Mail Marketing

What are your choices over the mail you receive?

Our society sees value in the right of its citizens to receive information and the right of businesses to provide information.

Many people enjoy receiving advertising mail as it keeps them up to date with the current offerings and specials available on their favourite brands and products. Two-thirds of the Australian population buy as a result of recieving direct mail each year.

Yet, direct marketing companies recognise that some individuals do not want to receive direct mail. Australian privacy legislation gives individuals the right to exercise choice with respect to whether they want to receive marketing communications.

Many companies will gladly remove a customer's name from mailing lists (if they are ADMA members they are obliged to). Most companies clearly announce this service on their customer information pages or on the order form.

The Australian Direct Marketing Association also sponsors the Do Not Mail Service, which helps consumers limit the addressed advertising mail they receive.

Junk mail

The Australian Direct Marketing Association's remit only extends to marketing that relates to personal information and which does not include unaddressed mail or junk mail.

If you have a “No Junk Mail” sticker on your mail box and you are receiving catalogues, brochures or leaflets, then this activity is covered by the Australian Catalogue Association and the Distribution Standards Board Code of Conduct where signatories to the code have delivered the material.

The Australian Catalogue Association and the Distributions Standards Board can be found here.

Is direct mail environmentally sound?

Today, communities in increasing numbers recycle advertising mail. As recycled papers have become available, direct marketers are using them and recycling the mail they receive. And trees are a renewable resource.

Nonetheless, many direct marketers sponsor tree-planting programs that replace far more trees than they use to fill their paper needs. Some organisations also use full carbon offset paper. To find out more about ADMA Environmental Guidelines, click here.

Do you really want to get off mailing lists?

If your name goes on ADMA's Do Not Mail Service you will no longer receive mailings about products that may interest you. Many organisations use direct mail to let you know when they are offering a sale or special promotion in a store near you.

Going on ADMA’s Do Not Mail Service will mean that you will no longer receive these types of promotions from organisations where you don’t have an existing business relationship or loyalty card.

For many people advertising mail is a fun, informative, and convenient way of staying in touch with their favourite brands. It also gives you time to consider a purchase carefully without any sales pressure. You can make your selections and order from your home at any hour of the day or night, any day of the week. If a piece of mail doesn't interest you, simply toss it into the recycling bin. The choice is yours.

Why do marketers rent and exchange lists?

Clearly, it makes no economic sense to send out thousands of letters to people who have no interest in your product, service or cause. Nor does it make environmental sense.

Lists are nothing more than a way to identify a market for products and services. Direct marketing businesses succeed or fail by their ability to determine who is most likely to buy what they offer. So they rent or exchange lists of consumers whose interests have been narrowed by their earlier purchase behaviour and other characteristics that might reasonably be assumed to make them likely prospects. For the direct marketing business person, lists of names are the instruments that can create a thriving business by filling consumer needs. The by-product is the creation of jobs and economic activity.

Direct marketing businesses may only rent or exchange lists where you have consented to this occurring.

If you don't want this to occur, contact the companies who have your data and ask them not to rent or exchange your name with other companies.

Mailing lists in the Digital Age

Not long ago, consumers were frequently annoyed by duplicate mailings. Not only where duplicate mailings expensive for business and charities but wasteful from an environmental perspective.

Today, sophisticated programs can sort and eliminate duplicates with extraordinary speed. A "merge-purge" program first combines (merges) the names from all lists being rented, then deletes (purges) the duplicate names, leaving just one name and address to receive the mailing.

There other advantages that technology provides. Specialised computer programs allow two things to happen. First, although the process is far from perfect, consumers today are more likely than ever before to receive advertising mail that is of interest to them. Second, even the smallest businesses can use the technology to create a market and compete successfully, thereby creating jobs and contributing to Australia's economic growth.
The Privacy Act 1988 is technology neutral and governs and guides these practices and provides individuals with visibility and control over the use of their information.