Your response is required by law

Need a surefire way to boost your direct marketing response rates through the roof? Take a page out of the U.S. Census Bureau's playbook and make it a crime to disregard your mailing.

Here you see their envelope creative clearly stating "YOUR RESPONSE IS REQUIRED BY LAW":

Inside the envelope you find an 8-page survey with 82 questions such as, "what was the total amount of capital used to start or acquire this business?"

What happens if you don't respond? According to Title 13 of the United States Code, Chapter 7, Sub-chapter II, Section 224:

"Whoever, being the owner, official, agent, person in charge, or assistant to the person in charge, of any company, business, institution, establishment, religious body, or organization of any nature whatsoever, neglects or refuses, when requested by the Secretary or other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof, to answer completely and correctly to the best of his knowledge all questions relating to his company, business, institution, establishment, religious body, or other organization, or to records or statistics in his official custody, contained on any census or other schedule or questionnaire prepared and submitted to him under the authority of this title, shall be fined not more than $500; and if he willfully gives a false answer to any such question, he shall be fined not more than $10,000."

So, if I understand this correctly, it will cost you $500 if you don't respond and $10,000 if you lie.

That's certainly a compelling "value proposition." I wish I could use that for our marketing programs ;-)!

Comments

[Grant A. Johnson]

Great post!

[direct response]

I never thought it would be like a crime by doing that.

-Daniel

[S. Hilton]

I am neither "the owner, official, agent, person in charge, or assistant to the person in charge, of any company, business, institution, establishment, religious body." I'm a common citizen. And I'm tired of the government using scare tactics like the envelope I received today (the U.S. Census, of course) in order to get their way. I'm also tired of "electing" representatives, paying their room and board in the Senate or the House of Representatives, paying for their vacations (read "fact-finding trips") and everything else, just to have MY interests sold out to the highest bidder. The representatives are no longer doing the will of the people . . . witness the latest wrangling over a health-care bill that is going to be more devastating to our economy than it is beneficial. I don't know of ANYONE who wants this bill to pass . . . but what are OUR representatives doing? Parleying their vote for more influence, more power, more prestige, and the opportunity to spend another year in Washington at the taxpayer's expense!!!

[Garyv]

Both Title 13 and Title 18, United States Code, provide for monetary penalties for failure to respond. Title 18, U.S.C., Section 3551, et seq., the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, establishes uniform penalties for all federal crimes.

Title 13 U.S.C., Section 221, makes it a misdemeanor to refuse or willfully neglect to complete the questionnaire or answer questions posed by census takers and imposes a fine of not more than $100.

This fine is changed by the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 from $100 to not more than $5,000. The Census Bureau is not a prosecuting agency. Failure to provide information is not likely to result in a fine.

The Census Bureau staff work to achieve cooperation and high response rates by helping the public understand that responding to the ACS is a matter of civic responsibility, and prefers to encourage participation in this manner rather than
prosecution.

[Dave Jeffery]

I keep thinking of "Flash Gordon" from 1980 -"All guests will make merry - under pain of death!"