Figures from the Federal Reserve show that “the number of checks paid in the United States has fallen from 42 billion in 2001, to 37 billion in 2003, and to 30 billion in 2006.”

Whoops. That’s 12 billion checks that vanished in just five years. You can bet that the trend continues and that future reports will show even fewer paper-based checks in 2008 and beyond.

Why is this a mailstream matter? Why are postal jobs at stake? Should the Postal Service be concerned?

In many cases the reduction in check volume reflects the increased use of electronic deposits. If this means that a foreman no longer goes around the plant floor on a Friday giving out envelopes then we do not have a postal issue in the sense of deliveries and such.

But many checks are sent through the mails. It’s difficult to imagine that we have 12 billion fewer checks and no mail volume reduction. Okay, it’s impossible to imagine.

The Postal Service and the mailer community cannot undo either progress or technology. But the question ought to be asked: If the volume represented by checks — those checks that really are in the mail — is being reduced, then what new volume is being created?

This is the essential issue for the mailer community. As postal volume declines and fixed expenses largely remain, increased hard costs per piece must be absorbed by remaining users. As prices per piece rise the incentive to avoid the postal system grows.

What to do? The Postal Service needs to demonstrate why paper-based communication and exchange have value in the electronic era. There’s a good argument to be made — if only someone would make it.

Technorati Tags: checks, mail, Mail & Jobs, mailstream, postal, volume

Given that mail is used by virtually all environmental, consumer and nonprofit groups, it should be fairly obvious that mail has a minimal environmental impact. That said, no product or service is without impact, so it makes sense to ask two questions: How does mail relate to green concerns and how can the environmental impact of mail be reduced?

Pitney Bowes has now comes out with an interesting discussion of such issues. Entitled The Environmental Impact of Mail: A Baseline, the 30-page report looks at such matters as CO2 emissions, carbon footprints, forest acreage, landfill use and related topics.

One item that struck me as interesting was CO2 generation. The U.S. annually produces 20.1 tons of C02 per person. How much of that is from the production and distribution of mail?

To get the answer we first need to convert tons into grams: For instance, according to the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility there are 909,091 grams of lead in a one ton, so 20.1 tons would equal 18,272,729.1 grams.

We can then look at mail. As the Pitney Bowes study explains:

“The USPS delivers about 515 letters per capita per year. Using a general estimate of 25 grams of CO2 per letter generated within the postal value chain and the worst case scenario of 50 grams of CO2 per letter, the distribution of these letters generates 13 – 26 kg of CO2 per capita.”

Let’s see, in one kilogram there are 1,000 grams, so 13 to 26 kilograms would equal 13,000 to 26,000 kilograms.

The sum of 26,000 goes into 18,272,729.1 a total of 702.797 times.

Seen the other way, 26,000 equals 0.001422 of 18,272,729.1.

The idea of the Pitney Bowes study is not that mail is without environmental impact, but rather that mail has a minimal green cost; efforts should be made to reduce such impact as mail has even further; and that all products and services — including email — have an environmental cost.

No less important, environmental costs must be balanced against the benefits produced by a given product or service.

No product or service has a zero impact and mail represents some 8,300,000 jobs nationwide. Given the minimal environmental cost of mail does it make sense to lose jobs in every neighborhood and community and to close local post offices in the quest for environmental perfection — something which can never be achieved?

Responsible environmental groups all have the same answer: They mail.

A copy of the study is available by pressing here.

Technorati Tags: benefits, CO2, costs, environment, grams, green, mail, tons

According to the paper each individual will receive 560 pieces of ad mail each year; 10.8 pieces per week; and it notes that 42 percent of all pulpwood is made into paper,

Let’s see, mail is generally delivered six days a week and there are 52 weeks a year so that means there are 312 delivery days annually. Less federal holidays, maybe 300 delivery days a year. So, if 560 pieces of mail are delivered each year and there are 300 delivery days that means each day results in less than two pieces of ad mail per person.

This hardly sounds like a crisis.

As to the 10.8 pieces of ad mail per week, just how remarkable is it given that there are six delivery days in a typical week? Still less than two per day.

Then we see that 42 percent of all pulpwood is made into paper. Notice that pulpwood is made into “paper” and not just mail. So, for example, according to the EPA in 2006 there were 44,840,000 tons of paper and paperboard products produced — of which 12,360,000 tons were used to make newspapers and 5,890,000 tons were used to create advertising mail. (See: 2006 MSW Characterization Data Tables, EPA, table 4)

Here are some interesting facts the Winston-Salem Journal left out:

Newspapers compete with the mailstream for advertising dollars. As the Washington Post has explained, “magazines and newspapers have been at war with advertising mailers for a long time — ever since the mailers began siphoning ad dollars away from publications. Indeed, newspaper editorialists invented the term ‘junk mail’ in the early 1950s, according to Richard Kielbowicz, an associate professor of communications at the University of Washington, Seattle, and an expert on postal rate issues.” (See: The Junk Mail Plague: You Can Run But You Can’t Hide,” April 22, 1991.)

If the Journal wants to tell the whole story, it should plainly inform readers that it competes with mailers. It should say that the term “junk mail” is a slur developed by the newspaper community to disparage a commercial rival. It should note that newspapers, like advertising mail, are made from paper but that a significant percentage of both products are made from recycled materials.

The Journal should explain to readers that advertisers can market their goods and services through a variety of media. Advertisers, being lucid and logical, will not use media that does not produce results.

The use of ad mail has proven to be effective and efficient for many advertisers. If that were not the case, surely advertisers would take their dollars elsewhere.

And ad mail has value: The mailstream anchors 8,300,000 jobs nationwide and the production of goods and services worth $1.2 trillion annually. Is the economy so strong that we can do away with so many jobs inside our borders?

The Journal can do better than this. It needs to update its style manual to purge the term “junk mail” from its pages — or it needs to explain to readers how the term came about each and every time it is used.

Technorati Tags: advertising, mail, newspapers

“The recent increase in the cost of a first-class postage stamp from 41 cents to 42 cents was hardly surprising, compared to the increased in the cost of gasoline, food and just about everything else,” said the paper.

“It could have easily been avoided, however. All the U.S. Postal Service needs to do to drastically cut expenses and the necessity for several future postal-rate increases is one simple thing: Eliminate Saturday delivery.”

And why should Saturday deliveries be curtailed?

“Just think of the amount of fuel that would not be burned if mail were not delivered on Saturdays,” said the paper.

“Most people,” continued the Observer-Reporter, “communicate with friends and family by e-mail now. Many receive and pay bills online. Most of what arrives in the mailbox these days is just junk mail, anyway.”

The thought that the Postal Service could cut costs by ending Saturday deliveries is no different than suggesting that hospital expenses could be reduced if only the emergency room was shut down on weekends.

The Postal Service has a high percentage of fixed costs — all those people, vehicles and local post offices. If local post offices are closed on Saturdays it means there is less volume to support the system but many of the fixed costs remain in place — you still need a given number of people, vehicles and facilities to reach almost 150 million physical addresses.

The Observer-Reporter says “most of what arrives in the mailbox these days is just junk mail, anyway.” In other words, advertising mail.

How is paper-based advertising sent through the mailstream any different than paper-based advertising delivered by the Observer-Reporter? Would the Observer-Reporter agree that it could cut its costs and save paper if only it would not carry advertising inserts one day a week? Think of all the fuel used by delivery trucks that could be saved if the Observer-Reporter published less often. Would not such economies please owners and shareholders?

A lot of newspapers and magazines go through the mailstream. In fiscal 2007, according to the Postal Service, 8.8 billion newspapers and magazines were delivered by mail.

Many communication companies that publish newspapers also have subsidiaries to market through the mailstream. Indeed, many newspapers offer “Total Market Coverage” plans that include postal deliveries. Surely it would not be good for TMC programs if the local post office was shut down on Saturdays.

Some TMC programs are huge. The Newspaper Association of America says that 3,520,000 million piece per week are delivered in Los Angeles, 2,385,371 in Chicago and 570,000 in Miami.

If advertising through the mailstream is not effective or productive, does it not make sense that advertisers would go elsewhere? Should not the marketplace decide such issues? In fact, according to Robert Coen, senior vice president, director of forecasting with Universal McCann, the huge advertising agency, advertisers in the world, advertisers now spend more marketing through the mailstream than through newspapers.

In the December 2007 issue of his “Insider’s Report,” Coen said that advertisers spent $60.998 billion with mail marketing in 2007 versus $42.94 billion with newspapers.

Although the Observer-Reporter is surely concerned by 42 cent stamps it somehow fails to mention the rates paid by newspapers — 13.6 to 16.8 cents per piece, according to the Newspaper Association of America.

The fact is that the U.S. marketplace is vast and all forms of advertising should be welcomed and encouraged because they stimulate sales and create jobs. That’s good for the economy, good for local communities and good for readers in Washington, PA.

Technorati Tags: close, Coen, mail, newspapers, post offices, Saturdays, TMC, Total Market Coverage

No kidding, this was an envelope sent by PowerOfEnvelopes.org and saturated with seeds. All you do is place the envelope in the ground, add water and Nature will take care of the rest.

We sometimes forget the envelopes provide important values in the communication process. Mail is a tactile medium that you can touch and hold. It offers the benefits of utility, economy, authenticity, and universality. Words on paper are real, and so are signatures and sentiments. Envelopes, in particular, convey privacy and security. They are socially inviolate.

In fact, research from the Envelope Manufacturers Association Foundation shows that:

___84% of consumers says envelopes leave a memorable impression.

___Three out of four people prefer bills when sent inside an envelope.

___Americans are three times more likely to pay attention to direct mail sent to their homes than to unsolicited email, Internet banners or pop-up ads, telephone calls, text messages and at-home visits combined.

As to that envelope I received, I have a great place in the garden which could use a few more flowers.

Technorati Tags: envelopes, flowers, mail, privacy, tactile

Such a short sentence. Can it be true?

Let’s see, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, advertising mail (also known as “Standard A” mail) totals 5.89 million tons before recycling. However, 2.28 million tons are recycled, a recovery rate of 38.7%. (See: 2006 MSW Characterization Data Tables, EPA, table 4).

So, if we subtract 2.28 million tons from 5.89 million tons we get 3.61 million tons of advertising mail.

Does this mean that 3.6 million tons of material was made from trees? Nope. Not hardly. Much of what goes through the mailstream comes from recycled materials.

Not only that, but not all advertising mail consists of “catalogs.” According to the U.S. Postal Service, Standard A mail includes printed matter, flyers, circulars and advertising; newsletters, bulletins and catalogs; and small packages.

But let’s say there are 19 billion catalogs. How much ad mail is sent out each year?

According to the 2007 annual report of the U.S. Postal Service and there we can see that 103.5 billion pieces of ad mail went through the mailstream.

Nineteen billion items sure seems like a small part of 103.5 billion items, which means that it’s not possible for 19 billion catalogs to use 3.6 million tons of paper unless flyers, circulars, newspapers and such suddenly weigh nothing.

Now, about those trees:

If we have 3.6 million tons of ad mail, and if each ton weighs 2,000 pounds, that would mean we have 7,200,000,000 pounds of material. If it takes 53 million trees to make 7.2 billion pounds of paper then an average “tree” weighs just 135.84 pounds!

Does this make sense to anyone?

According to AARP’s 2005 IRS Form 990, the association spent $108.3 million on “printing and shipping.”

AARP says that its “more than 36 million members receive ‘AARP The Magazine,’ which is published every other month (bimonthly)” and that “all members also receive 11 issues of ‘AARP Bulletin,’ a monthly publication (July and August are combined).”

That’s six magazines per year x 36,000,000 or 216,000,000 million magazines annually plus 11 bulletins per year x 36,000,000 or 396,000,000 bulletins — a total of 612,000,000 paper-based items sent through the mailstream per year.

Surely if AARP is worried about teeny micro trees it could shut off its own distribution torrent and rebate $100 million or so to its members. Otherwise it ought to explain why using the mail is okay for AARP — but not okay for others. It should also explain what will happen to stamp prices if advertisers leave the mailstream.

Most importantly, if mail volume is reduced AARP should explain what will happen to the jobs inside our borders that are anchored by the mailstream. As The Washington Post has explained:

“The Postal Service has about 738,000 employees, relies on revenue from operations rather than taxpayer funding and is one of few federal bureaucracies with which most Americans have regular contact. It is at the center of a $900 billion mailing industry, which employs 9 million people in such businesses as direct mail, paper manufacturers and printers.”

Technorati Tags: AARP, catalogs, mail, trees

Seen another way, when the cost of gas goes up 15 cents per gallon then USPS expenses increase by $18,150,000.

In the context of an entity that had revenues of nearly $75 billion in fiscal 2007, it might seem that $18 million or so is not a big deal. But the problem is that gas prices have not just risen by 15 centers per gallon.

According to the Energy Information Administration, gas today is priced at $3.663 per gallon. Two years ago the price was $2.966 per gallon. That’s a difference of $.697 per gallon. If you need to buy 121 million gallons your additional cost is almost $85 million.

The problem is that as bad as gas price increases have been in the past few years, they could get a lot worse. Think of $4 a gallon this summer — and $5, $6 or $7 in the next year or two. Now we’re talking about huge amounts of money for a delivery system which is dependent on gas, especially when you consider that the Postal Service says it had a $5.1 billion net loss in fiscal 2007.

Technorati Tags: costs, economics, mail, pricing

The current interest in mail-order shopping is hardly new. Mail order has been popular for more than a century, in large measure because direct mail assures low prices nationwide.

In the 1880s, consumers outside major cities depended on local stores with small inventories. Such stores were free to charge whatever the market would bear, and since there was often no other nearby source of goods and supplies, consumers paid high prices for common
merchandise.

Not only were local stores expensive, they were inefficient. Because they only served a small number of consumers, they could not place large orders. Without large orders, local stores could not get volume discounts that could mean big savings to consumers.

Enter mail order. Aaron Montgomery Ward started his catalog business in 1872 while Richard Sears mailed his first fliers in the 1880s. For the first time consumers were no longer captive. They could get attractive goods and prices whether they lived in the middle of Manhattan or a remote rural setting.

The contest between mail-order houses and local stores centered on three major issues — price, inventory and assurances — the very factors which made mail order houses successful.

On the issue of price, there was little doubt that mail order goods could be competitive.

The postal system allowed direct-mail companies to operate on a national basis. With a customer base that potentially included anyone with a mailbox, catalog companies could order in bulk, obtain huge discounts and then pass the savings on to consumers.

To see how this system worked consider the cost of bicycles. In 1897, according to Made in the USA, a history of American business by Thomas V. DiBacco, bicycles were selling from $75 to $100 — at least until the public saw the Sears Roebuck catalog. Sears, which sold thousands of units per week, charged $5 to $19.75 depending on the model selected.

Not only did Sears sell bikes, it sold just about everything. In 1897, according to the History of the U.S. Postal Service, “Sears boasted it was selling four suits and a watch every minute, a buggy every ten minutes, and a revolver every two minutes.”

Some mailers became so large that rather than buying from a factory at discount, they simply bought suppliers or created their own. In-house suppliers allowed mail-order firms to cut costs even further.

Not only did consumers want low prices, they also wanted variety — 20 kinds of dresses rather than two. Here again, the enormous volume generated by leading mail order houses made huge inventories not only possible but also practicable.

But price and variety, while important, have only limited value if the goods themselves are shoddy or poorly-made. So the mail-order firms protected consumers with powerful guarantees.

Montgomery Ward was one of the first companies to offer a money-back guarantee, and the Sears Roebuck pledge of “satisfaction guaranteed or your money back” is one of the best-known commitments in American business.

Today the marketplace has changed and so has mail-order marketing. Now firms of every size use mail order and the result has profoundly changed the American marketplace:

• Prices must be competitive regardless of location. If a local merchant cannot supply goods at reasonable costs, then consumers can turn to the national market created by direct mail.
• Because postage rates are the same everywhere, because the cost of a stamp is the same in both Alaska and New York, all sections of the country can compete on an equal footing.
• The economies of scale which work so well in manufacturing are also possible in retailing, especially when a “store” has no geographic boundaries.
• A company in a small community can reach consumers in the biggest markets nationwide through the mailstream.
• Merchandise which may be “seasonal” and out of stock in one area may be available through catalog companies that serve a national clientele.
• Residents of rural areas can get the same goods as those who live in major urban centers. And with mail order, those who live in country settings need pay no more than individuals who reside in the
  heart of major metropolitan regions.
• Mail order allows individuals to shop at their leisure, at 10 PM or at 6 AM according to individual needs and desires, a value not to be ignored in an era where two-worker families and single-parent
  households are common.
• Mail order makes specialization possible. For instance, while there may not be enough demand in one community to support a store that sells only carved wooden ducks, a catalog going to millions of people nationwide can easily support the plants and people who produce such carvings.
• Mail order allows local businesses to compete with huge national corporations. A hardware store, for example, can target consumers in a 1-mile radius with direct mail. Such small mailings may not make sense for a corporate giant, but they can produce excellent results at little cost for a local retailer.
• In practical terms, the Internet increasingly serves as a “front desk” where goods and services can be ordered — and then delivered (and sometimes returned) through the mailstream.

All in all, not bad for an industry that had it’s modern beginnings a little more than a century ago with Mr. Ward, Mr. Sears and a few stamps.

Technorati Tags: catalogs, choice, convenience, history, mail, Mail & Jobs, oppoortunity, options, postal, rural

America’s best marketing medium is universal, inexpensive, effective and efficient.

You don’t need a massive advertising budget, hundreds of outlets nationwide or a big-city address to become involved in direct mail marketing.

You can start small and have your program grow as your business expands. And if you already have an established business, direct mail can be used to enhance an existing marketing plan.

A direct mail program begins with a thorough analysis of the product or service being sold. For example, a company — we’ll call it Tonertronics — that sells small copiers for home offices is really marketing more than a device to make copies. Other values can be stressed to potential buyers, such as:

• Convenience — With your own machine, there’s no need to run down to a copy center at 8 pm just for one or two copies.
• Expense — The cost per copy is lower than a commercial copier might charge.
• Efficiency — If you have your own copier, you don’t have to wait for other people or worry that someone else will break the machine.
• Productivity — Instead of leaving home to make a copy, an individual can devote his or her time to income-generating activities.
• Warranty — A service agreement with an automatic loaner feature can assure that buyers will always have a machine available. Given a variety of values, the next step is to write and design an appropriate brochure.

Businesses, especially small or new organizations, can sometimes generate effective advertising material in-house, but organizations of all sizes commonly use direct response firms for such work. These companies can write copy, select paper and provide graphic design services to produce the look, tone and pitch most in tune with a potential market.

Once the brochure has been developed, the next step is to target the proper market.

You want to find that group of people who not only are most likely to have an interest in your product but also have the financial capacity to buy it.

To find the most likely buyers, Tonertronics can rent a list of home office workers from a specialized company with access to thousands of lists. List brokers have lists that can pinpoint home-based computer users, free-lance writers, public relations specialists and artists. Before renting such lists, however, the copier firm will want to make sure it is getting the best deal.

• Cost — Lists are generally rented on the basis of a charge per 1,000 names. The better the list, the higher the cost per name.
• Restrictions — Many lists are restricted so they cannot be used by those who compete with their owners, or by organizations and individuals offering items inconsistent with the goals of the list owner. A health magazine, for example, would be unlikely to rent its list to a firm that wants to market chewing tobacco by mail.
• Terms — Since lists are rented for limited periods of time and for a given number of mailings, it’s important to know how long and how often a list can be used.

Once a list has been acquired, the next step is to work with data processors who specialize in mailing list organization.

A data processor can take a basic mailing list and compare it against a national change-of-address database, a ZIP+4 directory, demographic information and other lists until the basic list is honed and perfected.

The list development process is crucially important to direct mailers. Every time a duplicate name is removed, or an unlikely contact is eliminated, the mailer pays less for printing, postage and handling.

To this point, there is a product, a mailer and a list. Now it’s time to insert materials into an envelope, label each envelope, and then apply the proper postage.

For small jobs, say several hundred to a thousand names, the work can often be done by hand through a small firm or a non-profit, sheltered workshop.

Inserting by hand is often impractical, however, especially when large volumes of mail are involved or a quick turn-around is important. Jobs of all sizes can be handled by full-service direct mail firms and direct response organizations that use automated equipment.

In addition to automation, larger firms sometimes offer another advantage as well: a full-time postal representative on site. In such cases, by having a postal employee at the mailer’s facility the Postal Service saves money and speeds processing because the delivery of millions of letters is streamlined.

Not all mailing firms are full-service operations, however. Some limit their activities to insertions, labeling and postage and in such cases customers will often hire a lettershop.

A lettershop is a specialized company that navigates through the postal system to find the best possible rates for clients. As an example, a lettershop might arrange direct transportation from a printer to the particular post office which offers the best rate. Direct delivery to an individual post office can eliminate many distribution layers as well as excess postal costs.

Once the mail goes out and orders come in, the mailer — in this case the copier company — must begin the delivery process. Mailers can fill their own orders, but many prefer a fulfillment service which takes the orders, assembles the ordered goods for shipment and then sends the merchandise to the customer.

Fulfillment services are so effective that a company can sell by mail and never handle its own products. Instead, products are sometimes sent from manufacturers directly to fulfillment firms and then from fulfillment companies to individual consumers. At the end of the direct-mail process, the copier company should have orders, hopefully at a lower cost per sale than otherwise might be
available with alternative media.

And if the company is really savvy, it will realize that it may have a new asset as well. The individuals who bought copiers might also want other products and services, information that a list manager may be able to market to other firms with an interest in home-office sales.

Technorati Tags: advertising, business, mail, marketing, mationwide, national, postal

Our Founders had vision: the postal system in this country is so important that it’s actually included in the U.S. Constitution — Section 8 says that only Congress shall have the power to “to establish post offices and post roads.”

Why Congress? And why not the states? Because the Founders knew that unlike the situation in Europe, a single postal system with one set of standards and one set of prices could bind the national together. All citizens, no matter where they lived, would pay the same fee for the same services.

No less important, the U.S. postal system requires no payments from recipients. We have a sender-funded delivery system, meaning that senders take all the financial risk when they send materials through the mailstream. (In contrast, email recipients pay — that’s why it doesn’t matter if a spammer broadcasts 10 messages or a million emails, the cost is about the same.)

This is a site which says that the mailstream is important to the country, that we as a Nation are not so wealthy that we can afford to lose millions of jobs inside our borders and that a reasonable discussion of the mailing system is helped by the availability of factual information and data.

Technorati Tags: Constitution, economics, Founders, government, mail, Mail & Jobs, vision