A company’s use of direct mail has a pronounced impact on how consumers perceive its environmental credentials. So says new research commissioned by ONEPOST and published by the UK Direct Marketing Association (DMA).

One third of consumers polled said the presence of a recycle logo alone on an item of direct mail would lead them to perceive a company to be environmentally-friendly. On the other hand, half of the consumers said polythene wrapping induces a negative perception and 30 per cent pointed to incorrectly addressed mail as counting against a company’s environmental image.

Luan Wise, marketing manager at ONEPOST, said: "Responsible Mail is a great product for helping organisations reduce their postage costs by meeting environmentall- friendly criteria while demonstrating best practice in areas such as data cleansing. Our clients have benefitted from more than £250,000 additional postal savings since its launch last April."

The study also reveals that direct mail is perceived to be the least potentially harmful to the environment. 

Wise added: "While this is good news, there is a clear difference in the response between unpersonalised leaflets and personally-addressed direct mail (30 per cent versus 17 per cent) in this study which builds on previous research from the beginning of last year. The industry is working hard to overcome the ‘junk mail’ tag and these results are promising indicators of our efforts to achieve this."

For a copy of the Sustainability Tracker Study, email luan.wise@onepost.co.uk or visit the DMA website: www.DMA.org.uk