 19th, 2008

Today we received this email from a Catalog Choice Member:

I joined Catalog Choice last year after being inundated year after year with un-asked for catalogs at the holiday time. I wanted to let you know that this year, I have received a FRACTION of the amount of catalogs that I normally get. THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!

We receive numerous words of gratitude from our members.  We really appreciate each one as it makes our job more rewarding.

We also receive our share of complaints.  For those frustrated by the fact that you still receive too many unsolicited catalogs, we share your frustration and are doing everything in our power to get your requests honored.  I know that the success rate is steadily improving.  Thank you for your patience.

We are busy working on new features for 2009 that will improve the service for our members – consumers and merchants.  Stay tuned.

Posted in Customers, Featured | 2 Comments »

More Merchants honoring your requests

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

The last several weeks have been productive in terms of adding new merchants to the Catalog Choice service.  We would like to welcome the following catalogs.

Coldwater Creek

Shelving Direct

The Orvis Company

Magellan’s

The Cornerstone Family of Brands, including but not limited to:

Ballard Designs and TravelSmith

Psalm 23 Jewelry Collection

Diamond Essence

Charleston Gardens

We are pleased to have all of these great companies join the service and honor consumer mail requests.  There are a variety of large merchants whom we are continuing to talk to and hope to have signed up soon.  As I have said before, it is a long term process, but together we will make the system work.

Posted in Catalog Choice, Fulfillment | No Comments »

A Merchant’s Testimonial

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

Today we received the following email from John Schroeder, Business Intelligence Manager for Room & Board.  He provides a clear description of how Catalog Choice benefits the merchant and the customer.

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.  We recently had a customer who called our call center (shop from home)  and requested that we stop sending our annual catalog for the next 3-years as she was taking an assignment in Europe.  We had the perfect solution for her, Catalog Choice.  This gave our customer total control not only for our catalog but potentially for other catalogs companies that she would of needed to contact.  And the great thing is when she comes back to the U.S. she can opt back in to our annual catalog.  She was thrilled.  In 2008 we referenced catalogchoice.org on the back cover to allow our customers an easy and reliable way of opting out of our printed material distribution.  In return we gained additional productivity in our call center where our Design Associates were more available to assist customers with orders over opting out for future mailings.  This during our busiest time of year.  We also monitor the comments customers give for opting out of our catalogs.  We love the fact that over 50% have done so for environmental reasons.  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!


Posted in Featured, Merchants | 2 Comments »

An important way to support Catalog Choice

Friday, December 5th, 2008

We are dedicated to keeping our mail preference service free of charge.  You did not pay to get on the list and you should not have to pay to get off the list.  Occasionally, we receive donation offers via email to our customer service center.  As a registered 501(c)3, through our sponsor The Ecology Center, we can accept tax-deductible donations.

Today we added a link to our menu that makes it easy to provide a secure, tax deductible donation to Catalog Choice.  If you are so inclined, we welcome your donation to our effort to give consumers the ability to control their mail preferences, reduce unwanted catalogs and help preserve natural resources.

We are a small, dedicated and efficient organization working on your behalf to reduce unwanted mail and help you go paperless.  Your support in the way of entering your preferences, telling your friends and contacting merchants has been instrumental in our efforts to date.

We appreciate your time and hope that you will find our service worthy of your financial support.

P.S. – Thanks to Richard from San Diego for making the first donation this afternoon!

Posted in Catalog Choice, Featured | 9 Comments »