USPS Seeking Info On Direct Mail & Technology Integration
From the Federal Business Opportunities website:
Ideally, the USPS would like to ground itself as a thought leader in best practices of integrating emerging technologies with mail.
The USPS is requesting capability information, from those in the technology industry as well as the mailing industry, on any service offerings (both front end and back end) that allow consumers to interact and be engaged with their direct mail as a result of a technology component – a service that will help “blur” the lines of offline and online and further entrench direct mail as a valuable and impactful medium for all businesses both small and large. Read more
The UPS Store and USPS Team Up to Provide Small Businesses With New Direct Mail Program
Retail Outlets Offering Affordable Direct Mail Program from Print to Distribution
San Diego, September 22, 2011 – The UPS Store ® (NYSE: UPS) and the U.S. Postal Service ® are working together to provide small businesses with a new, cost-effective direct mail program.
By identifying geographic areas by city, neighborhood or a specified distance from their businesses, the U.S. Postal Service’s Every Door Direct Mail-Retail (EDDM Retail or EDDM-R) service allows small businesses to advertise to every delivery address in their target markets without the need for a mailing list. Read more
USPS: Dancin In The Streets -Every Door Direct Mail Is A Hit
The Postal Service’s promotion of “Every Door Direct Mail” (EDDM) is producing results. Since its introduction, USPS has closed millions in annualized sales with hundreds of customers who are using the product to promote their goods and services.
EDDM — a form of Simplified Addressing used by the Postal Service for years — allows business mailers to use mail delivery route information, instead of names and exact addresses, to reach target customer groups in urban areas. It has long been an accepted addressing option on rural routes and for government mailings.
With EDDM, businesses can send advertising mail without acquiring an address list or printing addresses on each mailpiece. Instead, letter carriers deliver EDDM along with the day’s mail to every address on routes customers want to reach.
Retailers and service-based businesses who want to expand their customer base locally, regionally or across the country are using the service. From a restaurant owner in Plaistow, NH, to a community hospital in Bisbee, AZ, businesses are committing significant portions of their advertising and marketing budgets to try the product. “We’re not a mail house,” said the owner of a San Diego, CA, real estate firm. “Simplified mailing helps us get the marketing out quickly and doesn’t require third-party services.”
Paul Vogel, president and chief Sales/Marketing officer, agrees EDDM is a winner for businesses, adding it’s a good way for them to get involved in advertising mail — bringing new customers to their doors and more revenue to USPS. “Simplified addressing will serve as the on-ramp for many small businesses trying to reach their audiences within a specific geographic range,” he said. “It will allow them for the first time to take advantage of the most effective marketing channel there is — direct mail.”
In the coming weeks, Link will run a series of stories featuring companies that have purchased EDDM services from the Postal Service.
source: USPS News Link
USPS To Test Postage-Back Guarantee For Top Advertisers Direct Mail Campaigns
USPS filed on Friday a notice to the Postal Regulatory Commission to test market “Mail Works Guarantee”.
Her are excerpts from the notice:
The United States Postal Service hereby gives notice that it intends to conduct a test of an experimental market-dominant product. The experimental product is the “Mail Works Guarantee.” The top advertisers in America represent $90 Billion in total expenditures for media advertising. The USPS share is currently 3.1% or about $3 Billion annually which represents a huge revenue potential for the Postal Service. Thus, this new product will be offered to a group of companies who spend a minimum of $250 Million annually on advertising as identified by Advertising Age magazine and for whom mail is not currently a large part of their advertising mix (postage is less than 0.36 percent of the company’s total spending on advertising). These companies will be offered a postage-back guarantee to test advertisements for their products through First-Class Mail and Standard Mail. The market test will begin on or shortly after May 16, 2011.
Description of Nature and Scope of Experimental Product Proposal
During the Mail Works Guarantee market test, 16 initial companies will be offered a postage-back guarantee to test the effectiveness of advertisements for their products using First-Class Mail and Standard Mail.
For each selected mailer, a set of unique metrics will be developed jointly with the Postal Service against which to evaluate the performance of a test Direct Mail campaign. For example, a retail company’s Direct Mail offer could be designed to increase store traffic, an e-commerce company’s offer could be designed to drive Web traffic, or a product goods company’s offer could be designed to promote increasing sales of a specific product. The threshold for determining success will be an agreed-upon percentage of increase in the uniquely established metric. Each participating mailer will be expected to mail a minimum of 500,000 pieces up to a maximum of 1 million pieces of First-Class Mail or Standard Mail. The Postal Service will provide assistance in developing the Direct Mail campaigns during the market test, as well as in the benchmarking and measuring the test metric.
If the Direct Mail campaign fails to meet the established metrics, as verified by a Postal Service representative, the Postal Service would only refund the postage paid during the market test, up to a total of $250,000, issued as a credit to the company’s Centralized Account Payment System account. Production and printing costs for the Direct Mail campaign would not be refundable.
Unlikely Market Disruption The Mail Works Guarantee is intended to generate additional volume from potential customers who do not currently use the mail. The new product will not affect current marketing-mail customers, and non-mail options for advertising also will remain competitive. Because users of the Mail Works Guarantee whose campaigns are successful will pay list prices for current products, the new product is unlikely to cause disruption within the advertising-mail market as these new advertisers will be facing the same terms as existing advertisers. Refunds of postage paid will only be made if a campaign is unsuccessful, in which case, current users of the mail will not have been
harmed.Depending on the results of the test, the Postal Service may file a request with the Commission for approval to offer the Mail Works Guarantee to additional companies under the market test.
USPS Drops Policy On Direct Marketing Co-Branded Products and Services to Postal Employees?
Filed under: postal, postal employees, postal news, privacy, usps
The policy covered all Postal Service-sponsored direct mail marketing pieces that communicate a co-branded offer by direct mail using the employee mailing list and via other internal employee communications vehicles. “The employee mailing list is derived from the Postal Service employee master file, which is the complete home address database of all career and non-career, full and part-time employees. The direct mail piece must be co-branded. Mailings may only use the Postal Service brand identity or Postal Service brand, or be co-branded, as expressly provided for in the agreement between the Postal Service and the business firm, and as approved by the manager of Brand Equity and Design.”
USPS recently announced:
“Effective immediately, Management Instruction AS-333-2004-7, Direct Marketing and Co-Branded Products and Services to Employees, is obsolete.”
This “Strategic Business Initiatives Plan, Management Instruction – AS-333-2004-7″ was at the center of a lawsuit filed in 2007 by a 10-year employee in Seattle, Washington. Over 100 Postal Employees had “opted-in” to join the complaint by claiming their rights under the Privacy Act were violated. Many of the Postal Employees were unaware the Management Instruction existed or Postal Employees could “opt-out” of the initiative. The class action lawsuit was dismissed by a District Court judge in late 2009.
The lawsuit accused USPS of selling the personal information of its workers to credit card and other companies without consent:
Postal Employees claimed that USPS violated the Privacy Act by selling its employee master file, containing personal, private employee information, including “the complete home address database of all career and non-career, full and part-time employees.
According to lawsuit, the Postal Service’s disclosure of information is evidenced by the Postal Service’s “Strategic Business Initiatives Plan, Management Instruction – AS-333-2004-7,” a postal regulation that allows private corporations to submit competitive bids for co-branding and other types of marketing agreements using the employee master file. Postal Employees complained that all of this is done without the Postal Service employee’s approval, consent, or knowledge. They also argued that the Postal Service received more than $8.5 million in profit by selling its employee master file.
The Postal Service admitted that it engaged in direct marketing of co-branded products and services to its employees but their actions does not violate the Privacy Act. The Postal Service argued in part the lawsuit should be dismissed because (1) it is an improper challenge to a Postal Service regulation, i.e., the “Strategic Business Initiatives Plan, Management Instruction – AS-333-2004-7,” ; (2) it arises out of Postal Employees’ employment relationship with the Postal Service; and (3) there is no clearly defined independent cause of action for unjust enrichment under federal common law.
The court finds Plaintiffs’ attempt to circumvent the prohibition against challenging a Postal Service regulation by contending that they are not challenging the regulation itself, but the profits received from enacting the regulation, to amount to a distinction without a difference. The core of Plaintiffs’ claim against the Postal Services is its enactment and implementation of the Management Instruction. Accordingly, the court concludes that Plaintiffs’ claim of unjust enrichment is a direct challenge to the Postal Service’s Management Instruction – the regulation granting it authority to enter into the co-branding agreements – and therefore there is no waiver of the Postal Service’s sovereign immunity for this remaining claim. Accordingly, the court concludes that it does not have jurisdiction to adjudicate Plaintiffs’ unjust enrichment claim based on a Postal Service regulation.
For the reasons stated GRANTS the Postal Service’s motion to dismiss (Dkt. # 55). The court DISMISSES Plaintiffs’ complaint against the Postal Service
USPS Revamps ‘How-To’ Direct Mail Website
delivermagazine.com Now Includes More Content and Smart Phone Interface
U.S. Postal Service Revamps ‘How-To’ Direct Mail Website
delivermagazine.com Now Includes More Content and Smart Phone Interface
WASHINGTON — Embracing electronic technology to promote the use of direct mail, the U.S. Postal Service recently revamped the companion website to Deliver, its magazine for marketers. The new “how-to” website, delivermagazine.com, offers all the direct mail and multichannel marketing strategy of Deliver — and much more — including for the first time, a smart phone interface.
delivermagazine.com provides direct marketers and agency professionals from businesses of all sizes with scores of articles, case studies, white papers and online marketing tools to help them grow their businesses through acquisition, retention and brand-building.
“We redesigned the website with more content and a new look, and made it easier for direct marketers to find just what they need,” said Paul Vogel, president, Mailing and Shipping Services. “delivermagazine.com is a great place for direct marketers to gather and share success stories, and with the smart phone option, these busy professionals can keep tabs on the hottest direct mail and multichannel news.”
With approximately 7,000 visitors a month, delivermagazine.com features the latest research, news and commentary for the direct marketing industry. Article topics include brand marketing, prospecting and green marketing, among other direct marketing strategies.
The site also includes an array of online marketing tools, including a “Direct Marketing 101” series that teaches the basics of an effective marketing strategy, helping marketers make smart use of their resources, according to Vogel. A “Resource Wizard” helps users search for articles based on business size and marketing needs and includes information on “Using the Intelligent Mail Barcode.”
To learn more about mail marketing strategies from the Postal Service, visit delivermagazine.com.
The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
European Company Mails Fake Bags Of Blood In Its Direct Mail Campaign
A European company mails bags of fake blood to prospective clients to emphasize its unrelenting work ethic.
Some marketing agencies promise to give blood,sweat and tears to clients. But Touch Branding has been intent on backing up that claim with a branding effort — including an edgy mail campaign — built around a bold message: “We’ll give our blood for good branding.”
The Prague-based marketing firm has pushed the idea in dramatic fashion, mailing real blood bags filled with fake blood to potential clients throughout the region around the European metropolis.
Touch Branding creative director Martin Marušinec says the primary goal of the campaign, which launched in 2008 and continues today, is to introduce the firm as a branding agency to the creative directors of ad agencies in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The mailer includes a letter with a short introduction to the company and a link to its website, which resembles a blood bag.Touch procured the authentic blood bags from a company that had a surplus of bags that were past their expiration dates. The fake blood was created from a recipe that company executives found online.
“It was fully produced in-house,with the cost of around $1 per piece,”Marušinec says.
Marušinec says the promotion was devised as a mailer because the company was confident the piece would leave a lasting impact. “We felt that direct mail would work the best because once they unpacked the blood bags, there was no way they wouldn’t pay attention to the message we wanted to deliver,” he says.
The promotion’s positive response confirms that the campaign did just that. Marušinec says the agency has landed several medium- and large-scale branding projects through the targeted ad agencies. The campaign has also won several awards and received positive media attention worldwide, a bonus that Marušinec says gives his firm a long-term advantage over the competition.
Direct Marketing Association Strongly Opposes USPS Request for Rate Increase
Press Release from the Direct Marketing Association Inc.:
Washington, DC, July 6, 2010 — The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) strongly opposes the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) request for a rate increase. In its presentation today to business mail customers, USPS said that mail volume declined by 36 billion pieces (or 17 percent) between 2007 and 2009. DMA strongly believes that a postal rate increase at this time will cause mail volumes to decrease even further, and irreparably harm the financial viability of the Postal Service going forward.
“We question the need for a rate increase at this time, and strongly believe that it will further damage the economic viability of the Postal Service,” said Linda Woolley, DMA’s executive vice president for government affairs. “The increase is not in the public interest, and ultimately, would have a devastating effect on any economic recovery since marketers rely heavily on mail to deliver offers, as well as products, to customers.”
The Postal Service’s rate increase request proposes to raise rates an average of 5.6 percent, but in order to reach that average, the increase on some mailers will be dramatically higher. The proposed increase for small parcels, for example, is 23.3 percent, something that would be devastating to many companies. A rate increase would force business mailers to look for alternative methods of communications.
These increases will hasten efforts by mailers to shift to other channels of communications.
DMA strongly questions the assumptions underlying the Postal Service’s request for a rate increase, namely that it will generate some $2.3 billion in new revenue over a 9 month period. In the period following the last rate increase in May 11, 2009, in the next year, mail volume decreased by an additional 5 percent (above the previous 13 percent) and DMA strongly believes that this new increase would have the same, if not a more dramatic, effect, and drive away even more business mail, which accounts for some 85 percent of the Postal Service’s revenue.
DMA strongly supports a vibrant and fiscally sound Postal Service, and believes that there are many ways for the Postal Service to get its financial-house in order without an increase in postal rates. On many occasions, the Postmaster General has said that there is excess capacity in the system, and that there may be opportunities to downsize the system and the labor force. In addition, there are new product lines and business opportunities that the Postal Service can and should pursue, most of which were outlined in the Postal Service’s 21st Century presentation on March 2, 2010.
The Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) has 90 days to review the USPS rate increase request. DMA will strongly oppose the request at the PRC, and make its views known before Congress.
USPS Responds to Questions On Proposed Direct Mail Solution Initiative
The USPS is conducting market information research to identify interested organizations with the capability to partner with the USPS to develop; host; and market a go-to-market strategy. Yesterday via FedBizOPP USPS posted answers to questions posed by possible partners. See details of the solicitation and the Questions and Answers Questions with USPS Responses.doc
Q 1: How does the USPS envision this new initiative to differ from what is currently offered from Amazing Mail and Click2Mail?
R 1: No such assessments have been made. The purpose of this RFI is to get information for market research and planning purposes. The USPS’ goal is to provide access to a full portfolio of nationwide services and solutions that continue to add value to the mail process and reach as many customers as possible.
Q 2: What has the USPS learned from those endeavors?
R 2: The Postal Service considers the information requested to be proprietary and confidential.
Q 3: Will the USPS look to increase the number of partners, and if so, how many additional partners will be chosen?
R 3: See Response 1.
Q 4: Section 1.4 mentions a “revenue share arrangements” – does the current contract with Amazing Mail and Click 2 Mail have a revenue share agreement? If so, what is the basis for the revenue share – postage, Production mark-up?
R 4: This information is considered proprietary and confidential. As referenced in section 1.4 of the RFI, we are seeking industry input on potential business models and revenue share arrangements.
Q 5: How many orders a day does the USPS link to AmazingMail and Click2Mail generate?
R 5: This information is considered proprietary and confidential.
Q 6: Is the USPS allowed to develop competing products and services that are already being provided by companies in the private sector, when such competition potentially could bring economic harm to some of the USPS’s own best customers?
R 6: The Postal Service believes that it has the authority to promote and increase the use of direct mail by small and medium sized enterprises, to the benefit the overall mailing industry. The Postal Service’s goal is to provide services that continue to add value to the mail process and reach as many customers as possible with solutions that can be offered nationwide.
Q 7: In response to the statement: “Allowing the user to create a direct mail order and navigate other elements on the site without the need of having a login account.” Why does the USPS feel this requirement is a necessity?
R 7: Based on USPS research, customers have indicated that the creation of mail is a cumbersome and extensive process. Our goal is to make the creation of mail as user friendly and easy to use as possible before log-in is required. Read more
USPS to Test Direct-Mail Product Sampling
Postal-Branded Co-op Effort Designed to Share Marketers’ Costs, Drive Mail Revenue
WASHINGTON, April 9 – Eighty-one percent of consumers will buy a product after they receive a free sample, and most prefer to sample products at home, according to the Opinion Research Corp. This is the idea behind the marketing strategy of a samples co-op box that the U.S. Postal Service plans to market test early next month.
The “Samples Showcase,” to be distributed nationally on a limited basis as well as in larger quantities to consumers in Charlotte, NC, and Pittsburgh, is a box of assorted beauty, health and snack food items from multiple consumer packaged goods companies. The boxes will be branded with the Postal Service logo and include the tagline, “A selection of free product samples.”
Another strategy behind the pilot test is making sure that direct mail is the sampling method of choice. The co-op box concept, which allows candy bars to be marketed with skin lotions, for example, is expected to make direct mail sampling more attractive because it allows multiple manufacturers to share in the marketing and postage costs of the program.
“Consumer packaged goods companies are always looking for new ways to build brand awareness for their products,” said Robert F. Bernstock, president, Mailing and Shipping Services. “One method they often turn to is providing trial-size samples to consumers. A large and growing industry, product sampling offers the Postal Service the potential for millions of dollars of added revenue.”
The Postal Service will conduct research to determine the cost-effectiveness of the program and the value it provides to manufacturers and consumers.
“Mail is the only medium that really enables marketers to do this,” said Bernstock. “It provides access to people’s homes, and it can be tracked to determine if the samples actually convert to sales.”
Earlier this month, Postmaster General John E. Potter outlined an aggressive plan of action that included cost cutting, increased productivity, and an array of legislative and regulatory changes necessary to maintain a viable Postal Service for decades to come. Potter also indicated the Postal Service will avail itself of opportunities under current law to increase revenue and enhance customer service.
source: U.S. Postal Service