June 26, 2008

Dear DMA Catalog Industry Member:

I wanted to let you know that I’ve had an excellent response to the note I sent on June 2nd regarding reflections from our ACCM conference, along with some current thoughts on the catalog segment. As promised, I will be reaching out to you again next month to address additional initiatives we are undertaking on behalf of catalogers and those who conduct business with them. I thank you for your feedback and welcome our continued dialogue.

With this in mind, you should know that most of the feedback I received revolved around third-party list suppression services. As a matter of fact, the same question came up repeatedly, “What is DMA’s current position and recommendation to members regarding third-party list suppression services?”

We have reviewed our positioning with the members of the newly formed Catalog Segment Advisory Board and they are supportive of our stated position.

We last stated our position regarding third party mailing suppression list compilers in the letter that Donn Rappaport and I sent you all in mid February. In that letter we encouraged and supported each merchant company to make its own decisions; however we urged you to ask the following before you enter into any signed agreements with third-party list suppression services:

Why are they so intent on capturing the names of your customers? What are they planning to do with them, other than send them on to you for removal from your files? And if that’s all there is, why do they need to capture them at all?
What is their validation process? How can you be sure you won’t receive names of customers who don’t really want to stop receiving your catalogs? And are you willing to forego your right to communicate with your customer, to understand what is driving this name removal request, and even to possibly downgrade it to a request to receive fewer catalogs from you (rather than none at all)?
What is the underlying position of these organizations regarding catalogs? About direct mail, in particular? What are they saying about us to the media? On their websites? In their promotional material? For those of you who have additional concerns about your logo/name/trademark being used on a third party site without your permission, or other related concerns, we recommend that you seek advice from your legal counsel.
Where is their funding coming from? What are the stated positions of the organizations that are funding their efforts on direct mail and catalogs?
We should note that we have been having and continue to have discussions with many of those organizations and have seen some positive modifications in their positions. In particular, based on our discussions and our presentation of DMA analyses of the severe negative implications of Do-Not-Mail legislation on the US economy, businesses and consumers, many of those organizations have indicated that they are willing to reverse their positions on pushing for Do-Not-Mail legislation. Many have also stated that they are willing to modify the rhetoric on their websites to refrain from disparaging the direct mail marketer community.

As we have been saying all along, we remain open to any third-party list suppression service wishing to have a dialogue with us.

However, there continue to be some critical sticking points regarding the use and purpose of the consumer lists beyond mail suppression that lead us to reiterate the position that we stated in February. Let me be very clear, it is DMA policy that just like our own Mail Preference Service at dmachoice.org, which has existed for 36 years, consumer lists collected with the promise of mail suppression should be used solely for mail suppression purposes. In DMA’s MPS service and its evolution dmachoice, we ensure that both in our commitment to consumers who sign up for the service and also in our practices and enforcement policies that apply to the member and non-member companies that subscribe to use it.

We absolutely do not support use of a service that would exploit its list for any other purpose, or a service that would sell or rent its list, or for that matter, would give its list away. We do not believe that gathering names and using them for unintended purposes is appropriate. It is not good for business and it does not build trust with consumers.

It has come to our attention that some of you have had recent discussions with these list suppression services, and there continues to be a concern. Many of them, if not all, have stated that they reserve the right to maintain the names they acquire for fundraising and/or advocacy. This remains an issue with DMA — we do not support such activity. If a merchant participates with such a service, the merchant is endorsing that service (even if that was not its explicit intention) including the use of the names collected for activities other than mail suppression. Since 1971, DMA has used its Mail Preference Service ONLY for mail suppression. Consumers on the list are not contacted for any other purpose. They are opting-out of marketing offers, and we do not believe that a mail suppression service should be marketing to them. That is why DMA, in our discussions with other list suppression services, has not agreed to coordinate efforts unless the list is used solely to suppress mailings. To date none has agreed. Please make certain you know what you are endorsing when you work with any list suppression service, including DMA’s.

In the DMA’s Mail Preference Service we continue to ensure that the consumer list is used for no other purpose. We will continue to make enhancements to our current MPS platform until we are ready to unveil a new platform, which should launch by the end of the year. This new DMA Mail Preference Service will incorporate a new consumer look and feel, new features, improved scalability and flexibility, ensuring a pleasant and easy experience for consumers and better functionality for marketers.

I thank you again for your continued support; please contact me directly if you have further questions or comments.

Best regards,

John A. Greco, Jr.
President & CEO
Direct Marketing Association