second in which to decide whether to open it or trash it.

It’s always interesting to hear of techniques which cause more DM envelopes to be opened, and in consequence, response rates improved. One tactic which is currently working well is the larger size envelope which looks like a well-known air courier delivery package (with logos and colours) and is opened just in case there is a communication of value inside. This doesn’t work with DL size envelopes. To appear realistic it has to be an air courier pack-size or slightly below. The air couriers don’t mind – it’s free advertising for them. This seems to work well universally – especially with “conversion” mailings.

Another method currently picking up response, is to mail into the USA (and elsewhere) from China with a Chinese language postmark franked on the envelope. There are significant print, personalization and lettershopping savings handling DM production out of China and the slightly higher postal rate out of China compared with Hong Kong is more than compensated for by the China postmark which catches consumers attention. One mailer MLA manages has just secured a 16% lift in response out of China compared with Hong Kong on a significantly sized A/B split mailing. Both China and Hong Kong were more profitable than dropping into the USA from within the USA.

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There Will Soon be Higher Rates for International Mail Posted From Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai

Another change about to happen at the end of this year is that Hong Kong, Singapore and Emirates Posts will all enter a transition period when they will acquire interim IC (Industrialized Country) status under Universal Postal Union rules, prior to receiving full IC status by 2012. This means all three postal administrations will soon need to announce higher per item and per kilo rates effective early 2010 to cover their higher terminal dues obligations for mail delivered to IC countries.

One of the more contentious issues confronting all three posts under their new interim IC status is whether bulk mail delivered to IC countries such as the UK, France, Germany and Japan will continue to be subject to bulk mail penalties on volumes of more than 1,500 items a days or 5,000 items within a 2-week period. IC countries tend to carefully record bulk mail volumes because they claim their actual cost of delivering such mail tends to be higher than the terminal dues they receive from those Developing Countries (DC’s). I have heard that Singapore Post is actively lobbying IC countries to exempt it from bulk mail penalties during the forthcoming DC/IC transition phase. We are still awaiting news of the new rates from both Hong Kong and Singapore Posts.

A further development slowly unfolding in Asia are Alternative Delivery Systems outside the normal postal channels. Hybrid mail sources, offered by major postal consolidators (using both postal and non-postal channels) could be of growing interest to major mailers if cost savings and reliability are offered. Any possibility of uncertain delivery will be completely unacceptable.

Heavier weight items (such as fundraiser “dimensional packages”) also tend to be more competitively priced under private delivery systems.

Consumers are Willing to Pay for Value

A few weeks ago Rupert Murdoch announced that in June, 2010, his newspapers would all begin charging for online content – including the Times, Sunday Times, New York Post – and of course, the Wall Street Journal. His announcement was greeted with a great chorus of skepticism from the rest of the newspaper industry. However, in their heart of hearts, since the growth in online advertising to support free editorial content has been so weak, I’m sure most of those skeptical newspaper publishers would, in fact, dearly love him to set a precedent and succeed.

The question is how? At the end of the day what matters is value for money. Consumers may be willing to pay for specialized, niche or financially/commercially relevant material – but will surely remain reluctant to pay for the day’s news which will almost certainly remain free elsewhere online.

Payment, of course, would need to be easy. A credit card number and account held by the publisher with a simple click on BUY, as and when the reader is willing to pay, is a model which currently works.

Bottom-line, if consumers were willing to pay (but not too much) for the content they perceive to have value, this would be a powerful incentive for newspapers (and magazines) to invest in those views, opinions and stories which generate the most interest and demand online since they could then look forward to an acceptable return on investment from good content. This would be a win-win for everyone.

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Fresh Names for the Asia-Pacific Region

I often get asked: “Where are the fresh names coming from?” This is a good question during times when mailing volumes are down and much fewer fresh names are on offer.

There’s nothing worse than mailing old names in responder files and dead names in compiled files. So it was refreshing to be in touch recently with Lindsay Welsh of New Zealand Post. Postal administrations have a vested interest, and are in a powerful position to generate and maintain fresh responder names from the market place through Lifestyle Surveys – and New Zealand Post have recently made their move in this direction. They dropped their first mailing last July which was the first of an annual New Zealand Lifestyle Survey. The survey was open for completion between 3rd July – 20th August and approximately 220,000 responses have been received.
(See http://www.nzpost.co.nz/Cultures/en-NZ/).

This will be a fresh file of survey responders and it should be worth getting in early and testing. Meanwhile, New Zealand Post, in their wisdom, recently approached the APPU (Asia Pacific Postal Union) and proposed a regional Lifestyle Database. This was accepted in principle and recommended to the APPU Executive Council for further action. New Zealand Post is now working with a number of postal administrations in the Asia-Pacific Region to develop the idea and hopefully this will eventually result in a solid plan to collaborate in creating Lifestyle Surveys in this region in the future.

A fresh responder name is a fresh responder name – however it’s generated. These fresh names in New Zealand (and hopefully in due course elsewhere around the Asia-Pacific region) will respond individually to a range of other offers from both inside and outside New Zealand refreshing the quality of list data held by mailers/listowners in the market-place thereby improving response rates and allowing larger volumes to be mailed. Everyone wins – as long as Lifestyle Surveys are mailed annually and their databases updated annually.

It occurs to me that it would be good if postal administrations in the Arab Gulf could also follow the APPU’s example.

See You at DMA 09

I hope to catch up once again with some old DM friends and acquaintances in San Diego during DMA 09. I’ll be there for 2-3 days, and you won’t miss me because I’ll be the guy hobbling along the corridors with a shiny, black cane in my right hand.

Apart from MLA business, I have an interest these days in autologous stem cell activation (too technical to talk about here) and peptides. My partner and I have a particular peptide formulation which not only gets receding hair to grow again but if your own hair is just beginning to show more than a few flecks of grey, you’ll be interested to know that trialists have found that the new hair soon begins to grow back into its original natural colour!

Anyway, this will be one of my topics of conversation for anybody who is energized by direct marketing new natural health products internationally…


James Thornton
Managing Director

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