Make a Renewed Commitment to Consumer Choice
It’s been nearly 10 years since the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) began requiring all members to follow its Privacy Promise. In 1998, faced with mounting concerns from legislators, advocates and consumers, we unveiled this self-regulatory initiative and aggressively enforced it.
Since then, we’ve seen regulators and legislators impose restrictions affecting certain direct marketing sectors, specifically teleservices, health care and financial services, as well as those who market to children or adults online. But the self-regulation put in place years ago has served the mailing industry well.
Now it’s time to take that to the next level. At the beginning of my lengthy career in the “consumer” business, I heard the admonitions of consumer advocates and management gurus who proclaimed the consumer was in control of the marketplace, and sellers should beware. In today’s marketplace, with all the technology available, consumers can tune in or out as their interests and inclinations change.
The practice of sending catalogs, however, largely is unregulated — we want to keep it that way. But clearly consumers want more choice in what mail they receive. They tell us they want mail that’s relevant to their lives and received at the time they’re ready, willing and able to purchase — and less of what they don’t want.
It’s in our best financial interests to honor their wishes. To thrive as a community, catalogers must use their talents to meet consumer desires, thereby building consumer trust and operating unfettered by legislation.
Categories of Concern
Consumer concerns regarding the receipt of catalogs fall into identifiable and actionable categories.
◆ Choice. Consumers want choice over the types and volume of solicitations they receive. Question: Have your customers told you they would like fewer of your catalogs, or some editions but not others? Have some told you they don’t want to hear from you again? Can you act on these requests quickly and effectively?
◆ Relevance. They want information relevant to them. They’re not being arbitrary when they say, “I want what I want when I want it, and I don’t want what I don’t want when I don’t want it.” They mean it and are serious about acting on it.
◆ Responsibility. Part and parcel of this movement are calls for catalogers to handle their customer data more carefully than ever before. Your customers want to know their shopping experience is safe and secure. Their No. 1 privacy concern is identity theft, and many feel that just because their name and address is on a catalog, they’re more vulnerable.
This feeling persists even though the U.S. Department of Commerce has found that less than 4 percent of all identity theft has anything to do with commercial mailings. News reports on data breaches over the past few years haven’t helped put consumers at ease, despite the convincing numbers.
◆ Environmental action. It’s increasingly clear that your customers want you to become more environmentally involved. Answer these questions:
➜ Do you inform your customers that you use paper from certified forests — or that the paper in your catalogs has recycled content or is recyclable?
➜ Are your shipping orders in cartons that are environmentally friendly? The right size?
➜ Do you tell your customers about the thought you give to the environmental quality of what you mail?
Commit to Consumer Choice
During DMA07 in October, we announced a new self-regulatory program to meet the mounting consumer interests of relevance and timeliness, as well as to keep the mail medium open for use by direct marketers. Called the Commitment to Consumer Choice (CCC), it gives people more say in what they do and don’t want to receive. Here are some suggestions for action your company can take to support this commitment.
1. Talk to consumers about the receipt of your catalog. Provide customers and prospects with a notice that they can modify the receipt of direct marketing solicitations from your company. Put that notice in every marketing solicitation you mail. Make the notice easy for consumers to find, read, understand and act on.
In its simplest form, the notice could read like this:
If you wish to receive fewer or no mail offers from us, go to our Web site at www.(your Web site).com/consumerchoice.
It could be more elaborately designed by your copywriters or have an environmental spin. But the bottom line is that the language you write in should convey that you care about your customers’ choices and are committed to act on them.
If customers or prospects say they want their names removed from your list, act on that quickly — and let them know you’ve done so. Eliminate the transfer of their personal information to other marketers at the same time.
If you exchange your list or rent it out to others, let people know this at least annually; give them the chance to prevent it.
2. Let them know you care about their safety. If you don’t take steps to make your customers feel comfortable doing business with you, they might not want to have anything to do with you. Address their fears straight on.
It’s not taboo — talk to them about identity theft and why they can feel safe shopping with you. Train your frontline customer service reps to address these common customer fears.
3. Disclose the source of their names. If consumers request it, tell them where you got their names. Train your customer service reps to handle this directly. And don’t make agreements with other list owners that prohibit you from disclosing them as the source.
4. Use the Mail Preference Service (MPS) frequently. This suppression list of consumers who prefer to receive no commercial solicitations or requests for donations has been in existence for decades. DMA members have been required to use MPS at least once every three months to suppress names on all prospect lists. Under that system, however, consumers sometimes didn’t see the results of their choices for several months.
Starting next month, consumers will see the results of their choices faster because MPS will be updated and available every month, instead of every three months.
It’s time for multichannel marketers to again step up to respond to consumers. Self-regulation is an efficient, cost-effective way to guide the marketplace. Taking it seriously benefits both consumers and you. It’s worked before, but we need to take the necessary steps to protect our ability to mail.
If all catalogers unite in support of the CCC, we’ll keep the mail medium open for business. If not, it could be a tough road ahead. For some helpful resources, go to www.dmaccc.org or www.the-dma.org/environment.
Pat Kachura is senior vice president for ethics & consumer affairs at The Direct Marketing Association. You can reach her at (202) 861-2410 or pkachura@the-dma.org.
