If you’re like any other person on Earth you have probably subscribed to one or more print catalogs in the past and currently receive them via your mailbox each month. Personally, I receive about 3 -4 paper catalogs each month from companies including Cabelas, Land’s End, Victoria Secret, Business 2.0 and many even a few more like the Costco business catalog or my update catalogs from Dell, HP, T-Mobile and more.

Brief Overview & Article Motivation:

Recently, I was forced to rummage through my different catalog subscriptions in an attempt to slim down the junk mail I often receive. The reason I decided to slim down my mailing subscriptions was due to my 9 day vacation and having three post office bins of mostly junk mail (plus Holiday cards) to go through when I returned.

When I got Online and began researching different methods to unsubscribe from my catalogs, I accidentally discovered a site I had never seen before called Catalog Choice. It’s basically a way for individuals to unsubscribe from paper catalogs they receive in the mail at no cost. Catalog Choice takes the approach that their service can make your life easier, eliminate unwanted catalogs and helps to save and preserve our environment (sort of along the lines of a green initiative). Their main objective is to reduce the amount of unwanted catalogs sent to consumers each month.

The Catalog Choice community is presently 355,659 persons strong, having already opted out of 4,495,373 catalogs. Together, we are going to improve our lives, and conserve our planet’s natural resources!

Simply go to the Catalog Choice homepage and click the Get Started link to sign-up.

Catalog Choice Service Overview:

In a nut shell you use the site as follows…

• Find and opt-out of catalogs. Find your catalog, click decline and fill in the details. We will contact the merchant on your behalf and request that they no longer send you their catalog.
• Review and manage your declined catalogs. Add notes, report infractions, change your customer number, revoke your request on the My Choices screen.
• Manage your profile. Add additional names and addresses you need in the opt-out process, change your login, or delete your account on the My Profile page.
• Help spread the word. Tell your friends about this service on the Invite Friends screen.
• Questions? Check the FAQ screen first, then contact us if you need help.

Finding Catalogs:

Finding popular print catalogs using Catalog Choice is easy. Just navigate to the Find Catalogs tab after you’ve logged in and use the search or browse functions to find the catalogs you wish to unsubscribe from. Users can even suggest catalogs that do not currently appear within the catalogs database. In addition, you can navigate to catalogs using the alphabetical listings under the search and browse tabs. Once you have located a catalog, opting out or unsubscribing is easy.

Opting Out:

After the catalog you wish to unsubscribe from has been located just click the Decline button to the right of the catalog subscription you are planning to opt out of. I light box window will pop up with additional fields for information needed in order to opt out from the catalog you choose. In the window you will see the catalog you are declining, your name (along with choice for current resident or new name), your mailbox and an optionally, your customer number. If there is no customer number on record simply click not available and move to the next step. Once the appropriate information is included, just click the Decline Catalog button near the bottom (you can also cancel the form by clicking the appropriate link to the right of the button).

Managing Catalogs:

In the My Choices section you can manage and view your declined catalogs. Actions in the My Choices section include the ability to see merchants online shopping alternative, view details of online shopping links, add individual catalog notes, report infractions if you continue receiving declined catalogs, revoke decline requests and modifying your custom numbers. So far the features in this section are very handy and useful to users who are attempting to unsubscribe from a particular catalog.

Profile Management:

The My Profile section allows you to manage personal information that is used when opting out of catalog subscriptions. Actions in the My profile section include the ability to manage your catalog names, change logins, manage, edit or delete addresses, manage email preferences and lastly you can even cancel your Catalog Choice membership. It’s an easy way, from one page, to manage all you account or personal information.

Conclusion & Final Thoughts:

Obviously, I only expect you to use a service like Catalog Choice if you do indeed WANT to unsubscribe from print catalogs you receive in the mail. During the demonstration above I listed some of the print catalogs I subscribe to, however I never ACTUALLY declined, opted out or unsubscribed from any of the catalogs I listed (who would unsubscribe from Victoria Secret anyway?). I am happy to receive the catalogs I currently get each month, so I didn’t really want to decline any of them, however I thought the tool, concept and application were worth posting about and mentioning for anyone who might possibly need a service like Catalog Choice offers.

So, is catalog marketing and concept behind print catalogs done for? Not in my opinion, although many younger generations probably will not see the need for print catalogs in the future, especially with the ever emerging technology, information and shopping that the Web has to offer. Do I think it’s a good idea for professional catalogers or catalog companies to consider environmental effects of their catalog campaigns? Absolutely. I also think that Online versions of print catalogs will become more common, but if these companies offered eCommerce, it could potentially kill two birds with one stone.

I personally think print catalogs could include less pages within them, but with advertising sales it’s probably not realistic to think they will skim down their own content to reduce the number of pages I have to thumb through. In the end, it’s about the company that is sending the catalog. Many of them have been around for years, do not bug the crap out of you and tend to follow the rules for opting out, but there are flaws in the current system. If companies continue to use direct mail and paper catalogs the way they currently do, it won’t be long before they are long forgotten and replaced by technology on the Web, or other.