Soon Goins will be able to do just that. As one of the participants in a free trial of Buyer’s Market service, developed by credit giant Equifax Inc., she will soon have the option of paying $10 to $15 a year to dictate which kind of direct-mail advertising she does–and does not–want. Equifax touts the program as a way to make customers like Goins happy, and to help stem the tide of unwanted mail by making it easier for marketers to target their customers. Some privacy experts criticize the concept, saying marketers might misuse the information. Besides, says Robert Ellis Smith, publisher of The Privacy Journal newsletter, “This is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone asking people to pay for the commercial exploitation of their names.”
Under the program, test-marketed in Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, consumers receive a survey form listing 53 categories including clothing, electronics, toys and financial services. Customers check “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” boxes for each, and give information such as age, income and household size. In exchange for the data-and the fee-they receive up to $250 worth of credit vouchers from participating merchants (among them The Sharper Image, Omaha Steaks and NEWSWEEK) as well as a newsletter and other inducements. The merchants, in turn, rent lists of interested customers for $50 per each thousand names. Some 8,500 consumers signed up during the test-marketing. Equifax officials hope to gather at least 1 million names by the end of the year.
Why would people pay to have their mailboxes even more jammed with junk? Surveys show that despite their protestations to the contrary, people love mail. According to a study done for Equifax by Louis Harris & Associates, nearly 40 percent of consumers would be “very or somewhat upset” if they could not get mail offers or catalogs geared to their interests. Denison Hatch, publisher of the newsletter Who’s Mailing What! says, “People are basically lonely-they don’t like to come home to an empty mailbox. Direct mail enables them to have an entire shopping mall on their shelves.”
Lonely mail lovers don’t guarantee that Buyer’s Market will succeed. Consumers still can get a measure of control over their mail for free–either by instructing merchants to refrain from selling their names, or by using the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service, a program designed to let consumers opt off major mailing lists. Another concern: that Buyer’s Market data might end up in credit reports, a major Equifax business. Equifax officials say such data sharing will not occur; indeed, the word “confidential” pops up in at least three places on membership materials. Customers might not care. If it comes down to a choice between protecting privacy and the chance for a good deal on a smoked ham, many will go for the pork.
