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Archive for 2007
Published by Margot December 18th, 2007
in Junk Mail Services.
Gidday,
Since yesterday I have been to the newly launched DMA’s MPS opt out website and note that you can now opt out of individual direct mail companies. Funnily enough you can also Opt In to them on the same page! Is this a ploy to collect yet more names for marketing purposes? Hmmm, another day.
As I myself have used the MPS to stop unwanted catalogs and direct mail in the past along with www.stopthejunkmail.com I was curious to see if any of our top stopped catalogs are members of the DMA. When I asked the DMA in the past to put me on their mail suppression list I had no idea which direct mail companies I would be stopping.
The following is a list of the top 20 stopped catalogs from our members last week:
1. Herrington
2. Brookstone *
3. Frontgate
4. Harry & David *
5. Wine Country Gift Baskets
6. Bits and Pieces
7. Hammacher Schlemmer
8. RedEnvelope *
9. Eddie Bauer *
10. Garnet Hill
11. Calyx Flowers
12. PajamaGram
13. Plow & Hearth
14. The Danbury Mint
15. Williams-Sonoma *
16. FAO Schwarz
17. Lands End
18. Pottery Barn Kids
19. Godiva *
20. The Sharper Image *
From these top 20 stopped catalogs there were only 7 (or 35%) on the DMA member list. So if you want to stop any of the other catalogs on the list you have to call or contact them yourself and ask to be removed from their mailing lists which is what the DMA advises. Also just remember by being members of the DMA these companies use the other services the DMA offer such as how to best market to consumers!
As a note, LL Bean was on the list but hey, I actually like to get that one! Also, notably some of the big department stores like Macy’s , Bloomingdale’s, Target were on the list but I couldn’t find AOL, Qwest, Dell, Apple, Bank of America or Comcast.
Cheerio,
Margot
Published by Margot December 17th, 2007
in Coporate and Junk Mail Services.
Gidday,
The DMA is having a “Catalog Summit” meeting in New York today to unveil something to it’s members. I have heard that it may be another service to help consumers opt-out of mailing lists by catalog, a service much like greendimes, stopthejunkmail.com and catalogchoice.org. Currently the DMA offer a blanket service where by consumers can opt out from all the DMA members, approximately 3600.
The DMA currently collects consumers opt out information, then once a month sends a suppression list in the form of a file to each of it’s members. The agreement is based upon the compliance that their members will suppress these names from their marketing lists. Their ethics committee oversees these rules.
But what about those companies such as www.stopthejunkmail.com who also send opt out requests to direct mail companies, including DMA members? Since the DMA does not divulge who their members are(they keep that private) it is hard for a service such as stopthejunkmail.com to know which companies we may be sending duplicate opt-out requests to.
Currently we send opt outs 1 by 1 but we have been asked by some companies to send a file containing all of our members who wish to opt out. Will the DMA allow it’s members to receive names collected from 3rd parties such as ourselves in the form of a file like they do? I mention this because I have heard that the DMA is trying to convince their members to refuse just these kinds of opt out files from 3rd parties. Just say NO is the message! But surely you ask isn’t that the choice of the catalogers and not the DMA to dictate to their members?
If the DMA were really committed to helping consumers reduce their unwanted direct mail and protect their privacy they would encourage other services such as stopthejunkmail.com, greendimes.com, catalogchoice.org and 41pounds.org to work with their members.
Problem is the DMA’s main business is committed to helping members better target consumers for direct mail. How can the DMA be committed to both consumer privacy and direct marketing? Now isn’t that an odd dilemma!
Cheerio,
Margot
Published by Margot December 13th, 2007
in Coporate and Programs.
Gidday,
American Forests Organization recently announced a bigger effort to rebuild our forests. There are 2 new funds you can donate to Wildfire Releaf for the forest fires in California, and Global Releaf2.
“We are launching Global ReLeaf2 because the current problem requires a doubling of our efforts to reduce rising global temperatures. Our goal is to plant 100 million trees by the year 2020, a goal that can only be attained through the support of communities, businesses, our partner organizations and individuals. By helping us restore the life-giving ecosystem services produced by forests, you can help prevent the loss of more trees.” says American Forests.
Stopthejunkmail.com currently donates $1 of every subscription to the Global ReLeaf Projects, check out what is going on in your state to help regenerate our forests.
In our own state, Colorado, we had a huge fire in 2002, the largest in Colorado history, the Hayman Fire. The fire destroyed many habitats including about 20-40 winter nesting spots for bald Eagles. So far with the help of local organizations the Global ReLeaf fund has donated over 26,000 trees for the restoration project alone. This project is a 10 year plan to regenerate the burn area.
Here are some other American Forest Campaigns.
Cheerio,
Margot
Published by Margot December 6th, 2007
in Advice.
Gidday,
I thought I would share this with you from the DMA’s Mail Preference website. There is a complaint form that you can fill out for any individual direct mail company who is persistently sending you direct mail and will not remove your name from their mailing lists after repeated tries. Of course you can also call the direct mail company your self or use www.stopthejunkmail.com to send a 2nd name removal request.
The DMA wants to help if you have been unsuccessful in removing your name and address from a specific company’s or non-profit’s mailing list. They try to be helpful in all complaint situations, whether the company is a member of our association or not. All you have to do is fill out the complaint form and mail it to the Direct Marketing association in Washington, DC. They will do the rest for you.
Cheerio,
Margot
Published by Margot December 3rd, 2007
in Advice and Junk Mail Services.
Gidday,
You know I do love some of the catalogs that come to our home, REI, Edmund Scientific’s, Lego, Sierra Trading Post, Lands End Kids and others. We do not get many besides these and if I want others I just get online and order directly from their website. No need for wasting resources. We have been selectively opting out of postal junk mail in our house since 1999 and now only receive 1-2 catalogs a week. That’s not a misprint, infact it might be a bit of an exaggeration! When I get them I am pleased to see them and spend a good few hours going through them to see what is new. I actually really enjoy my current catalog choice!
The other pieces of my mail consist of a few direct mail offers. If I go through what I have received this past week, I have a an offer for Vonage, an old Navy Holiday Gift, a local clothing store Elena Ciccone advertisement, United Mileage plus credit card offer, Wells Fargo newsletter and the Colorado Talking Library annual fund raiser. All of these we either have relationships with or use in our daily lives, except Vonage which I need to deal with….hmmm a piece of junk mail!
So what is unwanted Junk Mail? Every consumer has different ideas of junk mail in varying degrees. Some of our members do not want any direct mail, some want to define their preferences by being selective, some only want to get rid of credit card offers or sweepstakes.
If a consumer wants to stop their unwanted postal junk mail it includes catalogs but this is a small part of the big picture. There are many other types (or categories) of direct mail including, magazines, airlines, fund raisers, publishers, computer resellers, cable companies, non-profits, colleges, banks, credit bureaus, churches, insurance companies, newspapers, newsletters, financial institutions, clubs, department stores and many more.
We all have bank accounts, credit cards and cell phones, we all have email accounts, we subscribe to magazines and newspapers, we move house, we buy property, members of book clubs, we shop online, we went to college. Think of all the places and times you give out your personal information, it is endless.
We freely give out our information to catalogers and they in turn very nicely sell, rent or share that data without our knowledge. Hence the viral spread of your personal data becomes common knowledge and property of many different direct marketers.
We also give out our names and addresses to other major institutions that we trust because we have very necessary relationships with them. Most all of these companies have privacy policies, some state that they will not share or sell but in most cases the onus is on you , the consumer, to opt-out, not opt-in. You are opted in until you opt out. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
At stopthejunkmail.com we have been helping our members opt out of direct mail since 2001 and we have a list of over 9,000 direct mail companies by title and growing.
Here are comments from CurrentBUzz , The Full Mommy and Hatchlings about unwanted junk mail which prompted me to write this.
Cheerio,
Margot
Published by Margot November 30th, 2007
in Junk Mail Services and Personal.
Gidday,
We have been opting out of unwanted catalogs using www.stopthejunkmail.com for 7 or 8 years now and we generally get no postal junk mail at least 2-3 times a week.
Today we had absolutely no mail at all, not even any bills!
I thought that this was worth reporting because after all it is the Xmas season!
Cheerio,
Margot
Published by Margot November 26th, 2007
in Boulder and Programs.
Gidday,
Youth ClassAction organizer, Charlee Dyroff has 4 local Niwot and Boulder Schools signed up for the stopthejunkmail.com December Challenge, Boulder High, Niwot High, Fairview High and Peak to Peak.
ClassAction is gearing up for the December Challenge from the 10th to 15th. If you would like your school to be involved in helping your local community opt out of postal junk mail, protect our environment and plant trees with American Forests Organization it’s very simple to get your school involved.
Become a part of ClassAction
You can Contact Charlee if you would like to become a member of the ClassAction Youth Group and be a part of their stopthejunkmail.com challenge.
Stopthejunkmail.com School Partnership Program
Contact stopthejunkmail.com to get involved in funding your own independant school programs. All you need is an application form to benefit from our schools partnership program. You can be a part of an ongoing daily partnership.
Cheerio,
Margot
Published by Margot November 19th, 2007
in Junk Mail Services.
Gidday,
I have just been catching up on a segment called “Lighten the Load - Return to Sender” I saw with Bill Moyers on PBS talking about his personal issues concerning opting out of postal junk mail. How easy it is to get on lists and what can you do to reduce the onslaught coming to your mail box.
I find Daniel Katz statistics about the number of catalogs each person receives interesting but here’s some statistics from our own stopthejunkmail.com junk mail report Our members say that they get on average 14 catalogs or more a week or 780 catalogs per year! If you weigh 14 catalogs that’s about 5lbs of paper each week (and that doesn’t include direct mail solicitations). If you add that up that’s about 230lbs each year of junk mail per household.
Don’t forget you also receive junk mail from direct mail companies such as banks, credit card companies, airlines, insurance companies, magazines, newspapers, non-profits and many other companies you are affiliated with in some way. In fact if you order a magazine you are immediately adding your name to a publishers mailing list ,and someone like Conde Nast has over 30 publications. Have you thought about who else may share or sell your private information over and over again? Catalogs are but just a small piece of this puzzle.
At stopthejunkmail.com we handle all of these titles individually. So if you want to still get Vogue magazine but not Golf Digest you can select these by title from our enhanced list of direct mail publications. Similarly LL Bean has some 15 catalog titles depending upon the season and Lands End about 8 titles, our members can select to receive LL Bean Home, but not LL Bean Kids for instance.
The best advice is if you do have to order from a catalog or online you should always request the company not to sell, rent or share you private information. You should also contact your banks, credit card companies, anyone you have an account with and request that you are opted out of advertising and that they do not rent or sell your private data.
Our members are happy to use stopthejunkmail.com to better define their direct mail shopping preferences and even in our household we only get the catalogs we love to shop from and bills of course, can’t do anything about them!
At stopthejunkmail.com we have been helping consumers protect their privacy now for 6 years, since 2001. It has been our own personal passion to pass our knowledge on to consumers whether they are members or not.
Interesting items: I just read another item from
Cheerio,
Margot
Published by Margot November 13th, 2007
in Junk Mail Services.
Gidday,
There are more and more services now that you can chose from to opt out of postal junk mail. Just in the last month another service launched their beta website, www.catalogchoice.org.
Cost
The service is FREE.
How it Works
Catalog Choice is under a beta release with a site that operates very similarly to our own. You can stop individual catalogs per address and add all the members of your household to your account as we do at Stopthejunkmail.com
Available Catalogs
You can search for a catalog such as LL Bean, but you cannot selectively stop individual publications from LL Bean. With stopthejunkmail.com you have a the ability to stop LL Bean Home and keep LL Bean Kids for instance.
Account History
You can track your opt out choices on your Account as you can with stopthejunkmail.com.
Usage
You can add any number of catalogs to your account and record the customer information from the back of the catalog, as we do at stopthejunkmail.com but we also allow other codes to be added from the address label.
New Suggestions
You can suggest new catalogs if you cannot find the one you are looking for, as we do at stopthejunkmail.com.
Direct Mail
They do not handle direct mail or the DMA, only catalogs. There are no banks, newsletters, magazines, non-profits, charities, Insurance companies or political parties, computer resellers, churches, hospitals or cable companies. Stopthejunkmail.com handles all of these and many more.
How Long does it Take?
Catalog Choice has over 120,000 individuals signed up plus over 1 million opt outs recorded. They must be very busy, I am a bit worried though because it is unclear as to how they process opt out requests. I am not sure if it is a manual process or an electronic process but they do promise your catalogs will cease in about 10 weeks. I did find a blog entry from Oct 30th that said “Our team is working hard processing your opt-out requests”. At stopthejunkmail.com we immediately notify each catalog company electronically when a member opts out and we have a proven success rate of reducing direct mail within 3-4 months.
Merchant Accounts
In the same blog entry they also announced the launch of the Merchant Section of the website. This new feature is for a catalog company to confirm their merchant account, this means they can chose to receive a file containing a list of consumers wishing to opt-out of their catalogs. “… merchants did not fully understand the benefit of our service and they wanted to take a wait and see approach before signing up.” Catalog Choice admits. It seems that Catalog Choice maybe promising a service that may not actually be accepted by the direct mail industry at all.
Also another new service this past month is www.proquo.com
Cheerio,
Margot
Published by Margot November 13th, 2007
in Programs.
Gidday,
I have been meeting with young local Niwot High School Entrepreneur the past few weeks, Charlee Dyroff. Charlee and a few of her friends from other High schools in the district are about to launch a community club called ClassAction focused around undertaking small community programs that will benefit their local environment.
Charlee first came to me with the idea that she wanted to volunteer for stopthejunkmail.com. We jointly came up with the idea to start a Schools Program between ClassAction and stopthejunkmail.com. With this program stopthejunkmail.com have agreed to fund ClassAction enabling Charlee and her fellow classmates to succeed at their objectives to help the community. Charlee plans to launch the first ClassAction Schools Challenge in December from the 10th to the 15th and welcomes any other school or athletic group in the nation to compete with them.
Charlee grew up with her dad running another program, the Colorado Youth Hockey Foundation, which was formed to help under privileged kids get into ice hockey, check out www.kidsonice.net. Like father, like daughter in this case. Charlee has other friends involved at other schools in Boulder and some other states, her idea is quickly growing. The general idea is that the kids take on small community projects to clean up their local towns and put back into the community.
If you want to find out more about ClassAction and the December Challenge defined by ClassAction, you can contact Charlee here or go to their website.
Stopthejunkmail.com offer other programs to schools, clubs or businesses who want to participate in raising funds for their own projects. Please contact us if you have any questions or for an application form to join the program.
Cheerio,
Margot
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