How do marketing firms react to a move against unsolicited calls and messages?

Are they ready to let go of telemarketing and sms blast before the Personal Data Protection Bill takes full effect?

Jacky Tan, Senior Marketing PR Manager (Asia Pacific), Evorich Flooring Group

Other than causing frustration, unsolicited calls and messages can also result in unnecessary costs such as time wasted, auto-roaming charges high if the customer is at overseas.

Sometimes, consumers may also receive sales calls from private numbers which they could not track; furthermore while some telemarketers are too anxious to close the deal immediately over the phone, they do not want to email more information to the consumer for them to and consider and learn more about the products. Without having an adequate knowledge about the products, consumers sometimes are confused about the things they bought and thus contributed to what we called buyers’ remorse.

In most cases, buyers felt like being “forced” to buy (incur costs) things that they do not like and do not have ample information about it; this also may result in long term costs such as paying lawyer fees for small claims against companies for unsatisfied products, signing up too many credit cards and personal loan over the phone, while not able to finance the debts in the future, and so on.

Before this proposal is implemented, The Contact Centre Association of Singapore (CCAS) already maintained a “Do-Not-Call Registry” in which it is also ruled by a guideline of code and ethics from the call centre to not to call the numbers on the DNC registry. Since getting listed on the DNC list is voluntary and it also does not guarantee that the consumer would not be called again by the tele sales agent should his or her agency do not follow the guidelines of CCAS. Hence, with the implementation of the proposals with enforcement and laws, the numbers of unsolicited calls or messages to a consumer who has registered to be on the DNC list, would be reduced greatly.

According the 2009 Economic Report of Former US President, George Bush, prepared by his Council of Economic Advisors, on the effect of implementing the National DNC Registry since 2003; I quote, “The program has proved quite popular: as of 2007, according to one survey, 72 percent of Americans had registered on the list, and 77 percent of those say that it made a large difference in the number of telemarketing calls that they receive (another 14 percent report a small reduction in calls).

Another survey, conducted less than a year after the Do Not Call list was implemented, found that people who registered for the list saw a reduction in telemarketing calls from an average of 30 calls per month to an average of 6 per month.”

This effect may be similar in Singapore eventually. However in my opinion, it might take some time for business providers, telemarketing agency and consumers in Singapore to adjust with the new implementation of the proposals.

There still might be some people who would invest monies on buying customer information and trying to find loopholes on the new proposals. One example in the US, is the Dove Foundation; a non-profit organization who identified to have a partnership with a for-profit entity by engaging in telemarketing activities with people who are registered in the local no-call list.

Only companies, whose main marketing strategies are cold calling to consumers, sms blasting to people, sending unsolicited marketing messages to companies via fax and many interrupting marketing strategies, will be affected badly if they do not change.
 

Ng Chong Yang, Business Development Director, Tangoshark:

While cold-calling may be an effective sales technique some years ago, those days are gone. It is a simplistic and, to a very large extend, crude way of selling (read pushing) products or services to the end consumers through the exploitation of their personal data. This act, therefore, protects consumers from such exploitation.

Today's marketing strategies should be about engaging consumers and allowing them to be in control throughout the buying process. They decide when, where, and how to look for, and consume, information. Hence, brands should work hard to be there at the time a consumer looks for it, and to gracefully fade into the background otherwise.

Remember, the pushing of (unsolicited) marketing messages to consumers will almost certainly fall on deaf ears. Consumers find such spamming irritating.

EK Yap, Director of Sccube, The Apothecary

As both a marketing person and a consumer on the receiving end of unwanted phone calls , I would like to differentiate the following which perhaps a blanket DO NO Call Registry does not make clear. As an existing consumer of a particular products or service from Singtel or say a Bank or my favorite restaurant. I would not object if the said company called me to inform me of some particular offer relevant to a particular service or product I have consumed. The practice most of us find most objectionable to is "cold calling" from a database which estate agents and insurance companies in particular avail themselves of. I hope the legislation allows for differentiation between the two.  

Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, Mobile Marketing Association (MMA):

The rights of consumers have always been a priority for the Mobile Marketing Association. We have always evangelized the double opt-in as the preferred communication channel when speaking to consumers – i.e. consumers must request for marketing material (e.g. signing up to an email mailing list) and that request must be confirmed before any further action is taken. The Mobile Marketing Association strongly believes that any kind of marketing or advertising should be based on consumer preference, and consumers must opt in for messages that they will receive.

Our Code of Conduct as well as the best practices we promote prohibit the distribution of unsolicited marketing material. The Personal Data Protection Bill reflects exactly what we believe: that consumers should retain control over their own data, and that consumers should choose whether or not to receive marketing material. Our members’ marketing and advertising practices will not be adversely affected by this Bill, since blind or cold calling is not practiced.”

Gary Chin, Managing Director - Singapore (PH, VN & HK), Admax Network

Protecting consumers in this age, where privacy has become such a priceless privilege, is necessary. With the level of data that can be obtained from digital platforms, it’s become important for advertisers today to balance their approach between reaching to their consumers with the most relevant message and not being too intrusive. The European Union already introduced a directive requiring all organizations, as of May 2012, to secure individual’s permission before installing any cookies on their computers. It’s only a matter of time that Singapore, being a technologically forward nation, implements similar bills in the interest of protecting the digitally savvy Singapore consumers. As an ad network, we offer advertisers the ability to retarget consumers across our network, however only using anonymous cookie data so there’s no infringement of privacy as the data collected does not include personal details.

Eddie Chau,  CEO & Founder, Brandtology 

The Personal Data Protection Bill is a good step forward in protecting the privacy of the individual, and the inclusion of the DNC registry would certainly be welcomed by the general populace. For Brandtology, as a provider of Online Business Intelligence services, it would be interesting to see if the PDPA affects online marketers as well. Generally speaking, most social media marketing is Above-The-Line (ATL) so as to reach a wider audience and this is quite clear, but there is direct online marketing that is still quite a gray area in terms of privacy, and I do think this will also become an area of concern. As a company, we look at completely public information, and make it a point to do so in order to respect the privacy of the online user.