The DMA And "Do Not Mail" Legislation

Many of you asked me to spend more time talking about "do not mail" and "green/sustainability" issues. The past week provided stimulating consideration of these issues.

This DMNews article spends a bit of time talking about the DMA's response to "do not mail" legislation, suggesting potential solutions are maybe nine months away.

By that time, third party catalog opt-out lists may have garnered enough market share to supersede legislation.

Momentum really picked up over the past few years. Folks are getting "unwanted" catalogs.

As an industry, we have to ask ourselves why this movement is happening. What did we do that caused us to be considered in the class of spammers and telemarketers, considering our proud, century-long history of enabling shopping "at distance"?

More specifically, what business practices did we change over the past few years, to cause customers/prospects to experience such displeasure? What changed about our customer acquisition practices, or our housefile/channel mailing practices?

The answers are probably different for every cataloger. But the common themes are so obvious.