Prospect or Die
Nashville—While prospecting through traditional direct mail channel isn’t getting any easier or cheaper, catalogers have to need to bring in new customers to grow their businesses—everybody knows this. Yet many mailers have pulled back sharply on prospecting.
A panel at the 2010 National Catalog Forum, presented here April 13-15 by the American Catalog Mailers Association, discussed why mailers were not prospecting. The main reason is the poor economy, but most catalogers are also dealing with fewer pages, fewer contacts, and changes in paper to keep costs down.
Still, bringing in new customers is critical to the health of a catalog business. “Through attrition, we could be left with nothing if we didn’t prospect,” said panelist Susan Isley, chief marketing officer for Stony Creek Brands, which includes the Cooking Enthusiast and Uno Alla Volta titles. Many catalogers indicated they start with a prospecting plan, but routinely have to make mid-season adjustments.
Multichannel Merchant
By Jim Tierney
Five-Day Mail Delivery
With first-class mail slowly eroding away, the time is now to implement five-day delivery, according to Sam Pulcrano, vice president of sustainability for the U.S. Postal Service. “The dilemma we have is it’s growing and growing exponentially,” Pulcrano said during a March 29 conference call. “We really can’t do anything without legislative changes.”
The Postal Service has seen its mail volume fall 20% since 2006, and it’s expected to drop another 20 billion pieces in the next 10 years. First-class mail is expected to fall by 30 billion pieces, while modest growth is anticipated for advertising mail. The USPS plans to file a request for an advisory opinion on the five-day mail delivery proposal with the Postal Regulatory Commission today. “We need to act as quickly as possible—we cannot afford to wait,” Pulcrano said. “The sooner we can get some relief will have some significant impact as to where we end up in that 10-year plan.” To put things in revenue perspective, Pulcrano said three pieces of Standard Mail are needed to make up for one of piece of first-class mail. According to the proposed five-day mail delivery proposal, letter carriers would stop delivering mail to U.S. homes and businesses and picking up mail from blue collection boxes on Saturdays. But post offices would stay open on Saturdays, and mail would be delivered to post office boxes.
Express mail services also would continue seven days a week. The delivery cuts would save the Postal Service $3.1 billion in the first year, and as much as $5.2 billion by 2020. So with five-day delivery, there would be six days of service and seven days of network processing and transportation, Pulcrano said. He pointed to recent surveys that, generally speaking, show that about two-thirds of Americans support five-day mail delivery.
Multichannel Merchant
By Jim Tierney
Catalogers planning their 2010 budgets received a big boost of good news Thursday as Postmaster General John E. Potter declared there would be no increase in prices for "market dominant products" during calendar year 2010.
Potter's announcement came via a Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) advisory. "Many of you have expressed concerns regarding mailing costs for 2010," he said. "The tough economic climate has presented significant challenges to all of us and pessimistic speculation has suggested that postal prices could increase by as much as 10%."
"As we begin a new fiscal year and as many of you, our business clients, are preparing your 2010 operating budgets, we want to end all speculation. The Postal Service will not increase prices for market dominant products in calendar year 2010."
Market dominant products include First-Class Mail, Standard Mail, periodicals, and single-piece Parcel Post. "There will be no exigent price increase for these products," Potter said in the advisory. "This is the right decision at the right time for the right reason. Promoting the value of mail and encouraging its continued use is essential for jobs, the economy, and the future of both the Postal Service and the mailing industry."
While increasing prices might have generated revenue for the Postal Service in the short term, Potter noted that the long-term effect could stand to drive more mail out of the system. "We want mailers to continue to invest in mail to grow their business, communicate with valued customers, and maintain a strong presence in the marketplace."
Multichannel Merchant
By Jim Tierney
So why does the catalog, which helped Richard Sears launch his eponymous retail empire more than a century ago, continue to thrive in the electronic age? Because glossy catalog pages still entice buyers in a way that computer images don't. Catalogs, marketers say, drive sales at Web sites, making them more important than ever.
Among retailers who rely mainly on direct sales, 62% say their biggest revenue generator is a paper catalog, according to the latest survey by the Direct Marketing Association of its members. Only a fifth of those retailers said they draw their biggest sales from their Web sites.
That is why virtually no one expects the mail-order catalog to go away -- even though only 1.3% of those catalogs generated a sale, the survey found. The average U.S. catalog retailer reported mailing about 21 million catalogs in 2007, sending out a new edition every 26 days.
The Wall Street Journal
By Jeffrey Ball
The U.S. Postal Service has launched an internal study to examine the feasibility of eliminating Saturday mail delivery nationwide.
How do consumers feel about this? A Gallop poll conducted two weeks ago found that 66% of U.S. consumers were in favor of reducing the number of mail delivery days from six to five as a way to help fix the Postal Service’s budget.
Multichannel Merchant
By Jim Tierney
Pixels vs. Paper
* Paper comes from a renewable resource - Trees.
* Every day the paper and forest products industry plants more than three times the number of trees than are harvested -- paper is truly renewable and sustainable.
* Electronic devices are typically made of plastics and other non-renewable resources and often contain chemicals and metals.
* Paper vs. Computers - Compare energy consumption.
* The amount of electricity to run a computer for only five months could produce enough paper for the average person to use for an entire year.
* Paper is biodegradable and recyclable. Are computers?
* Paper is biodegradable and nearly 60 percent of all paper in the U.S. is recycled.
* Only 18 percent of all electronic devices are currently recycled and E-waste constitutes the single largest waste export in the U.S.
International Paper
Kathleen Bark, Rick Ouellette
The catalog industry is broken as a result of huge postage rate increases, according to Robert Bernstock, president of shipping and mailing services for the U.S. Postal Service.
The good news is that the USPS wants to help the catalog industry anyway it can.
Multichannel Merchant
By Jim Tierney
Win free paper! 500 tons of free paper from NewPage.
The USPS has demonstrated their willingness to be proactive and to take advantage of flexible pricing through the recently proposed "Summer Sale". This sale will provide postal rebates of as much as 30% for many mailers. As a marketing community we now need to support this effort by sending a fax to PRC Chairman Blair asking the PRC to expeditiously endorse this program, allowing us to move forward and take full advantage of the benefits throughout the coming summer months. The sooner the PRC acts, the sooner the marketing community can begin to stimulate our portion of the economy through a much needed stimulus in retail sales and USPS revenues, all without an infusion of U.S. tax dollars.
To ensure that the PRC approves the USPS request for a "Summer Sale" in a timely manner we are asking that you fax a signed copy of one of the attached letters prior to close of business on May 21 to the Postal Regulatory Commissioners and the Secretary of the Commission. Those of you, who joined DMA in Washington D.C. on April 16, heard clearly that communication officially entered into the public record is relied on heavily by the PRC when they are weighing a decision.
The fax number for the Commissioners is 202-789-6883
The fax number for the Secretary of the Commission is 202-789-6886
DMA has provided three sample letters available online so that everyone whose business is impacted by the mail can participate. The first letter is for a company that plans to participate in the summer sale. The second is for supplier partners to mailers. The third letter is for mailers who cannot participate in this year's sale, but hope to participate in future sales to increase mail volume during slow times.
Click Here to View the Sample Letters Now.
It is extremely important to participate in this process in some way. The USPS has made it clear that if this test succeeds in creating incremental volume that they will encourage this type of pricing strategy in the future as well.
Please fax your letters as soon as time allows and no later than May 21. Encourage your entire staff to participate in this effort and forward a copy of this letter to all of your peers and partners in the direct marketing community. If you or your company has a newsletter or blog, I would also encourage you to add this information to it as soon as possible. This is a significant opportunity during challenging times for the mailing community. Customize these letters as much as you like, but insist that the letter is included in the public record for Docket No. R2009-3.
Thank you in advance for all of your efforts!
Sincerely,
Neil O'Keefe
Vice President
Catalog and Multichannel Segments
Direct Marketing Association
Postal Service Continues Aggressive Steps to Cut Costs
Closing administrative offices, eliminating positions, offering early retirements
With no signs of economic recovery in sight, the U.S. Postal Service is taking bold actions in response to its ongoing financial crisis. Today the Postal Service announced it would be closing six of its 80 district offices, eliminating positions across the country and offering another early retirement opportunity. These actions are expected to save the Postal Service more than $100 million annually.
Media Contact: Sue Brennan
United States Postal Service
Catalogs America announced today the completion of installation of variable trim technology for it's Inline Comail Platform. The new technology, for which the company will be a beta site for the manufacturer, allows cataloggers of various horizontal trim dimensions to combine titles in a single mail stream. "This will result in deeper pools and more flexible planning and scheduling for our clients" said Eddie Owens, Vice President of Manufacturing. "It also demonstrates our continued committment to reducing postal costs for our client base in a difficult economy for catalogers." Catalogs America serves the production and distribution needs of both consumer and B2B catalogers from it's facilities in Gordonsville.
Orange County Review
Orange, Virginia
See more on this story...Experts consider that no proofing may, down the road, be more time efficient than virtual proofing. With G7, press operators get better bang for their buck, with more control on gray balance and neutral tonality (lightness, darkness and contrast), as opposed to traditional print-to-number methods that focus on ink density and TVI (dot gain) on a prescribed paper stock. “The G7 method of certification makes printing to numbers more precise,” says Barry Long, digital systems coordinator at American Press. Over time, G7 can benefit printers with closed-loop color...
Folio
www.foliomag.com
Vanessa Voltolina
See more on this story...In a comparison of all of the respondents, the most telling juxtaposition is profitability, which slips even among the services that are most commonly offered. While seven companies offer asset management, only three are profitable. “Digital asset management has not been, to my knowledge, viable in our part of the market, which is serving the small-to-mid-size publisher producing one or two medium-to-long run magazines,” says Barry Long, digital services coordinator at American Press. “Asset management seems to make sense for larger organizations, and only when they maintain the process internally, not outsourcing.”
Folio
www.foliomag.com
Tony Silber
See more on this story...Virtual proofing seems to be the topic du jour, and the general direction in which the industry is heading. The technology enables publishers to view proofs digitally via a monitor from a remote location, instead of at the printing press or relying on a set of physical proofs.
American Press LLC, a printer based in Gordonsville, Virginia, does virtual proofing using Kodak software. About 90 percent of its clients use the technology in some form or other, says Barry Long, digital systems coordinator for the printer. "Every client uses it in different ways," he says. "About half our clients use it only for file transfer, in lieu of FTP. It's a very flexible system, and you can pick and choose which features to use according to your needs. About 10 percent use it to its full extent; the rest fall somewhere in between."
Folio
www.foliomag.com
Jill Ambroz
