We are about to send out an email to our colleagues who have expressed an interest in our Address Association project. The purpose of this project is to engage postal systems and policy-makers on behalf of the data processing industry and all those companies who depend on healthy postal address databases.   For several years we have been concerned that the postal systems are not creating healthy databases, are not creating accurate change-of-address services, are not promoting good list hygiene to the mailing community.

Accuracy and currency are becoming ever more important as the “postal business” sees a fall-off in huge bulk volumes and the remaining serious and professional direct mail moves to more and more expensive packages. In addition, with the spectacular growth in e-commerce has come a spectacular growth in parcel traffic.  This week in Miami, Pranab Shah, head of the international business of the USPS, disclosed that the volume of outbound  “small packets” has increased from 12 million to 38 million in the 2008-09 period.  That is over 300%! Yes, the dollar is weak and our products are a bargain, and so our mailers should get moving, and selling. And addresses are becoming ever more valuable.

Pranab spoke of his strategy for further growth inbound and outbound, in mail and parcels, and they are exciting and we will report on his strategies in the coming issues of  The Prescott Report. Forward-looking, professional, and disciplined!

But much of what passes for direct mail is not forward-looking, professional or disciplined.  Leaving aside poor copy and silly creative, there is ill-discipline in many companies who either do not know about list hygiene, COA files and dpv processes, or they don’t care.  Over lunch today with a major US consolidator, I heard of a catalog mailer who regularly receives back from overseas as UAA as much as 20% of his catalogs!  He has no idea how many catalogs actually get delivered because he doesn’t capture key codes on orders, ask customers to use customer order numbers, or match orders to mailed-to addresses. In fact, he doesn’t even validate the addresses he collects on his website.

Moreover, there is in most of the world a dirth of readily accessible, timely, and  complete postal addresses and change of address systems.   For many of the countries to which that cataloger mails there are no assets of the sort we are so privileged in the US, Canada, and Western Europe to have for hygiene and updating.   If he’s using a US standard format address to mail a catalog practically anywhere in Latin America he might as well burn his money for heat.

So this is what our proposed Address Association will concern itself with. On the one hand, we will work on behalf of the industry to get the postal systems of the world  onboard to really reduce UAA.  They will do that by providing us the data we need to build the tools mailers can use to keep their data as current and clean as possible.  Moreover, we’ll work to help educate mailers about the fabulous ROI they’ll realize by investing in those tools.  Why, for example, shouldn’t we partner with FEDMA and the DMA to launch a campaign to educate mailers everywhere on the basics of list hygiene?

Interested in hearing what we’ll be doing?  Want to participate?  Send an E-mail to Editor@PrescottReport.com with “Address Association” in the subject line with your name, company name, phone number and email address in the body and we’ll send you a call-in number for the conference call on March 10.  It will be late afternoon Brussels time, from FEDMA’s offices, late morning New York time.