A little while ago I came across MPS- the Mail Preference Service. I’ve been registered with TPS (Telephone Preference Service) for a while now and it’s proved extremely sucessful in reducing the amount of sales calls I get at home. I hope that MPS will perform a similar service for mail. The arrival on my doorstep of a pacakge from The Postal Preference Service initially had me thinking that it was somehow related. Thankfully I discovered it’s not.

The Postal Preference Service seems to be essentially a marketing ploy. It seems designed by someone in the direct marketing business to allow them to target their campaigns mroe effectively. Not sure about you but that’s not something I want to help them to accomplish.

“More of the mail you want, Less of what you don’t want” is the slogan that is emblazened across the first page. The whole reason for signing on for MPS was to avoid getting ALL junk mail – not more of it! To be fair they do mention both TPS and MPS, on the back of the first page and in text 1/2 the size of the main body.

“We realise that not all the mail you receive is relevant and interesting to you. that’s why we are offering The Postal Preference Service in association with Royal Mail. The idea behind the service is simple. By filling in the enclosed questionnaire you will allow us to tell participating advertisers what mail you want to receive and what you don’t.”

In order words the PPS will have an incredibly desirable list of customers to target. Customers will have supplied enough details that each contact will be suitable for the company requesting the list – making it much more valuable and profitable for PPS. Maybe I’m being cynical, but would you really want to be on such a list? As MPS starts to become better known and wider used the amount of addresses that junk mailers will have to target diminishes. The number of compaigns won’t reduce as quickly and so those left not on the list will start to get more than ever.

If you’re in the UK then I’d suggest going straight to http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/ and sign up at once. Do it, do it now!

Oh, and I’d bin the the PPS mail when you get it. I have done.