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.
Volume 2 Issue 2 in the works
By · CommentsOur second issue of our second year is rounding out nicely, and much of it is devoted to the World Mail & Express Latin America conference in Miami, from which we have just returned. As usual, the Triangle team did an excellent job of programming an event that gave attendees much to discuss and consider. Views of the recession’s impact came from posts from Europe and throughout Latin America. Pranab Shah, VP International of the USPS provided surprising news which we will share in the report. Watch also for articles, to be forthcoming in subsequent issues, highlighting surprising developments in several Caribbean and Latin American Posts, including Guatemala, Trinidad & Tobago, Chile, Argentina and others. We’ll also have some marketing case studies from Mexico. Direct mail campaigns with 40% response rates!
We were able to present to the delegates the work of the Consultative Committee and the UPU on addressing, current and planned, and to invite them all to attend the Global Address Summit at the UPU in Bern on April 23. Look for the program on our site next week. It will be almost finished. In fact, given the interest in participating shown by so many companies, we probably won’t be “final” until we open the conference! Remember, there is no charge to attend.
Finally, closing off today’s blog entry, look for an announcement here of the creation of an Address Interest Group on LinkedIn and the first conference call we will hold to canvas interested parties in a work program to support the health and development of the address data industry. We are seeing an increase in response to our calls for expressions of interest and you are invited to send Editor@Prescottreport.com an email if you wish to particpate in this call, which will occur on March 10 in the mid- to late-afternoon time frame from FEDMA’s offices in Brussels.
Consultative Committee Update-and Hold A Date
By · Comments
Outline of the Global Addressing Summit
Global Addressing Summit being organized by the Consultative Committee of the UPU for April 23. Save The Date.
It is a pleasure for me to report that the Consultative Committee work on the address is proceeding very quickly. At the last Management Committee meeting on December 10 and 11, the Address Working Group brainstormed next steps for the Global Addressing Summit, and began blocking out the program and articulating topics. This is not as easy as one would think, since we have no precedents to guide us.
The work then was delegated to a special committee of volunteers. Through the generosity of Experian and its global conferencing facility, we conducted a 2-hour phone conference with Group Chair Steve Lopez, Experian, and Co-Chair Chris Powell (Royal Mail) in London and the rest of us from Brussels to lots of other places contributed ideas.
Save the date and come to Berne and the UPU on April 23 for the Global Addressing Summit. The Summit will focus on four aspects/subjects surrounding the physical address: the economic benefits of an address and address system, interoperability (think cross-border mail or post-private courier relations), customer perspectives (think costs of redelivery and wasted mail), and standards. We are focusing on private sector and business use of and relationship to the address, and the economic benefits thereof. The committee is now hard at work seeking speakers and papers. Speaker proposals, ideas, commentary may be sent to Editor@PrescottReport.com and we will see they reach the committee. Read More→
US DMA Appears to be reviving International Council
By · CommentsOn Thursday, December 17, the US-DMA held its first International Council teleconference in quite some time. This was the first of six teleconferences scheduled by Mr. Neil O’Keefe, VP Multichannel and Jodie Sangster, SVP Global Development and Educational Services. There were two International Council members on the call, and three DMA staff.
OECD Looks at Consumer Protection for E-consumers
By · CommentsThis week we are in Washington, DC attending an Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conference called Empowering E-Consumers: Strengthening Consumer Protection in the Internet Economy. E-commerce has evolved dramatically since 199, when the OECD issued its first Guidelines for Consumer Proteciton in the Context of Electronic Commerce. Speakers from government, business, civil society, international organizations and academics are exploring how effecitve the guidelines are and what new opportunities, obstacles and risks consumers face in today’s online world. Read More→
Future of the USPS-Join the Discussion-Make a Suggestion
By · CommentsIf you don’t know that the United States Postal Service needs attention and change, then you must live in another country, or only buy digital products on the Internet. So far, both the leadership of the Post and the leadership of Congress have failed to effectively develop an acceptable strategy to re-engineer the institution. The USPS lost $3.8 billion last year, a staggering amount. It would have lost even more if Congress had not relieved it of a $4 billion pension/benefit payment had not been postponed.
Several respected have associations have established a website to assemble relevant information and studies about the problem – and to invite anyone interested to participate. Go sign up and join the discussion at www.PostalJournal.com.
Sponsors are: Association for Postal Commerce, Mailing and Fulfillment Services Association, and the Envelope Manufacturers Association, supported by the DMA and Direct Communications Group. This is NOT a lobbying site. It’s a discussion site and it is very rich in resources.
Editor.
Miller on the Address
By · CommentsInternational direct marketing expert Richard Miller has written a heart-felt and poetic description of the address on Triangle’s Post and Parcel site. It’s a good read. Go Here.
A Typical Day in an Amsterdam Agency
By · CommentsThe charming suburb of Amsterdam called Ouderkerk a/d Amstel (the old church on the Amstel) lies some 15 leisurely minutes by car from Amsterdam’s southern limits. It was founded somewhere in the mists of the past but probably in the 1500’s. It boasts the Amstel River, of course, a marina, several charming bridges, a picturesque “old Dutch” shopping street right out of the back lot of a movie studio, a synagogue and Jewish cemetery from the 17th century, and a small dm agency that has been a success for nearly 48 years, “vanden busken-the dialogue & branding agency”. On a pre-Thanksgiving trip to the Netherlands, I was invited to meet the agency by its founder Pieter van den Busken, and learn a little about the market.
I Have Seen Truth and It Is Astounding
By · CommentsJust today I learned the “truth” about click rates and open rates and the cost of a mail “click” and the cost of a banner “click and I am now proselytizing this truth. Listen to wisdom: “The problem with comparing direct mail costs… to on-line marketing is that a common lexicon for equivalent consumer actions and costs associated with those actions has not been established. Until now. Read More→
