DMM Advisory
Pricing — keeping you informed about the prices and mailing standards of the United States Postal Service

To Postal Service Customers:

Many of you have expressed concerns regarding mailing costs for 2010.  The tough economic climate has presented significant challenges to all of us and pessimistic speculation has suggested that postal prices could increase by as much as 10 percent.

As we begin a new fiscal year and as many of you, our business clients, are preparing your 2010 operating budgets, we want to end all speculation.

The Postal Service will not increase prices for market dominant products in calendar year 2010.

Simply stated, there will not be a price increase for market dominant products including First-Class Mail, Standard Mail, periodicals, single-piece Parcel Post.  There will be no exigent price increase for these products.

This is the right decision at the right time for the right reason.  Promoting the value of mail and encouraging its continued use is essential for jobs, the economy, and the future of both the Postal Service and the mailing industry.

While increasing prices might have generated revenue for the Postal Service in the short term, the long term effect could drive additional mail out of the system.  We want mailers to continue to invest in mail to grow their business, communicate with valued customers, and maintain a strong presence in the marketplace.  Changes in pricing for our competitive products—Priority Mail, Express Mail, Parcel Select, and most international products—are under consideration.  We expect to announce a decision in November.

We are committed to working with customers to find ways to grow the mail through innovative incentives like the Summer Sale and contract pricing.  Mail is the most effective means of communication and advertising and we will continue to work together to increase the value of the mail.  Mail is a smart investment for the future.

The Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) is available on Postal Explorer (pe.usps.com <http://pe.usps.com/> ). To subscribe to the DMM Advisory, send an e-mail to dmmadvisory@usps.com. Simply indicate “subscribe” in the subject line.

WASHINGTON, DC — The Postal Service is preparing to enact a First-Class Mail Incentive program that will give mailers a rebate for using market-dominant products. This charge affects First-Class Mail presort letter, flat, and card prices.

The First-Class Mail Incentive program will give eligible companies a 20% postage rebate on qualifying presort letter, flat, and card volumes mailed between October 1,2009 and December 31,2009.

To read the full article, please click here.

I have just finished reading Free Prize Inside by Seth Godin and as I sit here reflecting on his words I find my self inspired. Free Prize Inside is a follow up to Purple Cow, a book that called for businesses to be remarkable and different in what they do. Free Prize Inside takes this concept one step further by teaching us how to create a purple cow.

 In the book, Godin defines soft innovation as “what you, the marketer, sees. If it catches on and becomes something the consumer wants, it is now a free prize.” Godin also proclaims that soft innovation is innovation that anyone can do and that soft innovation is almost never complex. Soft innovation is not reinventing the wheel, but rather taking tools and ideas that are out there and using them to make your product or service better.

 The more I think about this the more I think most companies are over thinking innovation. A recent article in Business Week (http://bit.ly/19tHFy), talks about Coke and a “tidying up exercise, stripping Coke back to its iconic essentials.” This may be an extreme example of soft innovation; and you have to strip away the corporate bureaucracy and R&D that went into this exercise to appreciate what Coke did, but if you look at the overall result, it is soft innovation. Coke “has stripped away the extraneous clutter”, and returned to its roots with a simple positioning statement “that drinking a Coke is a small moment of happiness—no big deal, just something that might make you feel good.”

 Now you can ask yourself what is so remarkable about that? How is this soft innovation and where is the free prize? If we consider the difficult times and challenges marketers are faced with these days, I think too often we see companies trying to be creative just for the sake of being creative. They forget the big picture and misconstrue what could be a simple message. They forget about being relevant and ignore the customer experience. Coke realized this and took action by basically saying our customers know Coke and love Coke, so they drink Coke because it is so good. It is that simple.

 I think more companies should listen to their customers, remove the clutter and bring back the idea of the ‘free prize.”  Your customers will appreciate it and buy more because of it.

 Read the book, which is filled with other great examples of soft innovation; read the article, and I would love to know what you think.

I just saw a chart this week that surprised me initially. Yes, it did! It indicated that 69% of marketers are still having challenges generating quality leads for sales. My initial thought was: “Say what? With all the data that’s available from on-line marketing efforts like SEO, email, social media, and even PURL technology from traditional direct mail campaigns, generating quality leads should be easier than ever today? Right?”

As I ponder this question in relation to my own experiences with B2B lead generation, I realize there are several challenges us marketers face that could affect quality lead generation.  Are you currently facing these challenges, because they can significantly impact your lead generation programs?

1.  Are you analyzing your marketing data?

As I stated earlier, on-line marketing is much less of a challenge to measure today.  For example, you can see real-time results of email campaigns, and if they are tied to your web site, unveil even more insight from web analytics.  Additionally, traditional marketing like direct mail is now enhanced with on-line capabilities like PURL technology (personalized URLs) to help gather more information from recipients for better targeted, more personalized marketing campaigns. 

Today’s CRM and marketing automation systems are becoming more and more sophisticated with centralizing multi-channel marketing efforts for better insight.  You are able to look at this data and analyze it to create more targeted campaigns that significantly increase lead quality.

2. Sales says the leads are no good.

 Ah, this is a fun one! Often times, sales and marketing are two separate departments who in some cases don’t even talk to each other; so their definition of a low-quality lead is probably not the marketer’s.  Let’s look at the solution – work with (not against or without) sales to determine what a high quality lead is.  I have always worked hand in hand with sales to first determine the criteria for a “quality lead” and then examine campaign results and tweak as needed. If sales is involved in the lead generation campaign process, believe me, there will be less talk about a lead being “low quality” because they’ve helped set the “standards.”

As marketing evolves more and more challenges arise, however, I wanted to keep the post short but am very interested to hear about your marketing challenges, especially regarding quality lead generation.

Recently I had the chance to attend an “Innovation night”/ networking event where up and coming web entrepreneurs had the chance to present their companies to other industry professionals.

Companies presenting included a mix of web companies from different industries, but it was one particular company that caught my eye. This company was not a company that stood out to me because of its innovative web technology and products, but rather it was the CEO of this particular company that really captivated me. The CEO was a 23-year-old “web marketing guru” who had a very interesting point of view on the direction of traditional marketing and communications. As he stood at the front of the room he hailed, “traditional marketing is dead” His opinion was that companies should move all of their advertising online and invest in viral video marketing. He claimed traditional channels of advertising are drying up and are no longer worth the time or money.

 I would argue that this CEO could not be more wrong in his view and theory on marketing. It is my opinion that there has never been a more important time then now to capitalize on traditional media. With that said, today one must have a total understanding of traditional media and how it integrates with new media to effectively communicate with customers.

 As a marketer I am always on the look-out for examples of extraordinary traditional marketing campaigns that inspire me enough to act on the message. As of late, I have been very impressed with the marketing efforts of Express, the retail clothing store, of which I am a customer. They are a company that gets it and they understand their customers. Recently they sent me a birthday card that contained a $20 gift card to be used towards my next purchase. The card was then followed up two days later with an email notifying me of a mid summer sale where I could receive an additional 30% off of my purchase. In the email they reminded me of my birthday gift card and let me know I could combine the offers. After I redeemed my coupons, the following week I received another mail piece from Express thanking me for my recent purchase. They also included another 30% off coupon (which I will use).

 Now if traditional marketing is dead, then why is Express spending a significant amount of time and money communicating with me using two traditional marketing channels? Why don’t they just post a video on YouTube describing each sale?

 My point is that marketers who understand the new age of communications are utilizing all media to communicate with their customers.  They understand that traditional marketing is not dead, and embrace the change in customer communications. They acknowledge that marketing is now a two-way conversation between brands and are open to new technologies.