Speaking at the DMA07 Conference & Exhibition DMA President & CEO John A. Greco, Jr. said the industry needs to regulate themselves:
“If we can’t self-regulate successfully, you might as well turn off the lights and hand over the keys of your business to the legislators and regulators right now,” Greco said. “If we don’t succeed, they will dictate the success or failure of the direct marketing community.”
Greco words come after 15 states proposed the creation of state Do Not Mail registries in 2007. The Do Not Mail registry is similar to the Do Not Call registry.
Joe Webb, Director of WhatTheyThink.com's Economics and Research Center has pointed out in one of his columns that a a "Do Not Mail" list would be bad for printers and consumers:"Do not mail" would be bad for the printing business and direct marketers; but most of all, it would be bad for consumers. Small and microbusinesses would no longer be able to announce their capabilities by mail. This is paradoxical, because most new businesses in recent years are home-based, saving energy and resources because their owners no longer commute back and forth to work, and many heavily use the Internet for tasks that would have required some form of greater energy consumption pre-Internet.
Most of all, print is an economical way for small businesses to seek customers, especially when they are already legally limited in the kinds of other solicitations they can do by phone—or even in person because of time and logistical concerns. Consumers always benefit when they have multiple businesses competing for their dollars. Limiting that competition by making it more difficult for small and microbusinesses to reach potential customers could ultimately cause market prices for goods to rise, and more importantly, serve as a barrier to entry for those new businesses.
Along with self-regulation, the DMA needs to get the word out that mechanisms are already in in place to reduce the unsolicited mail. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) provides resources on removing your name from marketing, phone, and mailing lists. The Mail Preference Service provides a Web-based method to remove your name from mailing lists. The credit card industry runs OptOutPrescreen.com, a Web-based service that lets you remove your name from credit card offer mailing list.
For more information about the Do Not Mail movement and visit the Mail Moves America coalition website.
Discussion
By Jim Olsen on Oct 19, 2007
I'm sure the idea is not new to use direct mail to publicize the DMA's process of adding one's name and address to the "do not mail" list". It seems paradoxical that it appears the only way it can be accomplished now is via the Internet. It would behoove publishers, printers, paper manufacturers, and, of course the direct mailers themselves to join in one great major campaign to reach all the millions in the U.S. and give them a chance to opt out. We could consider doing it only in those states considering legislation with a major PR lobbying campaign. That's where our trade associations and Ben Cooper and the Print Council would come in. We might be lucky and get the typical .5% response rate! In the meantime, what a great political ploy.