Nick Martin explores the impact of new legislation on direct marketers across Europe.  

The importance of citizen trust cannot be overstated. 

As marketers with more and more personal information at our fingertips, it’s essential for citizens to respect us as worthy custodians of that knowledge. So, it’s in our own best interests to act responsibly and maintain that trust if we intend to continue contacting consumers for business purposes. 

Privacy laws remain a hot topic of debate worldwide, and marketers must remain astute to the latest developments in different regions. Legislation has tightened across Europe – the right to data protection is now a human rights issue. So what does this mean for marketers, in every day terms?

Overstepping the boundary

Stricter privacy laws will mean public sources of information for prospecting will become less accessible and consumer consent will become a more pressing demand. The value of information collected directly from citizens will also increase, as long as the information is relevant, either in its own right, or in conjunction with other data.

But this is by no means new to marketers. In the UK, for example, there are restrictions on how the list of registered voters can be used. The current legislation allows the public, who are registered voters, to opt-out from being included in a public register, so we have already had to adjust to smaller databases of consumer information. 

However, in a recent review of data sharing practices, the future use of this edited electoral roll has been thrown into serious doubt. Industry statistics for the opt-out rate published for 2010 reveal that one million more citizens have chosen not to allow their name and address to be made available in this public register, and therefore used by marketers. This suggests the public is becoming increasingly aware of privacy rights and does not wish to be contacted by third parties.

Other countries are also constantly reviewing consumer privacy and, as such, new legislation is regularly introduced and updated across the globe.

In the Netherlands, for example, a new mandatory ‘do not call register’ offers citizens the right to register and opt out of unsolicited commercial calls. The likely effect is a dramatically reduced available target audience, though time will tell the extent of this. 

As telemarketing is a huge direct marketing channel in the Netherlands, strategies need to be re-aligned to cope with these changes, identifying other methods to reach target audiences. 

In Germany, new legislation that requires the disclosure of sources means lists without consumer consent that were available, up until now, from any company with a client database, are likely to diminish, since many do not wish to highlight their current practice of data sharing with direct marketing firms. Collection of data with the right permissions thus becomes more important than ever.

New directions for DM

Marketing has become increasingly regulated under  the Data Protection Act. The duration between consumer objections and the passing of legislation continues to shorten, but while policy makers concern themselves with how businesses handle data, the recession has meant that companies expect more return on their marketing pounds than ever before. 

Behavioural information is not new. Marketers have, for instance, carried out recency (how recently a product is bought) frequency (how often it is bought) and monetary value (how much money do they spend on us) analyses of their own customers for years. 

However, today, we are able to track very specific and detailed activities of anyone who visits their website, customers or not. We must tread carefully and conduct ourselves with integrity, particularly when dealing with sensitive issues about behaviour involving finances and health.  

Greater transparency

To succeed, we should firstly market with greater transparency, online and offline. Then we must work on stronger self-regulation. It’s important to align marketing activities with industry best practice and to prioritise quality, not quantity. Emailing on mass should be replaced with tailored mailing to a specified target audience that wants to be contacted.

Marketers who collect and produce their own data will also be far better placed to cope with these adverse privacy law trends – a tactic which will probably become more popular worldwide. 

However much pressure there is, marketing with integrity and doing the right thing will bring long-term rewards.