Soliciting the Deceased: Killing the Brand and the Bottom Line (and How to Avoid It)

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Frank Rigano, chief executive officer of Interactive Marketing Solutions (www.ims-dm.com), has more than 20 years of experience providing marketing and technology solutions to business executives. He served as executive vice president of operations and administration for the [U.S.] Direct Marketing Association and senior vice president of operations for the American Management Association. Interactive Marketing Solutions is committed to developing innovative list and database management software and services designed to help businesses succeed in their marketing efforts by mitigating the challenges imposed by privacy and consumer opt-out legislation. Frank can be reached at frigano@ims-dm.com.

The emotional havoc that can happen when a surviving spouse, parent or family member receives a phone call, e-mail or mail solicitation addressed to someone who has died is understandable -- and completely avoidable. Still, it amazes me how too often database managers and marketers fail to be stewards for their brands when it comes to this delicate matter. The damage to brands can be significant, particularly if marketers repeatedly solicit a deceased individual whose family or estate has made an active effort not to have their loved one be contacted for solicitation purposes.

Marketers simply have an obligation to protect their brands and their bottom lines – and to respect consumers in the process. To accomplish this, they must have a suppression strategy in place that incorporates screening for the deceased – and preventing marketing contact especially when and where a family or estate has raised its hand and said, “Please, no more!”

Does every marketer have such a strategy – starting with your brand?

If the answer is “no” or “not yet,” it’s time to place this matter atop the “to do” list. Screening outbound solicitations for the deceased should be standard operating procedure – too often it is not. For products and services in the mature market, such screening should be an ongoing matter of data management. For brands aimed at parents, especially those of newborns where a higher rate of mortality exists compared to all children, data should be checked prior to any campaign launch. Other brands may wish to build deceased suppression into periodic screening – for example, once a quarter on an entire file.

Match rates for deceased screening vary depending on the demographics of the prospect/customer base, the sophistication of screening regimes chosen, whether or not such screens are “bundled” with other suppression categories (privacy opt-outs for example) and the frequency of screening. I have seen match rates for deceased-only suppression vary all the way from 0.5 percent to as high as 1.5 percent of a given client customer or prospect file. With approximately 4 million U.S. deaths each year, there is a potential for huge waste – all with a negative impact on brand reputation and limited resources.

For all types of mail, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will continue delivering mail addressed to a deceased person until a “redirect” request at a local post office is made– generally diverting mail to an appointed executor or administrator. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) offers U.S. consumers a “Deceased: Do Not Contact List” – and has about 30,000 records actively on this file, representing the families and estates of persons who have asked expressly not to receive solicitations in their loved one’s name. Family members, caregivers and others can sign up the names of the deceased at the DMA’s consumer services site (there is no charge): www.dmachoice.org.

In addition, several commercial data providers (IMS is one of them) supplement the DMA list with their own deceased suppression applications – based on Social Security Administration and other more comprehensive publicly available records. Currently, IMS’s Recently Recorded Deceased (RRD) file, for example, contains 13 million names (U.S. only) – all of them culled from death notices around the country, with the file updated monthly. Names remain on the service for 12 months, with many deceased persons having more than one record depending on name and address variations.

These deceased suppression services should not be used to halt mail or communication of an official nature: thus, if a financial institution, utility or other business has a billing or contractual relationship, such communication regarding the relationship should continue until the household provides direct notice of a deceased customer. Often, a surviving spouse chooses to continue receiving mail to ensure all matters of an estate are final, and that there are no fiduciary obligations left to be met. However, this exception should not apply to communications that are purely solicitations.

Where companies have had a direct relationship with the deceased, they can use the DMA Deceased: Do Not Contact List, supplemented by commercial applications, to flag customer files to suppress third-party rentals (if applicable) as well as their own solicitations, but still continue to send communications of an official nature until otherwise contacted by the family or estate directly. Also, once the family or estate has contacted a business to request “deceased” removal and/or an account-name change directly to a survivor, then all communication must stop promptly in the name of the deceased (in other words, make sure the marketing database is not out of sync with a finance database, if they are maintained in separate silos.)

Further, deceased suppressions prevent not only commercial mail from being sent to individuals, but also may (and should) be used with commercial reverse append processes to prevent telephone and e-mail solicitations. Marketers must handle suppression respectfully across all channels – since the deceased don't respond to e-mail or phone calls any more than they respond to direct mail, and, again, their families wish to cease such solicitations no matter what the medium.

Internationally, there are other similar deceased services and applications for marketers in specific national markets. For example, the United Kingdom has a commercially maintained service free to consumers, the Bereavement Register, which is promoted jointly by funeral directors and direct marketers (www.thebereavementregister.org.uk). A similar service exists in Canada. Marketers overseas should contact the respective marketing association in each country, or their respective list advisors, to inquire whether or not such services exist for a particular market.

While we are all marketers – we are all consumers and family members, too. Some of us have had to take on the role of the surviving caregiver, spouse or, worse, the parent. Some of us know this painful situation firsthand, while others perhaps are aware through another family member or friend. Brand sensibility requires consumer sensitivity in such situations – and thankfully, we have programs now in place to respect families and protect our brands.