Trustmark aiming for reassurance

By IRENE CHAPPLE

The Direct Marketing Association will introduce a Trustmark next month as it continues to struggle with consumers' cynicism over e-commerce.

The Trustmark's launch supports the direct marketers' code of practice, introduced a year ago. It requires all DMA members to comply with five basic ethical principles.

The DMA's chief executive, Keith Norris, says the Trustmark is phase two of a push "to give consumers reassurance" about the companies they are dealing with, and to widen knowledge of the code.

The Trustmark will be stamped on DMA members' products, websites and mailouts, Norris says.

The Trustmark is supported by direct marketers, but Bruce Simpson, an internet specialist and the publisher of online magazine Aardvark, says its introduction is largely a waste of time.

Members of the DMA are already ethical marketers, he says, while spammers simply do not join.

He believes consumers' trust in the internet marketplace remains minimal, and says the DMA needs to liaise directly with ISPs to block unethical website operators.

The code's impact is about to be reviewed by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, which will look at whether it needs tweaking through, for example, better publicity.

However, the ministry's acting general manager, Tony Leverton, said the code's launch had been recognised as a positive step for the industry.