CALL IT AS YOU SEE IT... RICHARD LLOYD INFOGROUP/UK
THE LAST ONE STANDING
Richard Lloyd, General Manager of Infogroup/UK
It’s been well over 20 years since I first started working in the business data industry. Back to the mid 80’s, and Live Aid, £1.89 per gallon of petrol and IBM’s first laptop. I had started my first ever data job – using business data search and selection to print off name and address labels for direct mail campaigns. And do you know what, I won’t be surprised if things end up going full circle and I ultimately end up doing exactly the same thing at the end of my career. By the time I retire, I predict that direct mail will be the last one standing after regaining its direct marketing crown.
Yes, direct mail used to be king and whilst it’s taken some knocking over the years, it is far from dead no matter what the ‘death of direct mail’ obituaries and column inches say. The demise of direct mail isn’t my reality. If it was, I would have been on the front row marking its passing with a fond farewell – we go a long way back direct, mail and I.
Call me a cynic but with the Government as its majority shareholder, the post has it’s back covered and is here to stay.As long as there is money to be made, no party will legislate against direct mail to such a degree that it brings about its demise. No other direct marketing channel has this level of backing. Fax marketing, telemarketing, email marketing, social media…none have the pull of the direct mail cash cow.
But we can’t wash our hands and just blame the Government for direct mail ending up as the last direct marketing channel standing, with all others effectively legislated away. No, the blame needs to sit where it fits, and should be carried firmly on our shoulders.
Time and time again, the great and the good of the data industry have come together to self regulate, and have stood together to try and prevent the passing of yet another marketing channel – fax marketing and telemarketing are cases in point.The fact is that this self regulation has never gone far enough, or been big enough of a stick. The data industry hasn’t stood firm or even shouted too loudly for fear of drawing too much attention to the bad practices going down. Is that because we wanted to get away with a little bit of bad practice all on our own?
In addition, and despite the good intentions of the data industry’s codes of practice, maverick (or some might call them entrepreneurial) players have and will always operate outside the realms of best practice – spamming their way to a quick buck but bringing about more and more legislation and restriction in their wake.They’ve done this because they could, and nobody has exposed them or pushed to shut them down. Even legislation like the Corporate Telephone Preference Service has been more of a carrot rather than a stick and more likely to actually harm those operating within the letter of the law.
By keeping quiet, the data industry has perversely encouraged bad practice and can only now sit back and complain as the bad practice continues unfettered, unpunished and untouched. But this won’t continue indefinitely and as the climate changes and more enforced legislation of direct marketing and business data comes into play, things will indeed go full circle.
If as an industry we want direct mail to be the last one standing – the only form of direct marketing that we can legitimately use – then we should just carry on. But, if like me, you want other marketing channels to survive is it too late for us to become our own stick – root out the bad to ensure our very survival?
38 April 2010
www.dmarket.co.uk
CALL IT AS YOU SEE IT...
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