I absolutely hate getting them every year. They waste trees, energy, water, human resources, and my time. Even if you are morally ambivalent toward phone books, I’m sure you can agree that in the internet age, they are useless, heavy, and a pain in the ass to get rid off.

Get my point?

I am deeply disturbed that they keep coming every year as jumbo sized junk mails. So I decided to speak up. I emailed the Yellowpages, and actually got a reply the next morning. Here is the conversation:

Title: About the Thick Phone Directories I Get on my Doorstep Every Year

Hi,

I live in Vanocuver, and I get phone directories from you guys every year. It’s very nice of you to deliver them to my doorstep every year, but the truth is, I never use it, period. Whenever I get it I worry about recycling it. I know it’s printed on recycled paper and you guys try to make it as environmentally friendly as possible, but I think not printing them is the most environmentally friendly way to go, at least not for people who don’t use them. Furthermore, it’s potentially an explosive PR issue if environmental groups decide to pick on you guys. I know in Norway a few years back it became a huge national issue that the law mandated the companies to switch to an opt-in model.

Hope you guys can consider it. Oh and please please please don’t send me a canned reply. I absolutely hate that because I have no idea if my message has been read or not. Just something simple would be great, something human.

Thanks for your time,

Scott

Here is the reply:

Title: RE: About the Thick Phone Directories I Get on my Doorstep Every Year

What I can definitly do is pass your information on to marketing and our environmental group just to track public requests and concerns and thank you very much for taking the time to pass on your ideas.It is sort of a mixed bag as some people love the idea of strictly CD version and no paper, but then certain groups of people really do not like using the computer and prefer the book. If there is anything else please feel free to contact me.

So far not very interesting, but I like it that they deal with my email very efficiently.

*****

Note: I published this few months ago on my other blog. I figure this post is worth migrating. I think we need more people write them about this. Just found a Facebook group called The Yellow Pages Must Be Stopped! Funny how they use the same image as I did.

I talked about my annoyance toward fake personal junk mails, but I actually hate junk mails in general.

Junk mails are very resource intensive. In the US alone, every year 100 million trees are harvested to make them, and 44% of the time they go straight into trash (source: ForestEthics). This is equivalent to putting an additional 6 million cars on the road (based on the 17 trees per car figure, perhaps an underestimate). It’s ridiculous that by having a mailbox, we involuntarily become part of their wasteful marketing practice.

The solution for most people is actually quite simple according to the Red Dot Campaign. Just put up a sign that says “No Junk Mail”, and you can block most of them (in Canada). I wonder why people aren’t doing it if it’s so simple? My guess is that people are either not aware of this option or not enthusiastic to act on it. After all, sometimes coupons for deliveries do come in handy. You can buy stickers from Red Dot Campaign’s website or print them yourself, but I doubt people would do so unless they are as pissed as I am (pissed enough to blog about it).

I wonder if environmental groups have considered sending out those “NO JUNK MAIL” stickers? Yes, send it out like junk mails. Besides the ideological conflict and the one-time cost, I don’t see why not. I think it will be very effective because it’s simple and effortless for recipients. Just stick it on your mailbox and you are good to go.

I don’t know for sure, but maybe this will work. It could be tested first in one neighborhood, and then monitor the adoption rate a few days later.

If you really can’t live without those delivery coupons, I’m sure when enough people opt-out, they’ll find other ways to give you discounts.

Personally, I’m still trying to catch our postie in the morning because I live in an apartment building with mail slots (shown in my previous post), and I can’t find a spot to show the sticker. I’ll report back.

I don’t drive, so I’m probably not in the position to judge this. But even if I do, I don’t think I would be thrilled to get a gift card from Esso for Xmas.

Wonders if the marketing people from Esso actually think it’s a good gift idea.

I hate getting junk mails, especially those fake personal junk mails.

They usually use handwriting typography, but it’s pretty easy to tell that they are not actually hand written. I understand that they want to make it more “personal”, but you can’t fake a personal touch. They are completely incompatible. Sometimes I even feel insulted as they try to fool me this way. (Also applies to Twitter’s automatic direct messages, and others alike.)

On the other hand, if you run a local business, it makes sense to invest in genuine personal invitations (note that if you make it personal, it becomes an invitation, not unsolicited junk mail). If I ever get a handwritten invitation, I would be 100 times more responsive to the message.

Maybe a handwritten mail is too much to ask (or it might look, but at least sign it for real? It doesn’t take that much time. If you are too busy, you can scribble. In fact, you can just let someone else do it. Who knows what your signature looks like?

The point is to show that your message comes from a human being instead of a Xerox machine. It’s so easy to standout this way, but I have yet to receive anything like it.

Starbucks has just launched a campaign. Here is a paragraph taken directly from the (RED) campaign website.

The much anticipated Starbucks Holiday beverages will turn (RED)™ from November 27 through January 2. Customers’ daily visit to Starbucks can directly help saves lives in Africa. For every purchase of a (STARBUCKS)RED EXCLUSIVE beverage – Peppermint Mocha Twist, Gingersnap Latte and Espresso Truffle – at participating stores in the U.S. and Canada, Starbucks will contribute five cents to the Global Fund to invest in AIDS programs in Africa. Additionally, in honor of the 20th Anniversary of World AIDS Day, on Monday, December 1, Starbucks will extend the five cent contribution to every hand-crafted beverage purchased at participating stores as a continued way to save lives in Africa.

Every company should be very careful when they do cause related marketing (CRM). Doing it wrong would be counterproductive. Here is consumers’ perception: “I pay $4 or $5 for your (overpriced) coffee, and you are only giving out 5 cents? That’s only 1%. I might as well donate money to charity myself!” (but probably end up forgetting it)

Now consider this: Starbucks is in a crisis mode now. Their net income has dropped 97% due to economic slowdown and store closures. Their operating profit margins is now at 0.6%, comparing to 10.2% last year. Yet they still decided to push this campaign forward. Some say it’s just a marketing ploy in an effort to boost sales and get good publicity. I don’t know. Maybe Howie really wants to help Africa, and he can, considering in 2007 their revenue was $9.4 billion, and even 0.5% of that in one month is $4 million.

But I think they got it all wrong. Starbucks should be helping customers to do the right thing, instead of asking customers to help them do the right thing.

People might have an unreasonable expectation toward Starbucks, and they can never be generous enough. At the same time, we probably don’t want to put our retirement fund in a company that donates 100% of its profit. Therefore, the responsibility for generosity should be placed on customers, not Starbucks.

So how could Starbucks do differently?

Starbucks can have their cashiers ask customers if they would like to donate their change. For example, $4.10 could be round up to $4.50 or even $5.00, that is 10% and 22% respectively. MUCH better than 1% right? Most people would do it. I mean, who doesn’t care about Africa, especially when we are asked to donate only few cents for the world’s most underprivileged.

This is an old tactic, and it has a few drawbacks. First, it might be too intrusive. Second, it will slow down the line because it takes time for cashiers to explain the whole thing. Third, it’s only good for a short period of time. Having it last too long could create donors’ fatigue. Lastly, it’s not effective in boosting sales.

So I have an even better idea. Why not issue a new line of Starbucks Card called “Round for the World” or something.

When you use this card, every time it automatically rounds up for donation. On the receipt it will say how much you have donated to date. You can register the card online to enter the hall of fame (of philanthropist / coffee addict) or vote on what projects to support. It could be a gift that carries more significance than a regular gift card. I am no accountant, but perhaps the interest of the unearned revenue from these cards could be donated as well?

Most importantly, this program would be on-going. It will be part of the Starbucks brand, and the center piece of the company’s social responsibility effort.

Of course, I am not just talking about Starbucks here.

Do you think this will work? Any drawback I overlooked? Other ideas?

Update [Dec. 7, 2008]: Just submitted the idea to Starbucks Idea website. I’m hoping it doesn’t get buried by suggestions about mug designs or installing fish tanks. So if you like the idea, go bump it up! I actually want to see this happen and not just talk about it.

Featured in Terry*: Philanthropic Consumption: Starbucks’ (RED) Campaign and What They Should’ve Done

After years and years of English classes, essays, papers, and exams, I still couldn’t imagine myself as a writer. That is, before I started realizing what writing means in the real world. The kind of writing we’ve been taught in school is academic writing. The thing is, I am not very good at it, and it doesn’t work so well in the real world either.

I found this article on blogging. It’s a great read.

The biggest mistake we can make is not putting our readers first. I am learning this in the process of writing this post. I was going to post my personal reflection on the points he raised, but I realized I didn’t really add anything useful. It’s a (bad) habit I picked up from school I suppose, the urge of trying to paraphrase everything and assume someone would want to read that.

In the real world, our readers are not our professors or TAs.

Spam hardly get to my inbox anymore, but in the early days they were VERY annoying. I still remember having to sort through dozens of emails everyday only to find 2 chain letters (remember those?? I wonder if I could make a chain blog post.. spread this link or you will not get internet connection for one week!!). Anyways, some bright CS students from Berkley actually did a study on spam email’s conversion rates. In conclusion, of the 350 million spams they observed, only 28 resulted in sales, so the conversion rate is under 0.00001%.

[crazy high number of junk mail] x [crazy low conversion rate] = [a few crazy people buying] => [profit]

The result is not really that surprising. The fact that they are still sending out spams means they make money out of it. I am nonetheless very curious who these buyers are..

Interesting read. [Spamalytics: An Empirical Analysis of Spam Marketing Conversion via Karl Long]