News
 DMA
Spotlight: DMA President Pushes CCC
“All current and future DMA members will be required
to demonstrate CCC understanding and compliance by
completing an orientation and training program on
the new guidelines and policies. The CCC
requirements are effective immediately, and notice
enforcement will begin one year from today.”
On October 15th at the DMA conference in Chicago,
IL, The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) announced
its “Commitment to Consumer Choice” (CCC) guidelines
that apply to all DMA members using mail to
communicate with consumers. The CCC is DMA’s public
assurance that all Association members will follow
specific practices to honor consumer choice in the
receipt of solicitations.
“The CCC reflects DMA’s strong belief that the
direct marketing community must meet the evolving
need of consumers in today’s marketplace,” said
Steven K. Berry, DMA executive vice president,
government affairs and corporate responsibility. “By
giving consumers the opportunity for choice — to
address privacy concerns, volume of mail received,
and environmental issues — the consumer is
empowered.”
The Commitment to Consumer Choice, which goes into
effect with this announcement, requires that DMA
members who use mail to communicate with consumers
comply with the following guidelines:
• Effectively Honor Consumer Requests to Modify or
Eliminate Mail: The Commitment to Consumer Choice
program requires DMA members to provide existing and
prospective customers and donors with notice of an
opportunity to modify the receipt of future mail
solicitations from their organization in every
commercial solicitation. The notice may offer
various modification options and should contain or
refer directly to an option to eliminate future
commercial mailings.
• Disclose the Source of the Consumer’s Name: Upon
request by a consumer, direct marketers will
disclose the source from which it obtained
personally identifiable data about that consumer.
• Use of the Mail Preference Service (MPS): Consumer
marketers will also be required to use DMA’s Mail
Preference Service (MPS) name-removal file every
month (instead of quarterly, the present
requirement). To achieve that commitment, a
consumer’s request for in-house suppression should
be honored within 30 days, and for a period of at
least three years from the date of receipt of
request.
“Our ultimate goal is to make mail relevant to
consumers — to give consumers more of what they
want, and less of what they don’t want,” said Pat
Kachura, DMA senior vice president for corporate
responsibility. “The Commitment to Consumer Choice
program strengthens DMA’s guidelines to address the
consumer, environmental, and privacy concerns that
our members are hearing from customers.”
The Commitment to Consumer Choice’s foundation is
DMA’s public assurance that all Association members
will follow specific practices to protect consumers’
choices. Suppliers and other businesses that provide
services to consumer marketers should also
understand the new CCC requirements so that they can
implement them on behalf of their DMA member
clients.
For more
information on the Commitment to Consumer Choice,
visit www.DMACCC.org.
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