A word about Catalog Choice
By John Lenser, President

Many of you have asked what catalog mailers should do when contacted by Catalog Choice about taking downloads of files of individuals who have registered with Catalog Choice and have requested that the mailer's catalog not be mailed to them.  If a mailer has refused to accept these files, Catalog Choice has posted the refusal on their website resulting, in some instances, in consumers calling customer service and complaining.  

While the DMA has taken the position that Catalog Choice is unneeded given their own "Do Not Mail" preference services, I no longer believe this position is in the industry’s best interest. Catalog Choice now has over 736,000 registered accounts of those who have requested that one or more catalogs not be mailed to them and registrations are growing by thousands each week.  Therefore, I am recommending that catalog mailers move forward to accept Catalog Choice's merchant agreement and accept their file downloads.  The negative repercussions for not doing so, at this point, outweigh any advantages of not joining.  It is naive to pretend they do not exist.

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.  It is a responsible organization and not associated with the more radical ecology groups.  Al Bessin, one of my partners, and I have been personally meeting with Chuck Teller, their CEO, for over a year in an effort to make their program rational and supportive of the industry.  We have found them to be reasonable people and open to positive suggestions.  
 
We have not previously recommended that our clients join Catalog Choice for several reasons. First, we wanted to see if they had staying power and would become the dominant provider of this service.  At this point, we believe they are here to stay and deserve our backing.  Second, we had major concerns about suppressing house file names that may have registered to not receive a mailing, since mailing buyers is critical to your business success.  
 
There is now an acceptable solution to this second problem.  Catalog Choice is advising their consumer registrants that catalog companies reserve the right to contact their customers to verify their wish to be suppressed from mailings.  We believe that such verification is very important and should be part of a mailer’s normal procedure with any buyer who has registered with Catalog Choice.  For clients where LENSER is managing the day-to-day circulation, we will bring the Catalog Choice suppression file into the merge and flag buyer hits.

These buyers can then be validated through a separate mailing requesting a response or simply by adding an inkjet message asking for secondary validation (website registration, email, phone call or mail back card).  For prospects, the Catalog Choice suppression file can be applied the same as the DMA preference suppression file.  This approach should avoid suppressing valuable customers from mailings where they "didn't really mean it" or did not even remember that they were customers.
 
There is another reason to get behind Catalog Choice.  More radical groups are continuing to lobby the Federal Government to create a national "Do Not Mail" list, similar to the "Do Not Call" list, with heavy penalties for any violations.  We expect that bills will be introduced in Congress and hearings held.  If the industry wants to avoid such governmental intrusion, we need to demonstrate that viable alternatives already exist.  While the DMA's mail preference service is the industry's own internal answer, Catalog Choice represents a solid answer to those that are distrustful of an industry-managed program.  The last thing we need is Catalog Choice giving testimony that the industry torpedoed their efforts.
 
LENSER and a number of significant industry leaders continue to meet with Catalog Choice in an effort to influence their program so that it not only meets their goals of eliminating waste and pollution, but actually makes our mailing programs more cost-effective and profitable.  If you have any suggestions on how this might be better achieved, please forward them to me.  Also, please pass on any additional concerns that you feel should be addressed.   By working together, we can make a positive difference.