Catalog Choice and Unwanted Mailings: Have you ever received tons of magazines or catalogs that you have grown tired of receiving? Well, one website has come up with a solution to stop all of those catalog subscriptions from coming to your house at once. In some cases once you order something from a catalog they will continue to shop up at your house month after month. In some cases more than once a month.
The purpose of the www.Cataolgchoice.org site it to help businesses and individuals get rid of those unwanted catalogs and to help the environment. The service is free, and all you have to do is sign up at the website listed above.
Basically you get to decide what does and does not find its way into your mailbox. All you have to do is sign up and then look through their database to find the catalogs that you want to unsubscribe from. If one of your catalogs is not on the list you can very easily suggest one. You will need the customer number that is printed on the catalog's mailing label.
Remember that you have to submit as much information as possibly so that you can be removed from the merchant's list. You should also keep in mind that Catalog Choice.org is a site that is devoted to helping the environment. If you go to Catalog Choice.com that is a totally different site so try not to get the two confused.
I really like the idea of this website. Getting tons of catalogs in the mail can be very annoying and you really don't know who to contact to make them stop. Even if you find a number on the back of the catalog it can still be difficult to get someone to understand that you don't want their catalog anymore. Four catalogs that I would like to stop getting delivered are, American Baby, Ann Taylor, PC Mall, and Macy's.
c/o Associated Content
Catalog Choice Allos You To Cancel Unwanted Catalogs
2vote A new service from Catalog Choice (catalogchoice.org) allows people to cancer catalogs that they don't want by simply eliminating unwanted catalogs that you receive.
This free service by Catalog Choice lets subscribers decline paper catalogs that they no longer want to receive. Catalogchoice.org thus becomes a nice way to reduce the amount of unsolicited mail and help to preserve the environment.
Can you imagine how many threes are cut to make hundreds of millions of catalogs. This is about the time when consumers are given catalog choice to accept or decline or cancel catalogs they receive in mail.
The information below is provided from Catalogchoice.org
What is Catalog Choice?
Catalog Choice is a free service that allows you to decide what gets in your mailbox. Use it to reduce your mailbox clutter, while helping save natural resources.
Who we are
Catalog Choice is a sponsored project of the Ecology Center. It is endorsed by the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council, and funded by the Overbrook Foundation, the Merck Family Fund, and the Kendeda Fund.
The mission of Catalog Choice
The mission of Catalog Choice is to reduce the number of repeat and unsolicited catalog mailings, and to promote the adoption of sustainable industry best practices. We aim to accomplish this by freely providing the Catalog Choice services to both consumers and businesses. Consumers can indicate which catalogs they no longer wish to receive, and businesses can receive a list of consumers no longer wanting to receive their catalogs.
Help spread the word
The collective positive impact that the Catalog Choice community has on the environment is directly related to the number of people using the service. You can help spread the word, by displaying one of our linked badges on your own website or blog.
For more information see Catalog Choice webiste.
c/o huliq.com
Thousands of consumers ask to be taken off mailing lists
Catalog Choice, the relatively new Web site designed to eliminate millions of catalog mailings, says its plan is working.
The Direct Marketing Association, the trade group for many of those catalog companies, says it has more trustworthy solutions for people who want fewer catalogs.
Either way, consumers seem to be benefiting.
A quick recap: Catalog Choice (http://www.catalogchoice.org) is a joint project of environmental organizations that include the Ecology Center in Berkeley, Calif. The free Web site makes it easy for anyone to check off catalogs they don't want, and also offers a convenient way for merchants to accommodate those requests — if they choose to cooperate.
In mid-November, Catalog Choice was reporting that 148,000 consumers had requested to be taken off the lists for almost 1.5 million catalog mailings. The totals at the beginning of January: Almost 350,000 people have asked to opt out of almost 4.3 million catalogs.
But are the catalog companies honoring the requests?
Chuck Teller, executive director of Catalog Choice, said that almost 100 companies have established merchant accounts, which create an easy way for them to mesh the opt-out requests with their own data. Those 100 merchants (out of about 1,000 on Catalog Choice's radar) have drawn about 15 percent of the opt-out requests. And Teller said he's confident the merchants are using the accounts to honor at least some requests because of the way they're asking questions about file formats and other data issues.
Catalog Choice says merchants with activated accounts include L.L. Bean, Lands' End, Lillian Vernon, Gardener's Supply, Omaha Steaks and Urban Outfitters.
At a December ''catalog summit'' in New York, the DMA discussed what it considers an ''assault'' on marketing done by mail. That's a reference to a variety of efforts that might restrict mailings, such as ''do not mail'' movements that want to emulate the ''do not call'' registry. And it includes ''activist group'' initiatives such as Catalog Choice.
The DMA says it's concerned that groups compiling opt-out lists might not have verified names and addresses, might not ultimately protect those names and addresses from being sold or traded to other organizations and might use the lists to contact people for additional purposes.
In a recent Business Week article, an e-mail from DMA President John A. Greco Jr. to DMA members was quoted as saying Catalog Choice was trying ''to eliminate catalogs as a marketing medium'' and that members would be making ''a significant mistake to cooperate'' with such organizations. Teller sent a response to the DMA's concerns and included a copy of Greco's e-mail, which a DMA spokeswoman said appeared to be authentic.
Teller's response: Catalog Choice uses the ''same user authentication and verification process followed by the FTC on the Do Not Call registry — that is, upon registration we send an e-mail to the member's e-mail account that includes a unique authentication link for that user. The member's account is not fully verified until either he or she clicks the verification link or contacts our customer service team to request manual verification. . . . Our system does not permit a member to enter more than one opt-out request for the same member name, address and catalog title.''
Teller added that a privacy policy promises that Catalog Choice's data will never be used by any organization for marketing purposes.
Part of the fallout is an effort by the DMA to improve its own opt-out service (http://www.dmachoice.org). At this point, it's still more complicated than Catalog Choice's site, but the DMA is arguing that it has a track record for effectiveness and trustworthiness.
Catalog Choice, the relatively new Web site designed to eliminate millions of catalog mailings, says its plan is working.
The Direct Marketing Association, the trade group for many of those catalog companies, says it has more trustworthy solutions for people who want fewer catalogs.
Either way, consumers seem to be benefiting.
A quick recap: Catalog Choice (http://www.catalogchoice.org) is a joint project of environmental organizations that include the Ecology Center in Berkeley, Calif. The free Web site makes it easy for anyone to check off catalogs they don't want, and also offers a convenient way for merchants to accommodate those requests — if they choose to cooperate.
In mid-November, Catalog Choice was reporting that 148,000 consumers had requested to be taken off the lists for almost 1.5 million catalog mailings. The totals at the beginning of January: Almost 350,000 people have asked to opt out of almost 4.3 million catalogs.
But are the catalog companies honoring the requests?
Chuck Teller, executive director of Catalog Choice, said that almost 100 companies have established merchant accounts, which create an easy way for them to mesh the opt-out requests with their own data. Those 100 merchants (out of about 1,000 on Catalog Choice's radar) have drawn about 15 percent of the opt-out requests. And Teller said he's confident the merchants are using the accounts to honor at least some requests because of the way they're asking questions about file formats and other data issues.
Catalog Choice says merchants with activated accounts include L.L. Bean, Lands' End, Lillian Vernon, Gardener's Supply, Omaha Steaks and Urban Outfitters.
At a December ''catalog summit'' in New York, the DMA discussed what it considers an ''assault'' on marketing done by mail. That's a reference to a variety of efforts that might restrict mailings, such as ''do not mail'' movements that want to emulate the ''do not call'' registry. And it includes ''activist group'' initiatives such as Catalog Choice.
The DMA says it's concerned that groups compiling opt-out lists might not have verified names and addresses, might not ultimately protect those names and addresses from being sold or traded to other organizations and might use the lists to contact people for additional purposes.
In a recent Business Week article, an e-mail from DMA President John A. Greco Jr. to DMA members was quoted as saying Catalog Choice was trying ''to eliminate catalogs as a marketing medium'' and that members would be making ''a significant mistake to cooperate'' with such organizations. Teller sent a response to the DMA's concerns and included a copy of Greco's e-mail, which a DMA spokeswoman said appeared to be authentic.
Teller's response: Catalog Choice uses the ''same user authentication and verification process followed by the FTC on the Do Not Call registry — that is, upon registration we send an e-mail to the member's e-mail account that includes a unique authentication link for that user. The member's account is not fully verified until either he or she clicks the verification link or contacts our customer service team to request manual verification. . . . Our system does not permit a member to enter more than one opt-out request for the same member name, address and catalog title.''
Teller added that a privacy policy promises that Catalog Choice's data will never be used by any organization for marketing purposes.
Part of the fallout is an effort by the DMA to improve its own opt-out service (http://www.dmachoice.org). At this point, it's still more complicated than Catalog Choice's site, but the DMA is arguing that it has a track record for effectiveness and trustworthiness.
By Mike Antonucci
San Jose Mercury News
Swelling ranks of consumer ‘do not mail’ lists prompt DMA response
This weekend, Catalog Choice added the 400,000th member to its database of consumers who have asked to be removed from catalog mailing lists. Direct marketers and the DMA have taken notice.
Launched in October by the Ecology Center and endorsed by the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council, the nonprofit Catalog Choice (www.catalogchoice.org) is among a handful of new services that have popped up in the past year to help consumers reject unwanted direct mail. Environmental concerns have helped fuel that desire. A headline on the Catalog Choice home page exhorts consumers to “Simplify your life and save natural resources.”
Responding to the popularity of such sites, the Direct Marketing Association has beefed up it own opt-out service, called Mail Preference Service, which has been available to consumers for many years and enables them to opt out of direct mail.
Last month, the DMA did away with the $1 fee it previously charged consumers for registering with MPS, and it enhanced the service so that consumers can now opt out of particular catalogs and brands individually. Previously, the DMA service only gave the option of opting out of all commercial mail.
“We improved the site to allow the capability to opt in and opt out of individual brands,” said Steve Berry, exec VP-government affairs and corporate responsibility at DMA. “We upgraded the site so you can do that via the Internet.”
In addition, preferences are updated more frequently these days. “We also now require all our members to run their lists against the MPS list every month instead of every 90 days,” Berry said.
Berry readily admits the changes were made in response to new groups such as Catalog Choice.
“It is in response to these groups that have popped up, as well as surveys we’ve done,” he said. “Consumers say they want more choice and they also want to make eco-friendly choices. It was a wake-up to the industry. There is pent-up demand out there. As direct marketers, it is our job to listen to the consumer.”
George Ittner, president of apparel catalog The Territory Ahead, said third-party opt-out providers are not only unnecessary but confuse the process.
“I think we provide a valuable service to the consuming public by printing catalogs containing quality merchandise for their selection or rejection,” he said. “They can contact us directly or through DMA. Why should we have third parties that want to pile on?”
One of Ittner’s concerns about third parties is data integrity.
”I think Catalog Choice is confusing, and there are issues in my mind about the integrity of their data,” he said. “What are they doing with the names that they get? Are they using them for marketing purposes?” Ittner also said he is concerned about how marketers can verify that the names provided by these third parties are legitimate.
A database industry source said catalog merchants such as Ittner are taking different approaches when it comes to services like Catalog Choice. “Some are processing the opt-outs, but many aren’t because they don’t trust the data and its integrity,” said this observer, who asked to remain anonymous. Another worry is that Catalog Choice and others are sending address information through e-mail, which “is not a secure mode of transmission for sensitive data,” according to the source.
DMA agreed, noting that third-party opt-out lists are neither verified nor authenticated, and that there is no explicit promise from the third parties that consumer address data will not be used for marketing purposes.
But the DMA will need to react quickly if it hopes to avoid a repeat of the National Do Not Call Registry, one of the most popular pieces of legislation in recent history. At the time, observers said marketers and the DMA were too slow to react meaningfully to consumer complaints and paid the price in the form of a federal law. Currently nine state legislatures are considering bills that would create state-run do not mail registries.
Meanwhile, a pro direct mail group that is part of the DMA called Mail Moves America is working with state business groups and communicating with legislators about the importance of direct mail for consumers, businesses and the economy in order to lobby against the creation of a do not mail list.
By Carol Krol
c/o http://www.btobonline.com
