Anthrax Scaring Mail Marketers.

The anthrax scare, which is causing nervousness in mailrooms and along postal routes across the country, couldn't have come at a worse time for the local direct marketing industry, which does its heaviest mailing in the weeks before the holidays.

While it's normally tough to get recipients to open and read promotional mail, nowadays people may be afraid to even touch what direct marketers are sending them.

"There will be a fall-off (in business)," said John Content, president of the Los Angeles Direct Marketing Association, which has 1,000 paying members throughout Southern California.

"Some companies are definitely going to feel it. Some companies are not going to be able to make it through what I felt was going to be a flat Christmas," he added.

While impossible to predict how the industry will be affected, Content, who has more than 30 years experience in direct marketing, guessed that business could be off by 20 to 30 percent.

Looking to avoid the potential loss of billions of dollars, the Direct Marketing Association has put out a list of mailing guidelines for members. The suggested measures include avoiding the use of plain envelopes and providing a clear return address.

"Of all the mail that's out there, direct mail is the safest," said Louis Mastria, director of public and international affairs for the DMA. "It's a tightly controlled process with a lot of monitoring."

Questions about security

But Content, a direct mail consultant for Wright Graphics in Chatsworth, said security has become a concern. An area software publisher planning a major mailing campaign with Wright recently called him to ask how the company makes its envelopes and what is done to make sure no harmful substances get inside.

"People that are actually advertising in the mail, they're afraid to do it' he said.

With calls and e-mails about the anthrax issue coming in daily, the L.A. group last week held a roundtable discussion with representatives from the U.S. Postal Service and other mail-delivering organizations.

Content also put together a list of guidelines to help members get people to open their mail. The suggestions include using e-mail, faxes or postcards to let recipients know something will soon be coming in the mail.

Such steps can only be taken when a direct marketer has a client's e-mail address or fax number. But when trying to add new clients to their contact lists, direct marketers often have no more than a mailing address to go on.

"Prospecting is going to be a challenge," Mastria said.

The real effect of the anthrax scare may not be felt until January because most companies have already planned their holiday mail campaigns, said Ray Considine, director of Considine & Associates, a direct-marketing consulting firm in Pasadena.

"I don't see any other option but to put it in the mail and hope for the best," he said.

That's what Paul Kalemkiarian recently did when he sent out several thousand pieces of promotional mail for the Wine of the Month Club Inc., a mail-order business he inns out of a shop in Monrovia.

"I didn't think I needed to change (the mailing)," he said. "It crossed my mind that I should keep it as close to the same as possible so that anyone who'd seen it before would recognize it."

Some direct-mail marketer seek anything but recognition, so they often send envelopes with addresses that appear to be hand-written or with no return address in the hope that curiosity will lead recipients to open them.

"All the tricks trying to pretend it was a piece of personal mail when it's really promotional, will cease for a while," said Russell Kern, president of Kern Direct Marketing Inc. in Woodland Hills.

Such practices are frowned upon by many in the industry and won't help direct marketers get their mail read right now, said Frederick Peace, president of Peace Associates, a direct-marketing consulting firm in Marina del Rey.

"There are a lot of hucksters and scam artists and people who just do bad marketing," he said. "(The anthrax scare) will affect them very badly and I'm not unhappy about that."