Paperless communication is NOT a green initiative

I love direct mail. I like the feel of it in my hands. I love a brilliantly crafted package that has been perfectly targeted to ME based on my habits, life stage, or past behavior. I gaze lovingly at gorgeous visuals beautifully reproduced as if by magic, from masses of ink dots soaked into paper.

I admire, no revel, in a clever headline, that guides me to a story laid out in front of me. If executed properly, that story creates a desire for the product or service, and guides me to visit a web site, call a toll-free number, or (gasp!) return a reply device in a postage-paid envelope.

And I know I’m not the only one.

But I have been told — repeatedly — that I am in a dying industry.

Email, they shout gleefully, has replaced direct mail. “The USPS will be out of business soon!” one digital designer recently pronounced.

Those of you who have read my blogs know I believe that email has a short life span as a viable be-all-end-all marketing channel. So I won’t rehash that argument.

But the whole “green” message around paperless communication, is really making me lose my cool.

“Stop killing trees!” they cry. (They look at me with disgust, as if I’m an axe murderer.)

The recent Kaiser Permanente radio campaign caught my attention because it takes the whole “paper-less” concept and exploits it as their own contribution to re-greening America. It brags that KP keeps all their medical records electronically, thereby saving trees and “proving” how green they are.

Give me a break.

While I applaud KP for storing my health record electronically so they can quickly and easily access it when I’m lying unconscious on that gurney, my B+ blood gushing over my bloodied body, you’re NOT doing it so you can be part of the green revolution.

For some reason, there is a belief among consumers that the pulp and paper industry blithely attacks any forested area they can get their hands on, and mows down 100-year old redwoods. But here’s the real truth: The big paper manufacturers grow trees for the specific purpose of cutting them down to produce paper. Then, they plant new trees to replace them and start the cycle all over again. If all consumers would take their paper and hand it over to be reused, it would be -- over and over again. And that, my friends, is called recycling.

So why doesn’t the paper industry stand up for itself? Why aren’t they spending money educating the masses on the ‘inconvenient truth’ – the reality behind using trees to make paper? Good question!

But hey KP, here’s the question for you: At your gigantic data centers where you store your patient records electronically, how much energy do you consume keeping those mainframes humming? You had to install new computers in every KP room in which the patient comes in contact, in order to retrieve patient records. How much extra energy does that consumer? And how many times does the doctor hit “print” so I can get a copy of that report on my gallbladder? When I leave KP, I get a printed record of my visit. And I receive a postcard in the mail reminding me of my next appointment. Need I go on?

Businesses think they’re going green by refusing to print their collateral any more – “we’re saving trees,” they note with pride.

Instead, they push customers to their websites where the onus is on the consumer to download the information. After they do, they’ll do what all people do: Use their own printer toner and paper to print the material. Then, they’ll use a highlighter to note the salient points… attach a sticky with a notation to pass along to other colleagues, or simply stuff it in their briefcase to read on the commute ride home. Later, they’ll file it and return to review it again and again when they need to refer to a detail.

Net-net is that the business has made it harder for me to consume information about them on my terms and it has increased MY cost (and my time).

I’m not saying that organizations need to print millions of pieces of collateral, but get off the “I’m saving trees” bandwagon. Help your customers and prospects to better understand your products and benefits by delivering information in the form best consumed by your target – whether it be digitally or on paper.

Not everyone wants (or reads) emails. And not everyone wants to spend time on your poorly laid out website trying to dig to find the information they want.

I’m willing to kill another tree if it helps me communicate better to my target and it's helpful to their sales consideration process. Are you?