Catalog Choice Gains Endorsement from Catalogers

Catalog Choice made a giant leap yesterday when the Board of Directors of the American Catalog Mailers Association (ACMA) announced its unanimous decision to recommend catalogers to enter a merchant licensing agreement with the service. The ACMA Task Force spent a considerable amount of time since November 2007 investigating Catalog Choice and the issue of how to best address emerging consumer requests.

According to Hamilton Davison, executive director of ACMA, the Task Force concluded that "Catalog Choice is sincere and focused on reducing unsolicited catalogs, waste that places a burden on catalogers and catalog consumers alike." The organization fully supports the Catalog Choice goal of eliminating unsolicited catalogs from American mailboxes and advocates that catalog companies should work individually with the service to create the most effective, positive consumer-merchant relationships.

Participants of the Task Force include executives from Crate and Barrel, Cuddledown, Gardeners Supply, National Wildlife Direct and ParadyszMatera. John Seebeck of Crate and Barrel and co-chair of the ACMA Task Force said, "Our company, Crate and Barrel is today joining with other leading catalogers to formally expand our working relationship with Catalog Choice. We call on our industry colleagues to do likewise."

ACMA is also producing a "best practices" paper to help guide its members on how to accomplish the goals of Catalog Choice while not derailing house file growth. According to Davison, "One of the benefits of a trade association is to promote best practices to improve performance without each having to go to the expense and risk of inventing their own solutions."

With 1,012,671 Catalog Choice users as of today, opting out of over 13,500,000 catalogs, the addition of ACMA's endorsement will make a significant impact on the fulfillment of consumers' preferences. Hopefully, more catalogers will now join Catalog Choice!