The Young Prefer Mail

A decade ago, industry soothsayers broadcast grim predictions for the future of direct mail. The Web was booming and e-mail accounts were fast becoming the cultural norm, no longer a fad for the tech savvy.

Younger generations especially flocked to adopt everything digital. Marketers immediately noticed the potential of the new media, seeing them as cost-effective an able to reach massive audiences at the click of a mouse.

Direct mail proved resilient, however. A 2005 Forrester study reported lofty numbers of direct mail planned for that year — 10.6 billion pieces to be exact, a 15% growth from 2004. Despite high-tech advancements, marketers would continue to devote efforts to communicate via that channel.

Still, it’s tough to ignore hard-charging new mediums that are destined to capture market share in the coming years. That is why leading marketers divvy up budgets, placing emphasis on channels that have the best chances of reaching and engaging target audiences.

Knowing your valuable consumer segments and how they prefer to be approached can take much of the guesswork out of this task. Respondents to a recent ICOM Information and Communications survey of 1,529 households provided some interesting information on U.S. demographic segments and the channels that should be used to reach them:

• Contrary to traditional thought, young professionals (18- to 34-years-old) communicated a strong preference for receiving information in the mail over other electronic options.

• The discriminating group pegged privacy as one of the main reasons for this surprising partiality.

In the survey, conducted in February, those respondents in the 18 to 34 demographic proclaimed nearly a two-to-one preference for receiving product information by direct mail over e-mail or online, across all categories.

For food product information, 57.7% of this same demographic preferred information by direct mail, as opposed to only 27.3% preferring digital methods of e-mail and online combined. In another key category, over-the-counter medication, 55.8% preferred mail to 29.3% opting for e-mail or online.

Perhaps most interesting is that this demographic harbored nearly the strongest preference for communication by direct mail of all the groups surveyed. As expected, those 65 and older also overwhelmingly chose mail as their preferred primary source to receive product information.

The large number of 18- to 34-year-old U.S. consumers will account for a sizable chunk of the spending economy in the coming decades. The group’s mass exposure to e-mail and the Internet has fostered a discriminating view toward online solicitations. Receiving an e-mail offer is a nuisance and impersonal; its most likely deleted before its read; a targeted and creative mailing can be highly personalized and relational. Survey respondents often referred to privacy when explaining their preference for direct mail communication vs. e-mail or online.

While some of the middle-aged demographics exhibited softer feelings about electronic communication for product information, marketers should take note of the future implications of a youth movement toward direct mail. As new mediums proliferate, knowing your customer’s communication preferences will become vital to successful campaigns.

Peter Meyers is vice president of marketing at ICOM Information & Communications, Toronto. He can be reached at [email protected].

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