Marketers urged to respect environment

Direct marketers have been urged to consider their impact on the environment and work to tackle concerns that the industry is producing too much waste paper.

John A Greco Jr, president and chief executive of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), told the organisation's conference that it should consider both the physical environment and the environment in which people are bombarded with advertising messages on a regular basis.

"We all need to be aware of and sensitive to the very real and wide-ranging environmental concerns that people have in the area of paper procurement and use," Mr Greco said, according to BtoB magazine. However, he added: "As marketers, we all need to work toward building an environment of responsible action and consumer trust."

One important way to reduce the amount of wasted information is carrying out data suppression on a regular basis. By suppressing data companies can remove contacts who have registered with a preference service, goneaways and the deceased.