Mailing the dead kills your brand

Nearly nine out of ten consumers would stop trading with organisations that mail the deceased. In a national survey carried out by Mortascreen, 87 per cent of consumers would stop buying from a company that had mailed a deceased relative. Yet three-quarters had got mail for somebody who had died within the last six months.

Mortascreen estimates that this adds up to 45 million items of direct mail that have not been screened against deceased files covering the 575,000 deaths each year in the UK. The company argues that direct mail users must screen out the deceased to avoid brand damage and also gain financial and environmental benefits from eliminating waste.

Chris Worsley, product director, Mortascreen says: “87 per cent is a figure organisations can ill afford to ignore. Consumers are becoming increasingly empowered and will vote with their feet by closing their wallets.”

Worsley adds: “As an industry, we have always understood that mailing the deceased causes brand damage, however this research serves to emphasize the scale of the problem for UK companies. In today’s unstable economic climate marketers, more than ever, need to ensure that simple mistakes do not creep in and that customer longevity is their key focus.”