Mailing Services -- Single-Source Advantages
April 2004
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By Erik Cagle
Senior Editor
Today there is a distinct advantage for printers that offer mailing services to their clientele. Someday soon, there will be an extremely distinct disadvantage for those printers who do not offer mailing.
Simply put, mailing capabilities may seem like a value-added, bonus service presently. Two years from now, those companies that have not committed to this discipline will find themselves in an unenviable minority.
"The sad thing is, if you're not in the mailing arena, you're coming on almost too late," states H. Don Landis, vice president of postal affairs for Arandell Corp., Menomonee Falls, WI. "With the rumors we're hearing about what (regulations) might be coming by 2006, printers that aren't mailing today will have to do it to survive. So they have 18 months to get up and running."
Arandell joined the mailing game roughly 18 years ago, when catalogs, annual reports and calendars were its bread and butter products. Landis and his team rolled the dice on the catalog segment taking off and saw the beauty of finishing off jobs by inserting them into the mail stream. Today, Arandell thrives not only as a producer of quality direct mail catalogs, but also thrives on handling every aspect of the direct marketing process for many of the country's top catalogers and retailers. The company generates annual revenues in excess of $250 million.
"Adding mailing certainly drove more new work and customers have taken to the one-stop-shopping mentality," Landis says. "With catalogs, the in-home dates are so critical. Scheduling became more restrictive, and customers then were waiting until the last minute to send in film or address files. Having the mailing services in-house certainly brought more business here, because we could go longer without receiving film or address files.
"Today, it's not only being able to mail—it's a lot more than that. You have to be sophisticated with drop shipping, knowledgeable of all the various postal options that are available and you have to save your customers postage."
The single most important step to joining the mailing ranks, according to Landis, is a printer's full commitment to the initiative—the financial outlay, the ongoing investment in education and willingness to stay abreast of the evolving mailing regulations.
Senior Editor
Today there is a distinct advantage for printers that offer mailing services to their clientele. Someday soon, there will be an extremely distinct disadvantage for those printers who do not offer mailing.
Simply put, mailing capabilities may seem like a value-added, bonus service presently. Two years from now, those companies that have not committed to this discipline will find themselves in an unenviable minority.
| Mailing services has long been a core strength for Arandell Corp., according to H. Don Landis, its vice president of postal affairs. |
Arandell joined the mailing game roughly 18 years ago, when catalogs, annual reports and calendars were its bread and butter products. Landis and his team rolled the dice on the catalog segment taking off and saw the beauty of finishing off jobs by inserting them into the mail stream. Today, Arandell thrives not only as a producer of quality direct mail catalogs, but also thrives on handling every aspect of the direct marketing process for many of the country's top catalogers and retailers. The company generates annual revenues in excess of $250 million.
"Adding mailing certainly drove more new work and customers have taken to the one-stop-shopping mentality," Landis says. "With catalogs, the in-home dates are so critical. Scheduling became more restrictive, and customers then were waiting until the last minute to send in film or address files. Having the mailing services in-house certainly brought more business here, because we could go longer without receiving film or address files.
"Today, it's not only being able to mail—it's a lot more than that. You have to be sophisticated with drop shipping, knowledgeable of all the various postal options that are available and you have to save your customers postage."
The single most important step to joining the mailing ranks, according to Landis, is a printer's full commitment to the initiative—the financial outlay, the ongoing investment in education and willingness to stay abreast of the evolving mailing regulations.
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