• by May 2, 2011

Hearst-owned data-management company CDS Global has added an email appends business for its clients in the magazine publishing and consumer product industries.

The service allows CDS' clients to merge their existing customer databases with a master database of email addresses. This provides the clients with "a richer view of their customers, thus allowing them another avenue for target marketing," said Kristin Runyan, CDS chief information officer and vice president of product management.

Email appending has long been controversial, since companies using acquired email addresses can be accused of sending spam -- and of using opt-out rather than opt-in list maintenance.

In a related CDS white paper titled "Making the Most of Outbound Emails," Mark Finch, senior product manager, marketing solutions, stressed the importance of companies following the Direct Marketing Association's Guidelines for Ethical Business Practice, including: "A marketer should append a consumer's email address to its database only when the consumer gives a marketer permission to add his or her email address to the marketer's database. In addition:

1. There is an established business relationship with that consumer either online or offline.

2. The data used in the append process are from sources that provided notice and choice regarding the acceptance of receiving third-party email offers and where the consumer did not opt out.

3. Reasonable efforts are taken to ensure the appending of accurate email addresses to the corresponding consumer records.

CDS Global was known as Communications Data Services until 2007.