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Brave’s use of direct mailers

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Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers

#21

Post by igetspam »

longrod wrote: post #13

This little stunt by Brave was clearly not the right move. Marketing is a necessity but if you sacrifice one of the core principals of your product i.e. privacy & security, what's the point? The scenario is something like this: Random person: recieves a physical mail right after installing Brave. Brave: we are so so private and don't ever sell or use your data. Random person: how did you get my address then right aft…

I got one of these yesterday. I'm uninstalling Brave and going back to Firefox

Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers

#22

Post by al_borland »

flaviut wrote: post #18
longrod wrote: post #13

This little stunt by Brave was clearly not the right move. Marketing is a necessity but if you sacrifice one of the core principals of your product i.e. privacy & security, what's the point? The scenario is something like this: Random person: recieves a physical mail right after installing Brave. Brave: we are so so private and don't ever sell or use your data. Random person: how did you get my address then right aft…

From the second paragraph: > Since 2020, Brave has been experimenting with direct mail via the United States Postal Service’s Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) program. EDDM allows businesses in the US to create and distribute mailers to addresses across one or more ZIP Codes. I'm not sure where you got "tracking" from, but they're just sending mail to every address in a zip code.

While this is true, it doesn’t help the optics from a customer point of view. Granted the number of people in a zip code who just download Brave will be small, but those are your new customers and will be freaked out. They will tell their friends. People who are learning about Brave from the mailing will question how Brave got their info to mail them (even if that isn’t reality) and see the mailing as not respecting their privacy, thus killing their message.

This whole idea was simply bad. Billboards, TV, and stadium advertisements would have gone over much better if they wanted some old-school methods. It gets in front of a lot of people with no questions about privacy or targeting involved.

Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers

#24

Post by edf13 »

Vorh wrote: post #19
mmastrac wrote: post #8

Quoted post unavailable.

As far as I know, the database is owned by the USPS, and they can't do their job _without_ that information. You can dislike Brave for buying access to the information, or dislike USPS for selling said information. But the information is already collected by USPS so they can do their job.

Even if the database contains banding by household income for example? Why does the USPS need that to do their job? Brave doesn’t show what targeting was used…

Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers

#25

Post by miguelmurca »

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #23
miguelmurca wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? The article is apologizing for a mistake (with questionable implications, as pointed out by other comments).

Sorry missed the /s on my comment.

Ah, my bad. Can't delete the original reply anymore, sorry.

Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers

#26

Post by toma_caliente »

jayofdoom wrote: post #17
paulgb wrote: post #3

It seems like a weird mia culpa. If I’m understanding right, they’re not sorry for sending the mailers, or working with a data broker to get the addresses, just for the fact that names were printed on the envelopes? I wonder who is concerned about the last one that isn’t more concerned about the first two.

They didn't work with a data broker. You can pay the post office in the US to send your mailer to every single address in a given zip code. This sort of bulk mailing represents the majority of your junk mail.

Having worked in marketing, they absolutely worked with a data broker. You don't blindly send out mailers. You use data brokers to zone in on a target market. "This zip code is more like to buy X while this zip code is more like to buy Y."

Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers

#27

Post by st3fan »

Vorh wrote: post #19
mmastrac wrote: post #8

Quoted post unavailable.

As far as I know, the database is owned by the USPS, and they can't do their job _without_ that information. You can dislike Brave for buying access to the information, or dislike USPS for selling said information. But the information is already collected by USPS so they can do their job.

Be careful with the right wording here: this USPS service is not selling any data.

It is just delivering snail mail.

The only data flow here is from Brave to USPS: please send our mailing to this definition of the target group.

USPS does not send Brave a list of addresses or even names. Brave does not give USPS a list of addresses or names.

Re: Brave’s use of direct mailers

#29

Post by concinds »

toma_caliente wrote: post #26
jayofdoom wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't work with a data broker. You can pay the post office in the US to send your mailer to every single address in a given zip code. This sort of bulk mailing represents the majority of your junk mail.

Having worked in marketing, they absolutely worked with a data broker. You don't blindly send out mailers. You use data brokers to zone in on a target market. "This zip code is more like to buy X while this zip code is more like to buy Y."

All direct mail marketers do this, because it allows better targeting (& re-targeting old prospects & previous customers) but Brave explicitly said they didn't, and only went through the USPS's service.
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