But what if you were to pose the shocking suggestion that this seemingly boundless increase in volume and expenditure in recent years is not necessarily a good thing? Wouldn't there be more to celebrate if direct mail volumes were actually decreasing year on year? Royal Mail perhaps wouldn't be celebrating, but you can be sure that the consumer would (as the recipient of less direct mail which is more targeted) as would the client (as the sender of more response-worthy direct mail).
I'm sure that there are some genuinely positive reasons for the hike in mail volumes. New companies must be starting to see the value of this channel and there's evidence that clients are spending more on retention activity over relentless volume-driven acquisition drives. DMIS also reveals that companies are moving out of the AB ghetto, with the greatest volume increase in the socio-economic group DE, up 13 per cent on 2002 figures.
But there's no getting away from the fact that a large number of companies simply aren't scaling down their activity in recognition of the fact that less can be more when it comes to people's doormats. Last month, Yahoo! fanned the flames of the discontented consumer with its 'Dump the Junk' day (see news, page 5). Among other things, this saw Dean Gaffney (better known as D-list EastEnders street sweeper Robbie Jackson) riding in a rubbish cart emblazoned with the 'Dump the Junk' logo to illustrate the waste generated by 'junk mail'.
You could just dismiss this as a PR stunt. Or you could accept that in a small way it is contributing to a growing movement against unwanted commercial messages - regardless of the channel through which they are delivered. It's a trend that anyone who cares about the long-term health of the industry would be foolish to ignore.
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