That would really affect most contractors marketing efforts if it is approved.
Read more below.....
Ed
http://replacementcontractor.com/ind...icleID=1046351
Take Me off Your List
Do Not Mail laws would set up a registry of consumers seeking to be shielded from commercial mail.
Source: REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR Magazine
Publication date: August 27, 2009
By Jim Cory
Advocates call it advertising mail. Opponents call it junk mail. Whatever the nomenclature, the Congressional Research Service says that 104 million pieces of commercial mail were delivered to U.S. households in 2007. Commercial mail constitutes 60% of all U.S. household mail, and the average household receives about 17 pieces per week. Seeking to end, or at least restrict that, are Do Not Mail laws. Last year Do Not Mail legislation seeking to give consumers the chance to opt out was introduced in 12 states. They include Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Tennessee, Illinois, Michigan, Maryland, and Hawaii.
These laws vary by state, but all would require the creation of a Do Not Mail registry or list of those not wishing to receive commercial advertisements via U.S. Post. (For a complete list click
here.)
The legislation would make commercial mail marketers responsible for scrubbing from their mailing lists any consumers listed on the register. Proponents have compared the proposed Do Not Mail laws with the highly popular Do Not Call laws of earlier in the decade. Do Not Call began at the state level, and ultimately culminated in the passage of federal legislation. On Oct. 1, 2003, an online federal Do Not Call registry was opened that eventually removed the majority of U.S. households from the call lists of telemarketers. Federal DNC rules are enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, and violations can result in penalties of as much as $11,000 per infraction.
Moving From the Ground Up
Though no state has as yet passed a Do Not Mail law, the movement to restrict commercial mail took a leap forward in March. That's when the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, by 9 to 2, approved a non-binding resolution calling for the creation of a Do Not Mail registry. Will Colven, San Francisco spokesman for
ForestEthics, an environmental group spearheading opposition to commercial mail, says that the idea is to gain the support of local municipalities, then legislatures, while calling for legislation at the federal level similar to the Do Not Call law.
Opponents of commercial mail such as ForestEthics cite two reasons for their campaign. They say junk mail is a "waste of time" and an invasion of privacy. The bigger argument is that junk mail makes a substantial contribution to global warming. According to Colven, 100 million trees are felled each year to produce the commercial mail directed to U.S. mailboxes, 44% of which, he says, is unopened and goes directly into landfills. A website launched by ForestEthics,
Do Not Mail.org, has collected 100,000 signatures on a petition to establish a national Do Not Mail registry.
On the other side of the battle lines are the
Direct Marketing Association, many small businesses and
Mail Moves America, a DMA-sponsored coalition. Ben Cooper, Mail Moves America's executive director, says that "more than 300,000 small businesses rely on advertising mail to reach potential customers." He calls it "the most affordable and impactful way" for small businesses to advertise and says that recycling and sustainable forestry practices in the paper production industry mean that "mail is a very environmentally responsible way to advertise." Both sides claim solid public support.
The Do Not Mail.org site operated by ForestEthics quotes a 2007 Zogby poll, which found that 89% of Americans support the concept of Do Not Mail registries. On other hand, studies commissioned by the U.S. Postal Service and cited by
Valpak show 64% of respondents indicating that they made a purchase based on a commercial mail offering.
Potential Effects
How many home improvement or remodeling companies use direct mail? No poll exists, but Rich Harshaw, a REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR contributor and the president of
Monopolize Your Marketplace, a Dallas-based marketing company with many home improvement clients, suggests that 10% to 20% of home improvement companies use direct mail to "specific targeted houses."
Many more also use marriage mail, a service that bundles the promotions of many advertisers into packets. For instance, in 2007 marriage mail marketer Valpak's 60,000 mostly small-business advertisers included 842 in the "Roofing and Siding" category, according to company spokesperson Marsha Strickhouser. "Window, door, and glass" companies were number seven on Valpak's list of 20 top advertisers by industry. "Home remodeling" was number 19.
"For those who do use it," Harshaw says, "this law would be devastating ... similar to the DNC restrictions of a decade ago."
Cooper, of Mail Moves America, argues that passage of Do Not Mail laws at the state or federal level would create an unfair advantage by denying to small businesses "their right to advertise and compete in the marketplace." Strickhouser says that "direct mail works for small businesses, and they can afford it."
Postal Service Opposition
Of course, while the situations of telemarketing and direct mail may seem similar, the differences are important. For one thing, at the beginning of the decade, there was little that organizations such as the Direction Marketing Association could do to halt the momentum of the Do Not Call list legislation at either state or federal levels. Every unwanted phone call fed the frenzy to regulate telemarketing. Once established, the Do Not Call registry quickly grew to include a majority of American households.
Do Not Mail legislation, on the other hand, comes with no kind of similar groundswell of passionate public opinion. That may be simply because people are not inconvenienced by mail advertising in the way that they are, or were, by a ringing phone.
Major opposition to the Do Not Mail laws has surfaced from the U.S. Postal System and from postal worker unions. The effects of eliminating even a portion of that would hobble the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) at a time when that agency — self-funded through its own revenue streams — is already losing money and raising rates on dwindling first-class mail.
In addition, direct mail organizations such as the Direct Mail Association and
DirectMail.com have created their own voluntary do-not-mail registries. But Craven, of ForestEthics, says that the problem with such industry self-regulation is that, since it doesn't have the weight of legislation, it's unenforceable. "The first thing they want to do when someone opts out is mail them something else to see if they really meant it," he says.
—Jim Cory, editor, REPLACEMENT CONTRACTOR.
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