News
 Why
New Move Mailing Lists Work: Part 2
By David Bancroft Avrick, president of Avrick
Direct, Inc.
One of the major mailing list categories is
Change-of-Address (CHADS) or
"New Move" lists. There
are currently over 900 New Move lists on the
marketplace - and each one has a number of mailers
using the list. In the United States, close to 25%
of the households move every year.
Approximately
43 million people move every year.
When we examine "why" New Move lists work - several
things are obvious:
5. There is a need to affiliate.
Life stress drives the need for affiliation. The new
move demands that a person regain familiarity or
symbolic attachment by ordering something associated
with another person's interests or involvements, or
even denying the other by ordering something
contrary to the other person's tastes. The just
divorced person specifically subscribes to a
magazine his ex-spouse would object to - or
purchases music that her ex-spouse disliked.
Another social and psychological variable is
preference of the familiar. Someone might not have
been interested in a specific mail-order offer
before he moved. However, after the move, even if
it's only a short distance, he is receptive. People
prefer the familiar to the unfamiliar. If given an
opportunity, people will surround themselves with
"sameness." The catalog that was previously
uninteresting, now represents familiarity.
An interesting psychological test is to show an
individual a group of pictures. These pictures are
then mixed with another group of unseen photographs.
Ask the person to view the larger set of pictures
and to identify the pictures he or she "likes." The
individual will tend to pick the previously viewed
pictures, even if viewed only for a few seconds.
When people move, even a short distance, the things
they can connect to their previous life are the
things that are more familiar to them, and therefore
more "liked" and valued.
Moving compels the individual to hold onto the
familiar, even to the point of having control of
what will be delivered to the new address,
especially regularly and repetitively. Being able to
determine what "arrives" enhances a sense of
ownership and sense of place. When you receive
mailings, magazines, catalogs and merchandise at
your "new address" you establish a feeling of being
connected once again.
6. There are other needs.
Obviously, motivations for moves may sometimes be
associated with specific mailings. A woman getting
married, and looking forward to entertaining guests,
might become interested in subscribing to Gourmet
Magazine. A person who just entered the job market,
or who received a significant promotion, might
decide to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal or
Business Week.
Another factor is a sense of "newness." You have a
new home and you want to surround yourself with "new
stuff." Along with your new curtains and new
carpeting you might want new magazines and new
furnishings. Change begets change. You just changed
your home, you're much more open to other changes.
When direct mail solicitations come to you, you're
willing to try a new product or a new supplier.
7. There Is A Clutter Factor.
As a direct marketer, there is another factor at
work. Almost all direct mail is sent bulk rate, and
is not forwarded. There is a short window,
immediately after a new move, during which very
little mail is being delivered to the consumer. When
direct marketers send their mailings to new move
addresses, they have the advantage of significantly
less clutter. A less crowded mailbox means a higher
probability of the mailing being read. When you
couple this with the psychological factors, you get
a consumer response of "Wow, someone knows where I
am".
Several
fundraising nonprofits send out
name-and-address labels to new move names. Here they
are fulfilling an important "need" for the consumer;
everyone loves to see their name, with their new
address, in print. The new mover is significantly
more thankful for these labels than a person who has
been at that address for years. And that
thankfulness is expressed in donations.
8. What Does This All Mean?
There are both simplistic and deep-seated factors
that drive the responsiveness of "new move" mailing
lists. This has been discovered by hundreds of
mailers, but many thousands have not yet uncovered
this potential. There are millions of names
available on a 30-day hotline basis. If you have not
tested change of address/new move names you are
possibly missing out on a great opportunity. If you
have tested them, and they didn't work, it's
probably a good idea to take another look at your
test and your offer. Possibly you need to add some
other criteria, such as bankcard holder, or gender
selection, to
make the lists work for you.
The bottom line is that New Move names are
responsive.
Didn’t see the first
four reasons why New Movers lists work from our last
Advisor?
Click here.
---Source: David Bancroft Avrick, president of
Avrick Direct, Inc (www.avrickdirect.com). With
contributions from Ralph M. Daniel, Ph.D., Jerry P.
Martin, M.D., and Lizbeth J. Martin, Ph.D.
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