Boardroom Braces for Anthrax Fallout

Boardroom, the publisher of “Bottom Line Personal” is braced for trouble as anthrax reports poison the mail.

“Our attitude is none of this can be good for response rates,” said Brian Kurtz, executive vice president of the Greenwich, CT, marketer.

He said he hasn’t seen a decline in response rate to his direct mail–yet. But for many mailings, it’s too soon to tell, Kurtz added.

Because of the Sept. 11 attacks, Boardroom moved promotions scheduled for early October to mid-October. Then, anthrax began appearing in the mail.

“Our goal is to get some results in this environment so if we have to depress our planning by 10% or 15% going forward we can,” Kurtz said.

The company publishes four newsletters and a dozen books, sending out millions of promotional mailings a year.

It helps that many prospecting pieces are self-mailers — magalogs and tabloids — which consumers don’t have to open, he said.

Even mail not enclosed in an envelope may still make consumers leery. “I thought [the anthrax incidents] were so isolated it wouldn’t be a big deal,” Kurtz said. “Now, as I go through my own mail, I’m thinking about it. Your mail is going through a mail stream that has all these loose spores attached to it.”

He said that other mailers have told him pieces that were in the mail stream on Sept. 11 were down 50%. The response for a mailing Boardroom had out there at that time was down 25%.

“In this market, 25% down is good,” he said.

The piece was a self-mailer magalog for a health book.

How has this marketer of advice publications altered its marketing in light of events? “A marketer walks a fine line right now,” Kurtz said. “You don’t want to exploit the situation, but most consumers want you to acknowledge it.”

In Boardroom’s free e-mail newsletter, which goes to 110,000 people, the company acknowledged the disaster of Sept. 11 and provided links to articles “that would be helpful to people during tough times,” he said. In the last transmission, a link was included to a medical site that provided information about anthrax.

The Web site, too, (www.boardroom.com), features content on how to get emotional support and relieve stress. “It’s part of our editorial mission,” he said. “Bottom Line Personal” is a brand where people expect to be helped.”