Mailing/Fulfillment - Postal Trends

IN A time when cost savings and technological improvements have been encouraging publishers of printed products to turn their focus toward the Web, add one more reason to the mix: postal hikes. With one hike earlier this year and the latest proposed hike of 11.4 percent for periodicals and 8.5 percent for standard mail, circulation directors are rethinking their strategies and bracing for financial decisions that could be made by higher-ups. Evelyn Adenau, circulation director for 115,000-circulation San Francisco, already budgeted for the first raise in U.S. Postal Service (USPS) rates, but admits that she, along with many others, did not see this second

STAMFORD, CT—September 27, 200—As consumers move their media choices to highly customized, one-to-one vehicles such as iPods, satellite radio and TiVO, marketers are challenged in managing multi-channel messaging opportunities. As spam is auto-dumped from personal computers, traditional mail has emerged as the most effective “first touch” in Customer Communications Management (CCM). According to the Cable & Telecommunications Association, 70 percent of consumers today prefer to receive advertisements and promotions via the U.S. Mail. Letters including transactional mail constitute a $36 billion dollar industry in the U.S alone, and the entire global mailing industry—including shipping packages—tops off at $900 billion. “Mailstream marketing is the

The discussion of the increased use of direct mail has been common in recent years, especially as a source of growth for print service providers. This week, we focus on the present state of direct mail cards as tracked by the US Postal Service. The chart (click thumbnail below) shows the change in the weight of items mailed in the US Postal Service through this past March. The line with the upward trend is direct mail presorted post cards; the bottom line is periodicals. This direct mail trend line started to move strongly upward when the economy began its expansion in mid-2003. Periodicals have

RECENT U.S. Postal Service (USPS) announcements suggest trends that could be advantageous to corporate mailers seeking economies of scale via their full-service print/mailing providers. The increasing use of the Internet as a tool to reduce the mail distribution time, postal discounts to drive mail design that will run more efficiently through postal sorting equipment, the broader interest in Intelligent mail by corporate users, as well as more innovative partnerships with the larger scale mailers to save money and improve overall service, are four key mail trend topics. The enhanced use of the Internet by mailers and the USPS is a clear trend in two specific

FOR MANY commercial printers, printing has become just one part of the revenue stream. Mailing and fulfillment services are making up an increasing portion of a printer’s offerings to clients. Because of this fact, many printers are in need of innovative solutions that will allow them to grow in this new area. The following article discusses the various factors printers should consider when entering mail fulfillment. For printers, the main attraction of offering mailing services in addition to standard services is undoubtedly the prospect of increasing profit margins and creating a new and potentially lucrative revenue stream. These services, in turn, provide your customers

MOST OF the printers I have visited over the past several years are already in the fulfillment business with one or more applications. In fact, several applications reviewed were very sophisticated, consisting of both static and dynamic content and requiring considerable data manipulation plus mastery of several shipping methods. Printing companies are very entrepreneurial in finding ways to satisfy customers’ needs with their existing resources. In addition, printers have taken the leadership in the Web-to-print industry, which has provided them experience in establishing shopping carts for their clients. So, getting started in fulfillment may not be an entirely correct title for this

Commercial printers’ interest in “value-added” services that create new revenue streams has stimulated the consideration of mailing and fulfillment equipment. It’s no wonder: direct mail is growing at a time when uses of other forms of mail have been declining. In fact, since the first quarter of the U.S. Postal Service’s 2004 fiscal year, annual volume is up by 11 million pieces. It’s interesting to see how mailing equipment fits into the investment plans of Printing Impressions readers, based on a survey done in March in conjunction with PrintForecast.com. About one in five printers responded that they are interested in this equipment. For plants doing

CHICAGO—RR Donnelley has expanded its North American print logistics operations with the opening of a mail consolidation facility, including distribution management services, in Dallas. The new facility allows Donnelley to better serve direct response marketers, magazine publishers, catalogers and other mailers in the Southwest, according to Dan Scapin, president of RR Donnelley Logistics and Distribution. In other Donnelley news, the printer was awarded a new multi-year, multi-million dollar logistics contract to distribute Parade magazine to 340-plus newspapers nationwide. Among other recent contracts: Donnelley and Thomas Nelson Inc. came to terms on a multi-year extension that sees the printer produce 100 percent of Nelson’s one- and two-color soft cover

WASHINGTON, DC—Commercial printers who thrive on mailing must hope that the Senate and House of Representatives can quickly find common ground in order to send meaningful postal reform to President Bush. Other-wise, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has proposed an 8.5 percent rate increase that would likely take effect next May. Still, it might be too late to head off this most recent postal rise, which comes on the heels of a 5.4 percent increase that took effect in January. The recent USPS request would cost mailers just over 11 percent more to mail a magazine, while package services and special services would see

MAILING HAS been rapidly evolving from being seen as an opportunity for diversification and differentiation to a standard offering of full-service print providers. This is particularly true for shops that have moved into digital printing and variable data marketing services. Variable data and mailing are a natural fit for obvious reasons. For one, the same database that drives the variable content of a direct marketing piece is also used for the mailing information. Controlling both stages of the process gives the printer advantages in terms of on-time delivery of mailed pieces. Being able to apply mailing expertise at the production stages also puts a