by johnt
5. July 2011 10:34
I saw the BBC Panorama programme last night titled ‘Why Hate Junk Mail?’ Panorama in the past have produced some insightful and worthy documentaries but this was a rehash of old ground with mixed messages combining ‘junk’ and ‘scam’ mail and having a swipe at Royal Mail.
Cleopatra wanted to rip the eyes out of the messenger who brought the news of Antony marrying another, Tom Heap the reporter for this programme was a little less dramatic in his views about Royal Mail. Why pick on Royal Mail about the delivery of pizza leaflets, there are other distribution channels via free sheets etc yet these didn’t get a mention.
Statistics were glibly quoted about costs of landfill and recycling, the use of the terms ‘junk’ and ‘scam’ seemed to be interchangeable this was a poor piece of journalism. Has the silly season arrived already, I think we should be told.
The DMA stood up for the industry, but the questions and therefore the answers have all been heard before. An opportunity to move the debate on was missed, shortage of time couldn’t be blamed as a good few minutes were taken up doing a ‘Blue Peter’ showing how to make paper bricks.
All industry insiders know the distinction between targeted direct mail and ‘junk’ mail, everyone is striving through data cleansing and profiling to ensure all offers are targeted at the correct people. As an industry we don’t want to send information and offers to people who are not responsive, it costs money.