Opting Out Marketers

Companies promote themselves to consumers via many avenues. Newspaper advertisements, billboards, radio and television reach a broad group. More and more, companies are electing to promote their products through target marketing. Advertising in a specialty magazine is one way. Sponsoring a sporting event is another. None of these approaches are intrusive. You can simply ignore them by turning a page, changing a channel or simply by doing something else. Direct solicitation is another story. When a company elects to market themselves this way they force a response from you, wasting your time and energy. The telephone solicitation that makes you answer the phone or the direct mail pieces that clutter your mailbox are becoming more and more common.

Where do companies get your contact information from? There are several places and some are less obvious than others. We all know when you subscribe to a magazine that your mailing address appears on a list of subscribers and that list is used by the publisher to sell you additional magazines. When you investigate a product on the Internet you will be contacted by local distributors of that particular product. Companies can purchase lists from many sources. The publisher of the magazine you subscribed to may elect to sell the list of subscribers to another entity. For example someone who subscribes to Road and Track fits the profile of a car enthusiast making him a target for a company that sells car accessories.

What you may not be aware of is that the credit agencies use their database of personal information to create lists that are then sold to various businesses. They can develop a list of consumers in a particular zip code, a list of consumers with car loans or mortgages and then sell those lists to any one willing to pay the price. They also get more personal, by developing list of consumers that have credit scores within a certain range and then sell those lists to companies in the finance industry. However, the newest product they are offering to companies is the most intrusive and something you need to be aware of.

The credit agencies are offering for sale, the ability for a company to know within minutes when you've applied for credit and what kind of credit you've applied for. So, for example, you apply for a mortgage. As part of the process you will be required to grant the lender permission to gain access to your credit report. When the report is run, an inquiry will appear in your credit file. Mortgage companies can subscribe to a service that will arrange for them to be notified the moment that inquiry appeared in your file. You will then be contacted by various companies looking for your business.

Marketing in itself is not a bad thing. It provides information to the consumer. The consumer then has more knowledge regarding product specifications and pricing upon which to make a decision. Even in the mortgage application example, the consumer should be in a more informed position to make a decision after receiving multiple offers. In the real world however, the consumer has no way of evaluating the integrity of the business that contacts him or the accuracy of the information that is being supplied. The consumer has no way of knowing if the company that has contacted him really is who they say they are or how good their information is.

If you feel the disadvantages of direct marketing out-weigh any benefit or convenience you receive from it, there are things you can do. You will never be able to eliminate receiving all direct solicitations but you can reduce them considerably.

You can stop the credit agencies from selling your personal information. You can call 1-888-5-OPTOUT or visiting www.optoutprescreen.com. This will enable you to stop the prescreened solicitations that are based on lists from the major consumer reporting companies.

Tired of receiving telephone calls all hours of the day and night from companies trying to sell you something? You can opt out of them also by calling 1-888-382-1222 from the phone number you want to register or visiting www.donotcall.gov.

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA), a trade association for businesses in direct, database, and interactive global marketing, maintains a Mail Preference Service that lets you opt out of receiving direct mail from many national companies. You can do this by sending a letter to: Direct Marketing Association, Mail Preference Service, PO Box 643, Carmel, NY 10512 or by visiting https://www.dmachoice.org/MPS/proto1.php.

The DMA also has an E-mail Preference Service to help you reduce unsolicited commercial e-mails. To opt-out of receiving unsolicited commercial e-mails from DMA members, visit https://www.dmachoice.org/EMPS/.

If you change your mind and wish to begin receiving these solicitations again simply contact each of these sources again and make the revision.