On 11/29/06, Ellen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Has anyone received charity return address labels with a donation solicitation? I have a ton of them and to be honest it gets a little frustrating. I think, "oh good, free return address labels!" But I don't necessarily want to donate to the charity sending them to me. So I use them anyway, taking advantage of their hard-earned donations that they used to make return address labels for people who don't really want to donate to the cause instead of giving the money to people who actually need it. I'm starting to think that an organization that sends me free return address labels is less likely to get my money, because they are clearly using their money for non-essential purposes that could be better used elsewhere. I'm sure they are thinking, "if we send her something personalized for free, maybe she will feel guilty and send us money." But it doesn't work that way. If they send me something personlized for free, I'm thinking hey maybe they don't really need my money. Has anyone had this experience of getting these labels and just using them without donating, and then feeling slightly guilty about it or just annoyed at the organization for using their hard-earned dollars this way? It's probably just me.
I have learned in my life that 'marketing' is a strange beast. I tend to be a more of a technical person, so I don't understand why an organization would spend money on product for a freebie for the chance that someone else might send money.... but that's why I'm not in marketing. At any rate, I use the free address labels all the time and do not feel guilty about it at all. I donate to whom I chose to donate to - ADL, EFF, etc. Don't worry, the organization has a marketing budget that takes things like this into account... now as to whether that marketing budget is too large is a different topic of discussion... and one I'm not qualified on to rule either way. I'd guess that they have done studies for cost out (mailing labels) vs cost in for each kind of promo and have seen that this one gives them a good ROI. aw
