7.3 Ethics and direct marketing

Ethical concerns relating to direct marketing tend to centre on issues of privacy, protection and pressure selling, such as:

• unauthorised use of lists that are shared without the permission of those listed
• negative option sales, i.e. assuming you will purchase something unless you contact an organisation to advise them to the contrary
• pressuring consumers, i.e. direct marketing approaches that put undue pressure on consumers to accede to the marketers’ sales tactics and make consumers feel cornered or unable to reject the proposition, particularly where charitable causes are involved
• disguising direct mail as official documents
• unsolicited intrusion, especially telemarketing during unsociable hours. This problem is increasing with the use of automated calling, which is a telemarketing mechanism for calling multiple numbers simultaneously and responding only to the first number to answer
• prizes with conditions attached, i.e. prizes which place obligations on consumers as recipients. For example, a car dealer might give customers who purchase a car a voucher for a photo shoot at a professional studio. When the customer visits the studio, they realise that the voucher is just for the shooting session, and they will need to pay for any of the photos if they want to have them printed or put on a hard drive.