Last week we wrote about the latest JICMAIL DM stats: In Q1 2026 the average piece of direct mail remained in the home for 7.6 days, was interacted with more than four times and generated almost two and a half minutes of attention over a 28-day period.
While these figures provide compelling evidence of direct mail’s effectiveness, they also raise an important question: why does direct mail command this level of attention and remain in the home for so long? To answer that, it helps to look beyond marketing and into the world of behavioural economics.
Behavioural economists may have part of the answer. Research by Nobel Prize-winning economists Richard Thaler and Daniel Kahneman into what became known as the endowment effect suggests that people place a higher value on something simply because they possess it. In one of the most famous demonstrations of the theory, participants who were given a simple coffee mug valued it significantly more highly than those who were not. Ownership alone changed perception.
Viewed through this lens, the journey of a piece of direct mail becomes particularly interesting.
The moment a a piece of DM lands on the doormat, it stops being just a marketing communication and becomes a physical object within the recipient’s environment. It is picked up, brought inside and placed somewhere in the home. In behavioural terms, it has crossed an important threshold: it is now something the recipient possesses.
This seemingly small change can have a powerful impact. The work of Thaler and Kahneman suggests that ownership is not merely a practical state; it changes how we think and feel about an object. Once something becomes “ours”, we are more reluctant to part with it and more likely to attribute value to it. This may help explain why direct mail often remains in the home for days rather than hours, creating multiple opportunities for engagement.
Every time that item is moved, noticed or picked up again, it generates another interaction. These repeated interactions matter because familiarity breeds confidence. Behavioural science has consistently shown that the more often we encounter something, the more familiar, credible and trustworthy it becomes. The endowment effect helps create the conditions for those encounters to happen by encouraging people to retain and revisit physical items.
Of course, creativity, targeting and relevance remain essential ingredients of any successful campaign. But it is worth remembering that its continued presence in the house is also doing more than generating visibility!
To find out more about the effectiveness of direct mail, or for advice on your next campaign please get in touch!
