Yesterday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution requesting establishment of a Do Not Mail Registry and urging both the California State Legislature and United States Congress to establish a Do Not Mail Registry. The full text of the resolution is here.
The resolution calls for, among other things, the establishment of an effective, user-friendly system to voluntarily stop the receipt of unsolicited direct mail:
The San Francisco resolution reflects strong consumer sentiment regarding the issue of unwanted mail. According to the Resolution, 89% of likely voters nationwide voiced support for a Do Not Mail Registry in a 2007 national poll commissioned by Zogby International.
Hundreds of companies know that honoring mail preferences is a fundamental part of good business practices. That is why they work with us to listen to consumers. And consumers are not content with the time consuming process of contacting each company individually. That is why consumers use our secure service to deliver their requests.
The DMA notes in a press release today regarding the San Francisco resolution:
Do Not Mail programs are unnecessary as individuals already have many existing options available to manage their mail including the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service (MPS) at http://www.dmachoice.org/.
The key question about the “existing options”, of which Catalog Choice is one of the largest, is whether we can obtain sufficient participation and compliance from direct mailers?
Our system makes it easy for each member of Catalog Choice to know which company is honoring their choice and which ones are not. Collectively, we have insight into how 1,000 direct mailers are managing 15.7 million requests submitted by over 1.2 million consumers. For many mailers, the results are excellent. They regularly download the requests through their secure Merchant Account and make sure that consumers registered in our service will not be included in their mailings. There are also many mailers who are not formally working with us, but are honoring requests emailed to their customer support team. All in all, we estimate that 75% of the requests entered through our service are honored in a timely manner.
Improved mailer participation in mail preference services such as Catalog Choice is key to addressing consumer sentiment regarding unsolicited mail. Catalog mailers, if you are not participating in the mail preference services available to you, then your actions undermine the solutions that your trade association is calling out as the reason that Do Not Mail programs are unnecessary. Indifference to or rejection of effective mail preference solutions, such as Catalog Choice, sends the wrong message to the consumer and ultimately works against the collective interests of the catalog industry.
We have made it incredibly easy for any mailer to collect and honor mail preference requests. We have gained the trust and support of over 350 catalog mailers by providing quality, innovative services that meet the needs of both consumers and mailers. Best of all, there is no cost to establishing a Merchant Account with Catalog Choice – we are the only free solution for both consumers and the industry.
GO, San Francisco, GO!
The Golden Gate City does lead the way in promoting a better, healthier existence. Although the Deep South isn’t known for it’s progressive spirit, there are some of us here that really appreciate those in San Francisco leading the way.
CC: This looks like your next challenge! DMA said that? They just keep beating to a marketeer drummer and lending a deaf ear to consumers. Your system would be better a better solution than theirs by far.
The poll conducted in 2007 by Zogby International was commissioned by Center for a New American Dream, a pro-Do Not Mail registry organization, and was administered by phone to 1,011 “likely voters” nationwide. I don’t know how statistically valid the poll results are, but if people realized that the basis for the claim that 89% of American support a DNM registry is a telephone survey of just over a thousand people (who were asked, “How likely are you to use a free and quick opt-out resource that would eliminate most of your unsolicited ad mail?” Duh!), it wouldn’t lend much weight to the notion that “the majority” of Americans support the creation of a government-run DNM registry. A little context can go a long way in shining the spotlight on biases of all kinds. And while I applaud Catalog Choice’s service, I wonder how many of the catalogers who CC says are not participating in CC’s service have been long-time participants in DMA’s mail preference service, which is also free. “Why can’t we all just get along?”
Felicity: I don’t have the details on the Zogby survey, but it was referenced in the SF Resolution so I figured it was relevant to note here.
In terms of the DMA service, we do our best to “get along” and we refer consumer to them if you want to get off of all prospect mailings. We don’t “compete” with their service. There are many catalog titles in our service that are not DMA members.
In the end, it is all about customer service and we make it very easy for companies to honor requests entered at our site. We do not charge companies for our core service.
Chuck: Time for a big hug to CC.org. CC.org is definitely a grade above DMA with what you do. I believe your goal is green as in an Eco way. DMA is $$$ greedy.
I guess you know better to tell me to go ask DMA for anything. I’d rather tell the sender of my junk mailings to cease them myself…or favor the DNM legislation for those issues. Catalogs are almost nil in my household. Yesterday, I upset a door to door solicitor of magazines when I politely explained my journey to go paperless. I was on the computer to my state legislation when she rang.
By the way, I lost your mail address to send a donation.
Felicity asked, “Why can’t we all just get along?” The better question, why should it be such a never-ending battle to keep unwanted mail out of our mailboxes.
I have neither the desire nor the obligation to keep direct marketers in business.
The direct mail industry obviously has the resources to conduct its own survey on the Do Not Mail question, asking the question any way it wants, to far more people. Until that happens, I think it’s reasonable to rely on the Zogby survey.
On my computer the bold headline looks like “San Francisco Speaks Out on Do Not Mall” (MALL). That’s taking it too far … “during these economic times”! Just kidding around here, I applaud these efforts to reduce mailed paper. But if you gotta mall … mall. ;-)
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