CASTLE’S Poll
Economist John Kenneth Galbraith was once asked if the economy was going to go up or down. “Yes,” he replied, “but not right away.”
A survey Bob Castle sent out in early May mirrors this confusion, with predictions ranging from “We’ve bottomed out,” to “People keep saying things have to improve. I think that’s just wishful thinking.”
Pete Carney, president of Carney Direct Marketing, speculates that restrictions on outbound telemarketing, coupled with the looming Rid Spam act, would work in the list industry’s favor. “Direct mail may be coming back, if for no other reason than it’s the only media left that’s safe and proven,” he says.
Respondents say that while technology advances are making communication between brokers, managers and clients easier, innovation came at a cost. Electronic channels “discourage verbal communication, which provides so many opportunities to sell and build relationships,” according to Laura McClendon, president of AllMedia Inc.
Those polled also acknowledge technology’s dark side, agreeing that that some restrictions on e-mail and telemarketing solicitations were desirable. However, Leland Kroll, president of Kroll Direct Marketing, says that anti-spam legislation wouldn’t provide any benefits “as long as independent sources are able to transmit it from offshore server locations.”
As for the federal do-not-call list, Carney resignedly comments, “Far be it that I stand in the way of the federal government — those guys are much smarter than me!” But he adds that federal efforts would result in “the biggest clusterf*** this industry has ever seen!”
Respondents chose telemarketing 2-1 over e-mail as the most intrusive channel. “When my 78-year-old mother runs across the house to answer the phone and it’s a predictive dialer hang-up, that’s the most visible invasion of privacy,” says Stefanie Pont, vice president and corporate media director at Brann Direct. “E-mail is deletable, direct mail is shreddable.”
But Missy Root, director of list management at AccuData America, feels that spam represented a tipping point in consumer feelings about intrusiveness. “All other vehicles existed before,” she writes. “I think e-mail was the genesis for starting the outcry again — and why not kill three birds with one stone?”
