Article: Is ER data really crucial any more? With the Electoral Roll now playing strictly by the opt-out rules, and data gathering techniques fast evolving, it could be time for marketers to wean themselves off the staple ER diet and pursue alternative data sources.(news analysis)

In the mid-Eighties, when local councils were given the chance to boost their coffers by flogging Electoral Roll data to marketers, the ER was the key consumer information source. After all, at that time not many people had even heard of suppression or lifestyle marketing, let alone geodemographical or psychographical profiling.

If you wanted to send a mailing, you simply ordered a batch of data from one of the companies licensed to handle ER information, and off you went. But, despite concerns over industry meltdown, last year's decision to allow consumers to opt out of having their details passed on resulted in only a 20 per cent opt-out--significantly lower ...

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