Myths Versus Reality: The Inside Story Behind Advertising Mail

Although advertising mail is widely used by businesses, charities, unions, politicians, and associations, the image of this advertising medium is often clouded with myths and fables.

Despite whispers (and sometimes shouts) to the contrary, advertising mail is not clogging the nation's landfills, not subsidized by first-class postal rates, and not unwanted.Here are advertising mail's most common myths, and here too are the reasons such myths are unfair, unreasonable, illogical and plain wrong.

Myth 1: Advertising mail is nothing but "junk."

"Junk" signifies something without value, which clearly is not the case with advertising mail. To put the matter simply, if advertising mail is junk, if it is unwanted, unread, and unproductive, then it would have been abandoned long ago by advertisers.

The truth is that most Americans, most of the time, use advertising mail. According the Guide to Mail Order Sales 1991, $212 billion a year is generated by advertising mail for businesses and charities. Nearly $108 billion is spent on consumer purchases, $54 billion represents business-to-business buying, and almost $50 billion is raised by charitable groups.

No less important, advertising mail means jobs -- more than 3.5 million jobs nationwide, about one full-time job in 29. Jobs in every state, every city, and everyone's hometown.

Myth 2: Advertising mail is unwanted.

For this myth to make sense, it must be asked if any form of advertising is wanted. There are few (if any) reports of consumers demanding more ads in newspapers or magazines, or pickets standing outside radio and television stations pleading for more program interruptions.

In contrast, people request catalogs. People want to know about sales and special close-outs. And people often ask to be on the mailing list of a favorite religious organization, environmental group, or charity.

A recent study by the U.S. Postal Service (the 1988 "Household Diary Study") shows that 48 percent of the advertising mail consumers receive is opened and read immediately, 8 percent is set aside for later reading, 29 percent is looked at but not read, and 15 percent is discarded. Of those surveyed, fewer than 6 percent consider advertising mail "objectionable."

Myth 3: Advertising mail is an environmental problem.

This simply is not the case. If advertising mail is a significant environmental problem, then why are major environmental groups substantial users of advertising mail? According to The Wall Street Journal (May 13, 1991), the National Wildlife Federation was expected to send out approximately 60 million pieces of advertising mail in 1991 while Greenpeace mailed approximately 33 million pieces that year. Virtually all environmental groups are believed to use advertising mail to reach current members and new prospects.

When asked if Greenpeace was contributing to the nation's environmental problems because the group uses advertising mail, Peter Bahouth, Greenpeace's executive director, told ABC News (September 10, 1991) that, "accusing environmental groups of paper pollution is a bit like saying we need to get the ambulances off the street because they're loud."

In 1988, the most recent year for which we have figures, the United States produced more than 11.3 billion tons of nonhazardous solid waste, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That same year, according to the Postal Service, the nation shipped 3.826 million tons of advertising mail.

In effect, if every catalog, business flier, and religious notice sent by mail went into the nation's landfills -- if none was created from recycled materials, none was recycled after use, none was shipped overseas, and none was converted into energy -- then advertising mail would represent less than 4/10,000ths of the waste we throw out. (See EPA Report to Congress, Solid Waste Disposal in the United States and the Annual Report of the U.S. Postal Service.)

Not only is advertising mail not clogging the nation's landfills, in many cases it offers substantial environmental advantages. When consumers order from catalogs or use coupons received through the mail, they avoid needless trips, save gasoline, reduce air pollution, decrease highway traffic, lessen the threat of global warming, and cut our dependence on foreign oil sources.

Myth 4: Advertising mail is only for big companies.

One of advertising mail's most attractive aspects is that it can be targeted. If an advertiser buys a spot on radio or television his or her message is broadcast to the entire community with an advertising rate that's charged accordingly -- even if the advertiser is just is a small store in a single location. In a similar fashion, even zoned editions of large urban daily papers often cover far larger areas than small advertisers need.

Rather than being just for large users, advertising mail democratizes the marketing process because it can be used by businesses, organizations, and religious congregations of every size. Local dry cleaners, restaurants, food stores, and pharmacies can all use advertising mail effectively, as can major auto manufacturers and vast national enterprises.

Myth 5: First-class postal rates subsidize advertising mail.

Not only is this myth not true, it is also not possible under federal law. Federal law requires each class of mail to pay its own way. No class of mail can pay less -- and no class can pay more -- than its fair share of postal costs.

So how is it possible that advertising postal rates are lower than first-class costs? The Postal Service charges a variety of rates because it provides differing levels of service. As an example, if you mail a first-class letter you know that delivery within a certain time period is guaranteed, that your letter is private and cannot be opened, and that your letter will be returned if it cannot be delivered.

Other classes of mail enjoy fewer services. For example, advertising mail -- mail often used by catalog companies, religious congregations, local retailers, and others -- is subject to inspection and can be opened. No less important, there is no guaranteed delivery date for advertising mail and such materials are not automatically returned without extra cost.Another reason rates differ is that discounts are available to mailers who reduce postal costs. If you prepare materials before mailing so that the Postal Service can avoid the expense and bother of certain sorting, re-sorting, culling, canceling, and collecting, then lower rates are possible. In effect, less work for the Post Office and more work for the mailer produces lower rates.

Myth 6: Postal rates would decline if advertising mail were eliminated.

Over the years, advertising mail has become crucially important to the Postal Service. In 1990, according to the annual report of the U.S. Postal Service, advertising mail represented nearly 40 percent of all delivered mail.

Now imagine if a letter carrier normally has 10 pieces of mail to deliver each day. If advertising mail is suddenly eliminated all homes and businesses must still be served, even though the carrier has less to deliver and Postal Service revenues have been slashed by billions of dollars.

If advertising mail were eliminated tomorrow, then either first-class rates would rise by nearly 11 cents or the Postal Service could maintain current rates by eliminating 100,000 jobs. Either choice, obviously, is not attractive.

Myth 7: Once your name is on a mailing list it stays on forever.

It's bad business for a mailer to spend good money on postage and materials to reach an individual with no interest in a given product, service, charity or message. For this reason, most mailers are happy to comply with a name removal request.

The advertising mail industry maintains a free service which allows individuals to have their names removed from many national mailing lists. Simply write to the Mail Preference Service, P.O. Box 3861, New York, NY 10163-3861.

If a company or charity does not belong to an industry organization, then call the organization's "800" number and ask to have your name removed from its mailing list. Alternatively, send a note to the organization in the mailer's self-addressed, postage-paid envelop and ask to have your name removed.

Myth 8: Advertising mail should be limited.

If it is agreed that advertising mail should be limited, then precisely who should stop mailing?

Should we curb the mail sent by our nation's churches and synagogues? Should we restrict the mail sent by environmental groups, charitable organizations, educational and scientific institutions, labor organizations, political parties, or members of Congress? Should we limit small businesses? Big business? Minority businesses?

If the goal is to reduce advertising by mail, why stop with advertising mail? After all, a substantial volume of advertising mail enters the nation's homes in the form of second-class newspapers and magazines? Should we shut down these advertising outlets as well?

The best way to control advertising is to test its effectiveness in the marketplace. If people don't like something they won't respond, and without adequate responses advertisers will simply change the way they do business.