DMA report claims door-drops are more effective than TV ads - DMBulletin - Direct Marketing news by Email - Brand Republic
DMA report claims door-drops are more effective than TV ads - DMBulletin - Direct Marketing news by Email - Brand Republic
Door drops - or commercial rubbish - are one of my biggest frustrations in that there is no way to combat them. Everything fro taxi companies, to Indian takeaway menus to offers for Reiki massage come through the letter box day in and day out.
And day in and day out people take them by the shovelful and put them into landfills.
Door drops are some of the most ineffective, environmentally irresponsible and brand damaging activities that you can engage in - 2nd only to street muggers that shove calling card and dance club promotions at you on the high streets.
What really aggravates me is when people take research such as this and spin it in a way that actually encourages people to use door drops.
It is possible that 72% of the 400 respondents had taken some action as a result of receiving unaddressed door-drop items ( the action was to throw it into the rubbish bin while cursing under their breath - or out loud for that matter! ). But why don't we ask the real question.
How many door drops do you get in an average week. At my home that number is between 12-15 individual items. Some weeks more than that. Over a year that is between 624 - 780 individual items. And out of that maybe 1 or 2 takeaway menus wind up in the drawer for future use. Everything else is thrown away.
Effectiveness of door-drops: 2/780 - .25%
Brands that I have actively stopped doing business with because they won't stop shoving stuff through my door ( where it is clearly marked - NO DOOR DROPS )
32 at last count
So what's the solution:
Give people the choice. If you don't mind receiving piles and piles of rubbish for your recycle bin then you can receive them. But if you don't want them you should have the option to opt-out of door-drop marketing.
About 1 year ago the DMA UK was considering such a scheme but I haven't heard any updates on that proposal of late. (I'll have to check)
And what about businesses that rely on door-drops.
The thing about door-drops is that businesses have talked themselves into believing that it is an effective marketing strategy. If you want an effective marketing strategy use your door drops with your existing customers and ask them to give them away to their friends and family. There is no better business than referral business.
And if you are willing to make even a small investment in a point of sale coupon system you can make the entire program viral. If your customers hand out flyers for you and they come back, those good customers earn discounts and special offers.
This is not rocket science folks. It is good marketing.
Stop adding to the landfill. Give consumers a clear way to opt-out of door-drop marketing in the same way they can opt-out of direct mail, telemarketing, mobile marketing, email marketing etc.
posted by Troy Norcross at 10:36 AM
4 Comments:
Do Not Mail Opt-Out Law would be fair to everyone.
The proposed Colorado "Do not mail" is an Opt-Out law. Only those not desiring advertising mail need opt-out. Anyone desiring advertising mail can do nothing - and continue to receive it. Why deny those wishing to avoid advertising mail the power to do so?
I do not consider handling unwanted advertising placed against my will on my personal property to be a civic obligation!
The US Supreme Court said in the Rowan case in 1970, ““In today's [1970] complex society we are inescapably captive audiences for many purposes, but a sufficient measure of individual autonomy must survive to permit every householder to exercise control over unwanted mail. To make the householder the exclusive and final judge of what will cross his threshold undoubtedly has the effect of impeding the flow of ideas, information, and arguments that, ideally, he should receive and consider. Today's merchandising methods, the plethora of mass mailings subsidized by low postal rates, and the growth of the sale of large mailing lists as an industry in itself have changed the mailman from a carrier of primarily private communications, as he was in a more leisurely day, and have made him an adjunct of the mass mailer who sends unsolicited and often unwanted mail into every home. It places no strain on the doctrine of judicial notice to observe that whether measured by pieces or pounds, Everyman's mail today is made up overwhelmingly of material he did not seek from persons he does not know. And all too often it is matter he finds offensive.”
Furthermore, the Supreme Court said, “the mailer's right to communicate is circumscribed only by an affirmative act of the addressee giving notice that he wishes no further mailings from that mailer.
To hold less would tend to license a form of trespass and would make hardly more sense than to say that a radio or television viewer may not twist the dial to cut off an offensive or boring communication and thus bar its entering his home. Nothing in the Constitution compels us to listen to or view any unwanted communication, whatever its merit; we see no basis for according the printed word or pictures a different or more preferred status because they are sent by mail.”
We need a Colorado “Do Not Mail” law to create a one-stop, convenient place for homeowners to give senders the aforementioned affirmative notice that we do not want certain kinds of mail sent to our homes. www.nomorejunkmail.org
Signed,
Ramsey A Fahel
Arvada, CO
8:17 PM
I get your point, and I agree that the levels of wastage are incredibly unsound environmentally. However, that doesn't change the fact that the alternatives you suggest have never delivered the results or the scale of business that this form of door drop delivers for big charities, fmcg companies and fs companies. I know, because I've tested the alternatives with dozens of companies. It may be environmentally wrong, but you are wrong to challenge the business numbers or the overall brand effect - the real numbers say otherwise.
6:22 PM
Well, I can see your point of view... but I wouldn't say "it's real".
It is an established and proven method (one of the rare things in marketing!) - door drops, door deliveries and distributions - what ever you want to call it... Works!
Otherwise, why would businesses be paying for it... repeatedly?
So put the personal bias aside... and think logically.
Simply put up a nice, polite, clear sign saying "no leaflets, no free papers" etc.
That will cut back the majority of the "junk" you are receiving (junk being a relative term... what you deem as junk, is infact being in put to one side and planned to be used later that week by several others in your road/street etc.!).
For those bits that still come thorugh... call them!
Ask if they self delvier... or pay for someone else to do it.
Then explain that you have a sign, and that you are displeased.
If they self deliver, get righteous.
If they pay for someone else, get them to raise the issue with them.
Most companies are respectful - they will acknowledge that sign and respect it!
As to it being "wasteful" adn dmaging to the environment... simply not a fact.
A large number of printers will produce "low quality" leaflets/flyers... this is done on already recycled paper.
(Which in many cases gets re-used again.)
Remember - most stpes start from home... so try that out first before going into a tirade and demanding extreme actions.
Think of the consequences.
Fine.. introduce "preferential delivery" laws.
Do you realise that peopoe will have to construct data lists for all UK house holds?
Do you reliase the cost involved in that?
To update and maintain it?
To buy some of that list?
Brilliant... that means the work force has to be vcut to produce enough budget for such figures.
So, you want to be responsible for an entire industry sector cutting back on... what... 5% to 10% (seriously, those lists are damned expensive... and rarely even correct!).
So again, please think, then rethink.
Go make that sign, yes?
6:48 PM
Thanks for your lengthy comment:
1) If it door-drops don't work then why do companies continue to spend money on them?
Answer: Because companies aren't prepared to invest money in good quality marketing approaches that are respectful to consumers and the environment.
I don't care if it's door drops for pizza or door drops of a 3Kg yellow pages - they both wind up in landfill having never been read or opened or used by 99% of all recipients. Yes - you reach 1% or less - but at what cost? No one ever looks at it that way.
2) Put up a nice polite notice - No flyers/No Junk mail.
Answer: I have. And most leaflet and door-drop companies in London pay people on flyers delivered - so it is not in the interest of the worker to respect that request. Second - many door-drop workers can't read English. They don't even know what the notice says.
3) Wasteful and damaging to the environment:
Answer: Sure - the leaflets are using recycled materials - but they are still filling our landfills and or putting more load on our recycling efforts. These are VERY wasteful and eco-unfriendly practices. Read this article from the DMA reinforcing my point.
4) Impact of preferential delivery laws:
Answer: Holland has done this. It's a simple process whereby the No Junk Mail stickers are made available only from the councils. The council then knows how many households have requested non-delivery of junk mail. This information is freely available to door-drop companies. For instance: If you have 1000 households in the council and 700 have requested no Junk Mail - then you should only prepare 300 flyers. You don't need a list because every household either has a sticker or they don't. And for that you don't need a list.
Secondly - there is already a "do not mail" list where you can request that your address be excluded from all commercial list brokering services. Those list companies already exist and would happily add an extra field for no-door-drops.
Third: The cost to buy that data. That's my point. There is a cost to doing good and respectful marketing. Pay it.
Fourth: A sticker on a door is incredibly accurate! And the council based sticker program is FREE to advertisers. And it is a proven model in Holland that can easily work in the UK... the US... anywhere.
Enough of my bantering -- it's time for YOU to think! How can I reach potential customers in a way that is respectful to them, respectful to the environment and cost-effective? -- The answer is about viral-marketing and social-networking. Get your satisfied customers talking to their friends! - Talking to their co-workers. Give them your flyers to hand out. The personal referral method is infinitely more effective than the flyer through the door that 99% of people shovel directly in to the bin.
Obviously I'm passionate about changing the face of marketing - and I'm glad to see that people are reading what I write! One day I hope that everyone will get to a point of intolerance and dissatisfaction that they too take action against the onslaught of unwanted, interruptive, junk e-mail, junk SMS, junk postal mail, telemarketing and other unwanted attempts by aggressive and disrespectful marketers...
9:52 AM
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