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One Person’s Junk is Another’s Direct Mail
September 30, 2008

Newsweek had a story yesterday about “junk mail”—or what some of us refer to as “direct marketing” campaigns. The phrase “junk mail” is not new; I remember hearing it at least as far back as the 1970s. But now, there appears to be a militant faction of consumers eagerly trying to get rid of it:

Earlier this year Plimpton became tired of the credit-card offers, catalogs and advertising fliers that clogged her mailbox. So in February she paid $20 to GreenDimes, a firm that helps consumers reduce their inflow of “junk mail” by contacting businesses on their behalf. “[Junk mailers] are cutting down trees willy-nilly, and that has got to stop,” says Plimpton.

Funny—you don’t actually have spend anything to get off mailing lists, but I question whether marketers are cutting down trees “willy-nilly.” While, yes, print advertising and marketing does involve paper, which is produced by cutting down trees, I would hardly describe any paper company’s operations as “willy-nilly,” conjuring up, as it does, a bunch of drunk guys blundering through old-growth forests wildly flailing chainsaws. (Don’t they replant the treess they cut “willy-nilly”?) Of course, marketers have the choice to use recycled paper. And trees are a renewable resource. Oh, and, sure, we can keep printed coupons from arriving in the mail, and have them delivered via e-mail. But to use them, what do we have to do? Yes, print them. So in some ways, it’s a bit of a lateral move. (Yes, personal printing is on a smaller scale.)

Still, I have never been entirely convinced that electronic media are any “greener” than print media, but concrete data are few and far between. After all, electronic media use electricity, which is produced from non-renewable resources like coal and natural gas, and all the thousands upon thousands of servers that comprise the Internet spew out greenhouse gases. And let’s not get into all the electronic waste generated by the discarding of batteries, portable devices, computers, and other digital detritus.

Still, no hard data exist that quantify these impacts, and until I see any, I’m going to call it a draw. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those “never greens,” but I am in favor of picking the right battles.

Ultimately, though, the issue comes down to the media that specific consumers prefer. Says the Newsweek article:

But 89 percent of consumers say in polls that they’d prefer not to receive direct-marketing mail; 44 percent of it is never opened. That’s why 19 state legislatures have debated Do Not Mail lists, which would function just like the federal Do Not Call list.

It’s worth mentioning that any proposed bills have met with strong opposition from the Post Office, which stands to be the biggest loser if such legislation passes—at least in theory; as someone who hates being called by telemarketers and has signed on to every Do Not Call list I could find, I have found that it hasn’t done all that much to keep people from calling me. (And one “unintended consequence” of getting rid of junk mail may very well be that the USPS will have to dramatically raise the costs of postage elsewhere. Junk mail may very well be the cost we as consumers pay for what are still fairly inexpensive mailing costs, in the same way that “junk” ads are the price we pay for watching TV for free, cable bills notwithstanding.)

Still, the lesson here is that consumers have their preferred communications media, and as marketers we need to be cognizant of that fact. But even if 44% of direct mail is never opened, that means that 56% is. And when asking consumer preferences, it might be worth asking how much they object to receiving direct mail. Sure, I might in theory say I’d rather not receive direct mail, but when you look at my behavior, I probably look at it more than I would admit to, and actually respond to some of it, even if it is just those 20%-off Bed Bath and Beyond coupons.

What it will boil down to is that there needs to be a value proposition for the consumer. As with any marketing strategy.

Posted by Richard Romano on September 30, 2008 | Comments (0)