The Bold are Rewarded While Others Sit on the Fence
Several of MLA's larger publisher
clients have told us that response to their early 2002 subscriber
acquisition campaigns has been “significantly higher than normal”.
This not only endorses, but reinforces, the claim by Al Goodloe
in his opening speech at his 15th Publisher's Multinational Direct
Conference in New York early March that, in uncertain times, “it's
better to continue mailing than not to mail at all”.
The bonus from mailing, while others postpone their mailings, at
least for the mailers we have spoken to, has been higher response
and therefore more new subscribers than usual.
This reflects how lower volumes and less clutter in the mail gives
reputable offers from blue chip companies a better chance of being
seen, read and acted upon.
* * * * *
The Glory Days for Deceptive Mailers May Soon Be Over
This brings me back to the subject of deceptive mail. There seems
to be less of it out there. This helps bonafide mailers seeking
to acquire subscribers, customers and donors for the purposes of
a long term relationship to quite simply get better results when
there's less garbage cluttering the postal system.
Email is cheap, and will continue to carry unsolicited junk. On
the other hand postal mail is becoming more expensive and it does
seem that the margins of profit at the front-end are declining
for deceptive mailers.
Such mailers need a very high profit at the front end for the
simple reason there is no back end retention whatsoever because
of the negative experience received by their responders.
Consumers, bless them, become smart quite quickly and they're
now beginning to recognize deceptive junk when they see it and
they're telling their friends.
Deceptive mailers have had their day in the sun and their front
end profits are now declining. Why? Because they couldn't give a damn about their customers. They
rip them off at the front end and neither seek nor do they get
a long-term relationship which is the basis of all successful
direct marketing.
I pursue this point at some length because of the sheer scale
of the mailings that have been perpetrated worldwide in recent
years by the “deceptive mailing” industry.
I believe it is now just a matter of time before these cowboys
find front end postal mailings no longer profitable and they stop
mailing altogether.
* * * * *
The Incineration and Dumping of Bulk Mail Continues
Before moving on to more cheerful topics, I must refer once again
to the issue of partially delivered and non-delivered mail.
I received a call recently from a reliable and independent postal
operator who specializes in delivering mail around the Asia-Pacific
region. They told me they had been approached by a local forwarding
agent who asked them to deliver a large consignment of mail into
a number of Asian countries but could they please “incinerate
50% of the consignment first before delivery”. This is not
a misprint: they were asked to incinerate 50% – not 40%,
30%, 20% or 10%...
The mailer, I understand was an IT company who clearly hadn't
done their homework. I keep hearing stories similar to this and
this is certainly not an isolated incident which I just happened
to hear about.
Ask any postal operator whether the dumping and incineration of
bulk airmail is going on (and I often do this when I meet postal
operators at DM conferences and events) and they all (without
exception) confirm it is happening. (Everyone in the industry
knows no item of bulk mail is ever missed by its addressee if
it does not get delivered).
At the recent launch of Spring in Manila (the new Dutch, U.K.
Singapore Post Consortium), I spoke at length with Mr. Teo Yew
Hwa who is now CEO of Spring in the Asia-Pacific region. He agreed
with my concerns about this issue. “In fact”, he said,
“if someone offers you a low postal quotation, you must accept
the danger that not all of your mail will be delivered”.
The general view of major players is that smaller postal operators
and consolidators are the most dangerous. If you accept a low postal quotation from such a company because
it's such a low quotation, you're simply being naive if you think
your mail will be delivered in full.
I thought at the time Mr. Teo's words were a nice, carefully phrased
piece of understatement. I'm afraid the longer term view is not
reassuring either. More and more public postal operators are by-passing
the Universal Postal Union system and sub-contracting the actual
delivery of mail in destination countries to private operators.
Even Jim Wade, who manages the international business interests
of the USPS, went on record recently as saying the “USPS
(the United States Postal Service), can work better in the commercial
area than with most Posts”.
It may well be that private operators are more flexible in their
commercial dealings but the point (from the poor helpless mailer's
point of view) is this: in future will all our mail get delivered,
by all private postal operators, in all countries, all of the
time?
I doubt it, and I fear the situation is unlikely to improve for
a while. In fact, it may well deteriorate. What can we do about
it right now?
Apart from being very discriminating indeed about the postal operators
you work with, I suggest that prior to your next postal campaign
you might want to ask your postal consolidator (if you use one)
or your national postal administration (if you deal direct) to
confirm in writing there will be no “unauthorized sub-contracting
of the delivery of your mail” or words to that effect. You
may also ask them to confirm the routing of your mail so it doesn't
transit some cheap, rotten unreliable third-world mailing hub
where it may be in danger of disappearing into a hole.
The other action you can take is to “seed” your list
with fictitious names (changed for each mailing campaign) at known
addresses.
The task of those behind such “seed”
names is to report receipt of mail to you every time your mail
is delivered to them with a particular name. This not only enables
you to monitor unauthorized use of your list, but it is a check
on either the delayed or total non-delivery of your mail at least
in the area or country in which your “seed” resides.
Nobody I know (including myself) seeds their lists enough. At
the recent International Direct Marketing Show in London one mailer told me he allows for two
“seed” names only in a multinational mailing of 50,000
plus names. This is simply not enough especially if it's a multinational
mailing covering many countries.
Another mailer I know goes out of their way to reward “seed”
addressees generously (usually with one of the more popular books
they publish) for each and every Report they provide. This works
well and they make sure the postal consolidator involved knows
they are seeding extensively and diligently checking the results,
which is an incentive to the consolidator to make sure nothing
goes wrong.
* * * * *
DM Conferences are Sprouting Up All Over...
My travels over the past month have included Al Goodloe's Conference
in New York, the International Direct Marketing Fair in London
(it was a miserable experience taking the train up and down to
Docklands so it was a relief to hear the next event will be held
at Earl's Court), and on the way back I stopped in Bangkok to
speak at the first Thailand DM Conference.
This inaugural event was attended by 90 paying delegates which
was encouraging for the organizers. One of the speakers, Peter Bakker, Circulation Director of the
Economist in Asia, gave some very useful details on how (using
above and below-the-line) they successfully lifted their paid
circulation in Thailand at the end of 2001. The conference ended
with a panel discussion on whether Thailand should (or could)
become the future direct marketing hub of Asia. The panel wisely
decided it couldn't - and shouldn't even try...
* * * * *
As Usual, Some Markets are “Up” and Some Markets are “Down”
One of the things I enjoy when travelling (apart from good food)
is to gather a consensus from global direct marketers on the markets
that are responding well for them right now and those that are
responding badly. Currently, Mexico has a very strong vote along
with Hungary, the Czech Republic and Russia. Poland is down, and
for most mailers (but not all) Malaysia seems to have been down
for about 6 months.
Foreigners living in China are the most responsive
consumers in Asia (reached through multinational lists from offshore)
and Indonesia continues to be the next best market from offshore.
The U.K. remains very strong and buoyant.
The Caribbean has been excellent for a couple of years now (are
tourism earnings there making everyone rich?). The only negative note comes from the head of
the Guyana Post Office who last month lobbied postal officials
from Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Kitts and
Nevis to cease transiting mail through Trinidad and Tobago because
of complaints there about pilferage!
* * * * *
India and China: Are These Two Giant Markets About to Wake Up?
MLA continues to be active in the two largest and most undeveloped
markets in the world. India can be covered in English language
and is said to have over 100 million consumers earning the average
wage of an Australian. The market can be tested from offshore
initially since Indian listowners are more willing to release
lists offshore (at a premium) than within India (where there's
a flourishing trade in stolen lists at 1,000 rupees or US$20)
per thousand names.
The most encouraging development in India is that every credit
cardholder in India (there are over 5 million of them and growing
at a rate of 20% plus a year) is now able to use their card to
purchase a US dollar offer from offshore.
We know one listowner active in credit card syndication who offers
access, through his lists, to 40% of the cardholder base in India.
In China, a group of foreigners are in the process of forming
a Direct Marketing Association to introduce ethical practices
and guidelines into the DM industry such as it is. The problem
in China, which has yet to be resolved, is the unwillingness of
China based listowners to release their lists at all. Response
has been found to be excellent from some large lists MLA has introduced
to the market recently, but the mailer has no choice but to lettershop
through the listowner which means they are currently unable to
either merge-purge or personalize. Things can only get better
- and we'll keep you informed.
* * * * *
The Timing of Your Mailings Must be Good If You Mail Before Ramadan
For what it's worth, a major listowner from the Arab Gulf told
me in London recently the best time to mail fundraising offers into
the Middle East was a few weeks prior to Ramadan (it starts this
year in November 6) at which time there is a cultural obligation
to give money to charity.
It makes sense but don't leave it too late. Postal workers deliver
the post only part-time during the 30 days of Ramadan and then
there's a long holiday after Ramadan (Eid Al Fitr). It then takes
several weeks to fully deliver accumulated mail after the Eid
Al Fitr holiday is over.
Naturally we must assume that after the inner purification experienced
during Ramadan, bulk mail will be delivered in full by Arab postal
workers with utmost diligence and care and with absolutely no
temptation whatsoever to put some of it on one side for delivery
“later”.
It would be fair to add here that if mail strays in the Middle
East (and it does) it is usually while in transit to postal administrations
there. Once it arrives, most mail is delivered to P.O. Boxes,
so postal workers don't have to go very far (especially in Arab
Gulf Countries) to deliver it.
I should also add here I believe the Middle East in general (and
the Arab Gulf countries in particular) is one area in the world
most neglected by direct marketers.
This continually amazes me since for the past 26 years (the length
of time I've been mailing internationally) the Middle East and
the Arab Gulf in particular has consistently pulled the highest
response to most offers than any other region in the world - and
it continues to do so.
