In golf they say that every shot makes somebody happy. It's safe to say that this line of thinking can also be applied to any number of situations away from the game of golf.
As many of you may know, the Federal Trade Commission has created the National Do Not Call Registry, making for a very unhappy camp of telemarketers. And although many of us may never again have the chance to sign-up for a time-share in the Bahamas while eating dinner, you can bet that a million or so consumers around the country are more than happy to opt-out of that opportunity.
The Feds are also trying to clamp down on e-marketers. The Senate on Nov. 25 passed the CAN SPAM Act of 2003, and the bill was signed by the President on December 16 and takes effect on January 1, 2004. The FTC admits, though, that “caning” spam won't be all that easy.
Which brings us around to the paper industry, which, by the way, should be wearing a smile even a plastic surgeon couldn't carve off. Why? Due to potential legal wrangling that could befall telemarketing firms and spammers, the marketing industry is thinking of moving back towards paper-based direct mail programs. Or, at the risk of the ire of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), junk mail.
“[Direct mail] is the only targeted medium that hasn't almost been regulated out of existence, and that may be because it's the least offensive and annoying,” said Ray Schultz, editorial director of Direct magazine (Direct, Dec. 2003, “The Next Big Thing”).
“Yankelovich and Direct found in a survey last summer that 67% of all consumers had purchased by catalog in the past year, and 46% in response to direct mail. (For our purposes we'll group catalogs and direct mail together under the heading of paper mail.),” stated Schultz. “In contrast 16% bought via e-mail, 12% through banner ads and 5% through outbound telemarketing.”
For the most part, it seems people still prefer to receive marketing pitches on paper.
The Web site for Canada Post shows 40 percent of Canadians would rather receive “addressed” direct mail compared to 19 percent favoring telemarketing, and 11 percent welcoming e-mail advertising.
To further fuel demand for print marketing campaigns, the DMA said catalogs are forecast to generate $133 billion in 2003 sales, and are projected to increase 5.7 percent annually over the next five years to reach an estimated $175 billion in 2008.
This is a bit encouraging news for papermakers, who for years have had to bite their lip when listening to advocates for the “paperless society,” all the while watching e-technology apply downward pressure to the number of catalogues and paper-based marketing promotions produced by retailers.
All this isn't to say that direct mail is the only effective marketing method to reach the masses. And I'm not trying to peddle Do Not Call and CAN SPAM as the break our industry has been waiting for to jumpstart an explosive growth cycle.
But it just might be possible that paper and ink isn't quite as passé as some would have us believe. So for now, let's stick with Ray Schultz's prediction that direct mail may be “The Next Big Thing.”
