Do-not-call list will boost direct mail, marketers say

Starting Tuesday, Canadians will be able to register their phone numbers on a national do-not-call list, but they may find telemarketing calls replaced by junk mail and spam.

Two polls suggest the do-not-call list will be a tremendous success, with participation rates ranging from 64 per cent, according to a poll conducted for the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, to 72 per cent, in a poll conducted for PitneyBowes Canada.

However, the do-not-call list won't make as much of a dent as some Canadians are hoping, since much telemarketing is done by companies that are exempt from the ban, meaning they can continue to call someone who has registered on the DNC list.

The telemarketing exemption list includes:

• Registered charities seeking donations.
• Newspapers looking for subscriptions.
• Political parties and their candidates.
• Companies that have an existing business relationship with a consumer within the previous 18 months.
• Organizations directing calls and faxes to businesses.

If you're cable customer, for instance, you may find yourself fielding the occasional call from your cable company about a cellphone. It's the same for your bank, which may call to sell insurance or credit cards. Or if you've given to a registered charity in the past year, you may get calls for other upcoming charity events.

But Canadians who don't want to receive marketing calls from a company with whom they have a relationship can ask to be put on the firm's internal do-not-call list. This would mean the company cannot call you for up to three years, even though it has a technical exemption from the do-not-call list.

"What's going to happen is consumer power is going to win. If I choose to ignore that because I have a technical exemption, I'm going to annoy my customer," said Deepak Chopra, president of Pitney Bowes Canada.

Ed Gibson, president of the Vancouver market research firm Consumer Research Centre Ltd., agrees the list will likely have a trickle-down effect on reducing the number of calls you get from companies, exempt or not.

"If you get a call from Rogers because they have a relationship with you, they have a vested interest in not annoying you," said Gibson.

One Montreal firm, Zerospam, believes another trickle-down feature will be an increase in the number of spam e-mails people receive, as companies look for other ways to reach customers. Zerospam sees opportunity in the new direct marketing landscape, by offering customers a way to filter out spam.

Shift in marketing spending

The face of marketing is set to change, said Chopra. When the U.S. do-not-call registry came into effect, 30 per cent of nearly $2 billion spent on telemarketing moved into direct mailing and traditional media advertising.

Eighteen months ago, Pitney Bowes, which specializes in mail delivery and data analytics, invested more than $400 million in business technology to take advantage of what it sees as a major shift from telemarketing to direct mailing. Chopra said this is a "permission based" marketing medium that most people prefer.

People will receive fewer annoying phone calls, Chopra said, and will receive more direct mail that is more relevant to their needs.

"The DNC is an important step in giving consumers their time back," said Chopra, who said he'll be adding his name to the DNC list.

In the U.S., a Harris poll conducted in October 2007 reported that 91 per cent of respondents stated they had received fewer telemarketing calls since registering on the no-call list, with 18 per cent receiving no calls at all.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission anticipates that of Canada's 27 million residential phone lines, which include cellphone numbers, 16 million will be on the do-not-call list within two years.

The Market Research and Intelligence Association, which represents most of Canada's market research companies, has always supported the notion of a do-not-call list. It believes the list will winnow down the number of telemarketers that simply annoy people and leave Canadians with enough patience to answer legitimate calls.

According to the MRIA, there is a need to gather information, and people often want to have a chance to express their opinion.

"Survey research is a vital element in our democratic society because things improve when people speak through surveys," said Brendan Wycks, executive director of the MRIA.

Ultimately, the DNC list gives Canadians a choice. They can chose to be contacted by telemarketers, or not. And while it may seem surprising, said Wycks, "a lot of people actually don't mind being pitched over the phone."

People can register their phone numbers in two ways. They can sign up online at www.LNNTE-DNCL.gc.ca or they can call the toll-free numbers 1-866-580-3625 or 1-888-362-5889.