At Catalog Choice we think about all the ways we can go paperless in our lives, but not disconnect from the basic activities of life.  Today the options abound -

• electronic billing for all your monthly services (gas, electronic, phone, etc.)
• electronic statements for your bank accounts
• online manuals for your home appliances
• online directories for phone numbers - read more about opting-out of phone books here
• online newspaper and magazines
• electronic book readers

The paperless life is not for everybody, but if it is for you the ability to go paperless is getting easier everyday.

It has come to our attention that some merchants are informing Catalog Choice Members that we are renting or selling names to other organizations.  Some claim that this is their reason for not participating in our free service.

THIS INFORMATION IS FALSE.

We only send your name and address to the merchants you set your mail preference for.  We do not get paid by the merchants for delivering your opt-out request.  The merchants are not permitted to rent or sell your name if Catalog Choice provides it to them.

Furthermore, we do not share your email address with any of the merchants.

If you have been informed that we are selling or renting names, please let us know.  If you are told that we engage in this practice, please refer the merchant to this blog post.

Thanks.

We are nine months into our odyssey to give consumers choice over what comes in their mailbox.  Here is where we stand:

• Consumers trust our service and have demonstrated a significant demand for a free and easy to use way to set their catalog mail preference.  Almost 950,000 households have set up an account and opted-out of over 12 million catalog titles.
• Merchants are steadily coming around to accepting requests generated from our service.  There are over 250 merchants who have activated their merchant accounts and many others have received their opt-out file and are working on the process.  In the past two weeks, we have delivered over 1.5 million opt out requests to several large merchants.  More big wins are on the way.
• The DMA continues to persuade merchants to not work with us, introducing unnecessary tension into our merchant outreach efforts.  Here is their most recent letter to merchants.  This was sent out one hour after I finished a panel discussion on Do Not Mail with two merchants, USPS and the DMA.  Without this resistance from the Association, I know we would have made more progress to date.  But rest assured we are prevailing despite their propaganda.  By the way - we do not and will not rent or sell any member’s name.   We have made this clear on many occassions.
• Frustration with unwanted catalogs still abounds. Despite your disappointment when you open your mailbox,  your continued support in promoting the service with friends and words of encouragement on the blog and to customer service keep us rolling on our mission.
• We are working on several fronts to improve our service:

1. We are making it easier for consumers to support the merchants who are honor your mail preference requests by adding product categories and electronic catalogs to Bravo Merchants.
2. We are making it easier for merchants to honor requests by automating the process with their Service Bureaus.
3. We are meeting everyone’s desire for more choice by developing a process whereby merchants can offer less frequent catalog mailings - referred to as “opt-down” or mail frequency.  Look for more on this topic in the coming weeks.
4. We are spending endless hours meeting with executives throughout the mail industry to build trust and partnerships so that your requests will be honored.

Thanks for your continued support.

Catalog Choice Team

… 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!