Snail Mail Good Email Bad Apparently

TheRegister has some information online about a recent report on customer preferences. Specifically, would they prefer to receive information regarding new products by email, or by post. The report results imply that email is the least favoured medium, with only 2% wanting to receive the info by email. At least 66% preferred traditional postal mail.

The report itself suggests that snail mail is a more friendly form, partially because consumers have the option of opening each envelope they receive. It appears that they've neglected to consider the action taken by a user when clicking an email subject in their inbox...

It's likely, however, that the report should be almost completely disregarded, having been sponsored by The Royal Mail who have obvious interests in pushing snail mail over email.

We can only guess what sample questions looked like:

Would you prefer to receive information about new products from companies:

• by unsolicited, image-laden email which harvests your personal information, costs you time and money to download, could contain a virus, and might come from a paedophile?
• by traditional post in an attractively printed, clean envelope?

As a consumer, which do you prefer and why? Which does your business use and why?

isaac