… it’s about freeing up your attention for the ones that you actually want to engage with.  It pushes marketers and their partners to create content that’s truly welcome - a strategic challenge that calls for up-to-date insights about how people shop, buy, and interact with brands.  Not to mention the kind of creative ideas and execution that are more fun to read than to set aflame.

From the KeliherSametsVolk blog.  Read the whole post here.

This weekend one of our team members received their Room & Board catalog.  We noticed the message printed on the back of the catalog informing receiptents that they can go to Catalog Choice to opt-out of the catalog mailing.  This is another way how our free service benefits merchants.  They don’t need to build a service to accept opt-out requests - they can just point their customers to our free service.  No more phone calls to customer service just to opt-out.  It is free and easy across the board.  Sorry for the fuzzy image.  If you click the image it will open in a new browser window and you can read the text they used.

We are working on some standard language and a logo that will fit neatly on the back of the catalog.  Until then, feel free to use our mailbox logo or just text as Room & Board has done.

… when you search “catalog” on Google?

I am not an SEO (search engine optimization) expert and we have not done anything special at Catalog Choice to score high on Google’s natural search but when thousands of bloggers point back to our site this is what you get.

So, search “catalog” and google thinks you want to do one of the following:

1. view catalogs online at their service - no question as to why this link is first.

2. opt-out of the unwanted catalogs (that’s us, Catalog Choice)

3. figure out what class you want to take at UC Berkeley - that is useful for my team as we are based in Berkeley.

4. find a book at the library of Congress - that seems like a logical result

5. Order new catalogs from catalogs.com - that makes sense too.

Search catalog and the choice is yours - get more, get less, or get educated.

Thanks to all you bloggers who have linked to our service.  We don’t get to the top of this list without your support.

… reads the headline in an article published by Ken Magill for the retail media press Multichannel Merchant. Coming on the heels of an industry press briefing hosted by Catalog Choice, Ken published this article clarifying for the industry the benefits of working with Catalog Choice.

The article’s lead sentence kills one myth that has been floating around about Catalog Choice:

The last thing Catalog Choice’s executives want to do is kill the mail-order industry, they said in a press briefing Wednesday.

Ken notes that Catalog Choice …

wants to help catalogers clean unresponsive names from their files and broker better relationships with customers who want to buy from them, but want to conduct the relationship electronically or simply want fewer catalogs.

and he references the changes that are occurring in the market place by quoting a statement I made during the press briefing.

“We understand the analytics historically, but it’s a new world now and this is an opportunity for a one-to-one marketing program where you can reach out directly to these customers and at the same time eliminate customers that have no interest in your catalog.”

Our press briefing, merchant meetings, conference attendance and other out reach activities are all part of the effort to make Catalog Choice work for merchants and consumers alike.  We are showing that honoring customer choices is good for business and the environment.

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:

• Use sturdy cloth or mesh reusable totes instead of paper or plastic shopping bags. Paper bags are more energy and resource intensive than plastic bags, but plastic generates even more air and water pollution.
• Turn off electronics when not in use. Studies show that using Energy Star computers and other business machines can conserve up to 75% of electricity compared to standard equipment.
• Look into a different mode of transportation. Every gallon of gasoline your car burns emits about 20 pounds of carbon dioxide. Try carpooling, mass transit, biking to work or school, and walking whenever possible, even just one day per week.
• If you travel a lot, think about offsetting your own carbon output. There are several cool sites: www.carbonfund.org, www.savegreenearth.com; now even Expedia and Travelocity offer offsets.
• Reduce. Ah, the first of the three R’s. If you don’t want to get a catalog that you have no interest in, sign up for Catalog Choice. If it’s another type of unwanted mail other than catalogs, check out www.dmachoice.org, or www.greendimes.org
• Re-use. Heard about “freecycling”? The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,339 groups with almost 5 million members across the globe. It’s a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It’s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Membership is free. Check out www.freecycle.org for more info.
• Recycle more. Eighty-six percent of Americans have access to curbside or drop-off paper recycling. To find a local recycler, check out www.Earth911.org.
• Calculate your carbon footprint. There are a number of carbon calculators out there, and ways to cut down. A cool one for kids is at www.meetthegreens.org; for adults - http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator/

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!

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.

This is the quote that Alan Rimm-Kaufman uses to introduce a 15 minute Q&A we conducted last week. Alan asked excellent questions and our answers are detailed on his blog. Read the entire interview here.

The interview covers the background leading up to the launch of Catalog Choice, our relationship with merchants and our vision for the future.

Thanks to Alan for conducting the interview. If you are a merchant, I highly recommend that you read it.

It is the purpose of this post to report on how we’re doing, to address a fundamental misconception pertaining the service, and to give a sneak peak at the exciting things ahead.

Looking back: Prior relationships

In the comments of a recent Catalog Choice blog post, some people have critically argued that Catalog Choice did not have relationships with merchants prior to launching our service, and therefore misled our consumer members. We’d like to set the record straight.

It is most certainly a fact that Catalog Choice did not have a relationship with the majority of merchants when we launched. The misconception, however, is that the existence of such relationships at the time of launch was intended or even necessary. It was neither. Catalog Choice was designed to work *regardless* of the existence of a relationship with any particular merchant.

1. It works with a relationship. For merchants who want to establish a relationship with Catalog Choice, by signing up for a free account, we offer the ability to download their customer opt-out data in a computer-friendly CSV format. In addition, such merchants can look forward to a roadmap of additional services planned to add value and enhance the consumer/merchant relationship.

2. And it works without a relationship. Some merchants, for any number of reasons, will chose not to have a relationship with Catalog Choice. That is fine. For these merchants, we forward our member’s opt-out requests to them by email or by delivering a password protected file on a CD. In that way, Catalog Choice simply acts as a delivery agent.

We would never criticize a merchant for choosing not to work with Catalog Choice in the sense of signing up for a merchant account. That’s completely up to them.

On the other hand, we do expect all merchants to honor opt-out requests made by our members. Merchants may not refuse opt-out requests delivered by the United States Postal Service (a delivery agent), or called/faxed in via the phone company (a delivery agent), and therefore they should not refuse opt-out requests delivered by Catalog Choice on behalf of consumers.

(As a side note, the DMA argue that, by not requiring a credit card number like them, we’re not sufficiently validating the identity of our members. Well, we use industry standard security measures and email validation; the same used by the US Do Not Call service.)

Where we stand today: It’s working (despite the best efforts of the
DMA)!

We can assuredly report to you that CATALOG CHOICE IS WORKING. Over 160 merchants have signed up, and that number is growing daily. Presently, over 675,000 consumers have confirmed the need for a service like Catalog Choice, as well as their frustration with existing services. We have received thousands of emails from members reporting that after years of ineffective attempts to use the DMA and other services, their mailboxes are finally becoming uncluttered.

At the same time, there are strong forces at work against Catalog Choice, namely the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). Shortly after launch, the DMA sent a vicious letter, full of false accusations, to all member merchants urging them to, “Just Say No!” to Catalog Choice. Our organization, along with an entire nation of consumers, was
shocked and left wondering why the DMA, who proclaim to be “committed to the advancement of consumer choice”, would take such a stance.

On reflection, however, it’s not really a surprise. The DMA sits squarely in the center of an industrial operational model that has ineffectively serviced both merchants and consumers for the past 35 years; a model which Catalog Choice is now positioned to change.

(It must be said, however, that Catalog Choice has even had a positive effect on the DMA. They’ve recently launched a service with a name coincidentally fashioned after our own, and have found a way to live without that dollar they’ve been charging you all these years. But they do still want your credit card number.)

Looking forward: A better world for consumers, merchants and the
environment.

We have a vision of eliminating waste by fundamentally improving the way an industry works, by:

* Putting choice and control in the hands of the consumer.
* Facilitating a merchant/consumer relationship that was never before possible.

We’ve accomplished the first step: Over 675,000 consumers are enjoying the ease-of-use and convenience of centralized mail preference management, having registered over eight million requests.

And now we begin the second step. Consumers have said they want more choice, and a finer level of control. They have made it clear that catalogs and commerce are not the problem; waste is. Merchants have just as much desire to eliminate waste as consumers. But they don’t want to be excluded from the relationship and conversation with the
consumer, as that relationship has often been earned over the years through good faith and delivered value.

In support of these compatible interests, here’s a sneak peek at what’s in store:

1. Just last week, we launched the first of a series of relationship- enhancing features, by allowing merchants to upload a photo of their catalogs, and customize some text that is shown on the opt-out screen, thereby allowing them to participate in the “conversation” during the opt-out process. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

2. Very soon, consumers will be able to manage what they *do* receive, in addition to what they *don’t* receive, as we introduce the ability to opt-in to catalogs, and ultimately manage the frequency with which you receive catalogs. Since launch, this has been the number one requested feature from both consumers and merchants, and we’re excited to let you know it’s going to happen!

3. In the famous last words of Steve Jobs, there’s “Just one more thing!”. That service, however, is just a little too important to risk unveiling at this time.

And all of these future enhancements will be delivered in a way that supports the fundamental objectives of our service; improving our lives, while eliminating waste.

So, there really is a win-win-win scenario — for the consumer, merchant and the environment — and Catalog Choice is dedicated and committed to delivering it. Thanks for your participation, and, as always, please keep the feedback coming.