Is the All Party Group on Junk Mail a good idea? I certainly think so!

I have to ask: Has Karen Webster from Mortascreen finally lost it? I thought having the category ‘Almost Dead’ in Mortascreen was about as mad as one could get. But now? In her Precision Marketing News comment piece Is the All Party Group such a good idea? (click here to read), it appears that Ms Webster is intent on sticking up for the industry her company has been lambasting for a decade or so. And quite rightly, in my view.

[As background: The All Party Group on Junk Mail (APG), is chaired by Paddy Tipping, MP and was formed in December 2007 with a remit ‘to increase awareness in Parliament of responsible direct marketing; to highlight ways of reducing junk mail, and to educate on and promote best practice in waste resolution and database management to all users of direct marketing services, including industry, public services, government departments and agencies, and the third sector.’ My company, The REaD Group, provides the Secretariat for the APG through Mandate Communications. Mortascreen, on the other hand, is a rival to our The Bereavement Register.]

Now back to the fray…
Despite the fact that there has been a significant increase in the use of data suppression (the means by which deceased persons’ data as well as consumers’ change of address details are monitored and updated by marketers), over 20 per cent of all consumer direct mail still goes nowhere near any form of suppression product. That equates to about one billion wasted items of mail each year – all of it, sadly, unscreened. How that can be condoned by anyone is quite beyond me.

The APG is about three things: Education, education, and – yes, you guessed it! - education. What Ms Webster seems not to appreciate is that MP’s have a responsibility to you, their constituents. Much as my Mortascreen colleague would like to keep her head stuck in the sand, the truth in the “real world” is that there are innumerable occurrences of constituents quizzing their local MP’s about mailing to both Gone Aways and Deceaseds.

Further, it is pretty much a dead-cert that, at some point in the near future, the direct marketing industry will finally give up the ghost of self-regulation and be subject to Government legislation. The industry has two choices, as I see it: Sit back and wait for a draconian measure such as ER removal (which in fact made the situation worse); or educate and engage with the very audience (ie. politicians) who will be deciding our futures - thus ensuring an informed, balanced and proportionate response.

It is no good ignoring the ‘direct mail killed my Granny’ stories, or dismissing them as tabloid fillers during silly season. This is simply what consumers feel about our medium – principally because some sectors of the industry persist in ignoring their wishes by operating on under two per cent response rates and continuing to send out over 1 billion items of mail without a second thought to suppression.

By engaging with MP’s as well as boldly naming and shaming those brands that do not use products like those provided by The REaD Group and Millennium, consumers will applaud the efforts of the APG – contrary to Ms Webster’s assertion - precisely because they’ll perceive that finally something is being done to set rogue companies’ wasteful and excessive DM practices in order. This has the potential to create a profound attitudinal shift – one which can only improve the quality and perception of the direct marketing industry.