Gary Sierzchulski, VP, Arandell Data Services

In the past much “talk” was given to a direct marketing principle called contact strategy analysis.  What that means in layman’s terms is determining how often and when to reach your customers based on previous sales information.  In other words, using this approach you only contact your customers based upon their past purchase history, so a customer who only purchases during holidays would only be contacted during that season and so on.  The theory here was to maximize marketing dollars and tight budgets.

 Times Have Changed. 

 In the past two years many of you have reduced the frequency of your campaigns for all the reasons which we will not get into detail here.  If you go to your mailbox you will see this first-hand.  But funny things are happening, the consumer is coming back, albeit slowly, and buying!  Buying because they haven’t been for a while and it is our nature to do so.  With or without you they will be back.  So what are you doing about it?

 #1 - Reach out to your customers.  If you aren’t, your competitors are or will be shortly.  Consumers are hungry for deals to satisfy their buying urges, and again have saved up some money to meet those needs.  It’s funny, instead of you creating a sense of urgency with them; they are the ones who are creating it.  So meet their needs.  Even those who you consider your best customers (highest RFM) need to hear from you now.  In the past this segment would buy from you regardless.  Now they want to know that you’re still in business to start with and that you value them and can meet their needs, both emotionally and tangibly. 

 Your older buyers were once buyers from you.  So you need to find out if they are still buying products like yours but just not from you.  There are several ways to do this and if you contact me we can discuss the methods to identify them. 

 #2 - Service is a lost practice.  You need to make it easy for them to return to you and more importantly buy from you.  Shipping incentives, in store pick-up, loyalty rewards, anything and everything should be considered to make your customers feel special again.  You have four marketing channels to interact with your customers.  Use them all but pay attention to which channels they choose to interact with you.

 #3 - Build up your brand.  Many of you “went away” for a while.  Your customers need reassurance that you’re still there for them.  More frequent contact now as opposed to selective contact will get you there.  Most of you have noticed that your house file is stagnant at best or probably has decreased over the past two years.  For your survival, that trend needs to stop but will only do so through increased contact with your customers and reaching out to potential customers, something of a lost art called prospecting. 

 #4 - Thank them for their business.  How? - By telling them.  As I said many times before, the more quickly you reach your buyers after a purchase, the higher the future response rate is.  And if you personalize the piece in some fashion the responses are even higher.  Why wouldn’t you make this a standard part of your business practice?

 Again, the time is now.  Create the sense of urgency with your customers and they will respond.

Related posts:

1. Understand Your Customers by Increasing Address Quality
2. Predict your Customer’s Next Move
3. Industry Call to Action - Challenge Tax Encroachment - Your Assistance is Vital

Don Landis, VP, Postal Affairs

Heads up! The USPS announced this morning that they will present an exigent postage increase to the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) later today. Standard Mail will see an average increase of 5.6% with an effective date of January 2, 2011.

We will continue to update the blog as we receive more information.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. Susan Pinter and I can both be reached at 800-558-8724.

Related posts:

1. Canada Post Corp. Rate Changes Effective January 11, 2010
2. No Postal Increase in 2010 - Really?
3. No Postal Increase for 2010

Blake Hutchison, Director of Purchasing

Wow, what a difference a few price increase announcements make on demand!  I think the mills got the desired effect they were looking for.

Lead times are increasing and increasing rapidly.  Coated groundwood grades seem to be accelerating the quickest, with lead times already out 5 - 7 weeks.  Coated freesheet, while not as bad, is still out 3 - 5 weeks.

The greatest factor in how quickly you can get paper is the basis weight.  If you print on a heavier weight (70#, 80#, 100#) your lead times won’t be as long.  38# through 60# basis weights, both coated groundwood and coated freesheet, are in high demand and their lead times are accelerating faster than the heavier weights.  32# - 38# is a little better, but not by much.

My advice would be to get your paper situation figured out quickly and at least get an LDC date to work off of so that you can properly estimate how much time you are going to need. 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me  or call me at 800-558-8724

Thank you.

Related posts:

1. Axing Myths About Controlling Paper Costs
2. New Round of Paper Price Increases Announced and Lead Times Creeping Out
3. Paper Price Increases Announced

Blake Hutchison, Director of Purchasing

We have been bombarded the past few days with price increase announcements from our North American mill partners. 

Below is a listing of which mills have announced, how much they are initially going to increase their prices, and when they will take effect:

 Sappi:

• Coated freesheet (CFS) web products (all finishes)
  • 55# and up - $1.00/cwt
  • 50# and below - $3.00/cwt
• Effective immediately on new and unconfirmed orders

 West Linn:

• CFS products (all finishes)
  • $2.00/cwt
• Effective with all orders placed on or after May 21^st and on any existing orders shipping on or after June 1^st

 Appleton Coated:

• CFS products (all finishes)
  1. $2.00/cwt
• Effective with orders shipping on or after June 1^st

 Verso Paper:

• CFS products (all finishes)
  • $2.00/cwt
• Coated Groundwood (CGW) products (all finishes)
  • $3.00/cwt
• Effective with new orders entered and all existing orders shipping on or after June 1^st

 NewPage:

• CFS products (all finishes)
  • $2.00/cwt
• CGW products (all finishes)
  • $3.00/cwt
• Effective with new orders entered and all existing orders shipping on or after June 1^st

 Evergreen:

• CGW products (all finishes)
  • $3.00/cwt
• Effective with new orders entered and all existing orders shipping on or after June 1^st

 AbitibiBowater:

• CGW products (all finishes)
  • $3.00/cwt
• Effective with new orders entered and all existing orders shipping on or after June 1^st

 Kruger:

• CGW products (all finishes)
  • $3.00/cwt
• Effective with new orders entered and all existing orders shipping on or after June 1^st

 UPM:

• CGW products (all finishes)
  • $3.00/cwt
• Effective with new orders entered and all existing orders shipping on or after June 1^st

 FutureMark:

• CGW products (all finishes)
  • $3.00/cwt
• Effective with new orders entered and all existing orders shipping on or after June 1^st

 Catalyst

• CGW products (all finishes)
  • $3.00/cwt
• Effective with new orders entered and all existing orders shipping on or after June 1^st 

In discussing these increases with our mill partners, one theme has been constant: they are raising prices to curb the continued pricing depression as well as alleviate pressures from rising input costs.  Pulp prices have been rising, and there is no more money coming in from the Black Liquor tax credit.  We will continue to be diligent and do everything we can to mitigate these increases as much as possible.

Lead times for both CFS and CGW grades are creeping out. CFS is out anywhere from three to five weeks, and some CGW grades are already out six weeks. I would encourage each and every one of our clients to get your paper orders in as quickly as possible to ensure availability. 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email me or call me at 800-558-8724

Thank you.

Related posts:

1. Paper Price Increases Announced
2. Price Increase for Coated Freesheet Grades
3. Axing Myths About Controlling Paper Costs

Don Landis, VP, Postal Affairs

It’s hard to believe but we’ve been talking about revised deflection/droop standards for at least eight months now.

For those of you who are just tuning in now, the droop (deflection) test measures the flexibility of mailpieces (specifically commercial flats). If mail pieces are too flexible they will topple over as they travel through the USPS sorters and scanners. Implementing deflections standards, or droop standards, will greatly reduce the amount of direct mail pieces that fall off the machines. Recently, the USPS extended the deadline for the deflections standard implementation to June 7, 2010. And, price consequences will take effect October 3, 2010. With the change in implementation dates, also came some changes to the way the droop of your mailpiece will be measured.

Click here to see an instructional video. Otherwise, read on!

(With regards to the video we know that the square piece is very close to failing, but it did meet the USPS standards.)

Written instructions about how to measure the droop of your mailpiece can be found here. (To get to the instructions, skip to section 1.6 of the document.)

You failed the droop test, now what?

Contact us! We have lots of solutions for drooping catalogs. We can work with you to make sure you optimize postage savings and pass the deflection standards … all without changing the style and branding of your catalog! (We have already worked with the client (along with many others) whose catalog failed in the video to transform their piece into one that will pass the newly-revised droop test.

Here are some additional resources if you would like to learn more about the new deflection regulations:

Click here for some of the industry comments about the new standards.

Click here to contact me or Susan Pinter, Arandell’s postal experts.

Related posts:

1. Do You Pass the Droop Test?
2. Revised Droop/Deflection Rule
3. A Flurry of Postal Updates: Droop Test, Move Update, Winter Sale, Dry Release Cards

Don Landis, VP, Postal Affairs

In November, we announced that we will be working with BCC Software as our postal solutions provider. Recently, Don Landis, VP of Arandell Postal Affairs testified about the success we have experienced while working with BCC. Click here to check out the video.

For questions regarding Arandell’s postal solutions, contact Don Landis (HDLandis@arandell.com) or Susan Pinter (SGPinter@arandell.com). They can both also be reached at 800.558.8724.

Related posts:

1. USPS to Propose Exigent Rate Increase
2. Arandell Corporation Teams Up with BCC Software
3. Canada Post Corp. Rate Changes Effective January 11, 2010

Don Landis, VP, Postal Affairs

Since its inception three years ago, the ACMA (American Catalog Mailers Association) has focused primarily on the very issue for which it was founded: being catalog mailers’ watchdog group for keeping postal rates in check. To date, no organization had gone to bat solely for catalogers when it came to postal matters. ACMA’s mission is to advocate for catalogers where others cannot. They also partner with other organizations where catalog interests are squarely aligned.

ACMA’s such collaboration revolves around the new Colorado sales and use tax reporting requirements for out-of-state sellers who do not collect sales taxes from Colorado residents for their purchases. This law became effective on March 1, 2010.

And with that, the ACMA poses the following: What’s worse than having to pay sales taxes in every state? Having to report to every state every purchase your customers have made so the taxing authorities can start chasing your customers down and ordering them to pay back taxes.

Your Colorado customers now must get a statement recapping their purchases that you will also have to send to the Colorado tax collectors so they can hunt your customers down for the sales tax — and probably with a penalty on top of this. This experience is sure to make Colorado customers think twice about ordering from you, plus you now have an added cost of compliance without any offsetting revenue. It’s a triple whammy.

But wait, there’s more. Tennessee, California and other states are considering this same law or watching Colorado’s closely. Fact is, every state needs more revenue today. Out of state companies, who do not use any state services and who do not elect state politicians, are easy targets.

The Direct Marketing Association is coordinating a multi-industry legal challenge to the new Colorado tax law and will be using acknowledged state tax expert attorney George S. Isaacson to stop this from doing real damage to direct sellers of every type. We fully support DMA efforts.

Per a memo from DMA senior vice president, government affairs Jerry Cerasale, the new reporting law was passed by the legislature and signed by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter Jr., as part of a budget balancing package. DMA and others urged the Governor to veto the bill, but to no avail. It now must be challenged in the courts.

The reporting law requires non-sales-tax-collecting out-of-state marketers to notify Colorado purchasers with every purchase and includes the following stipulations:

• They are not required to collect sales tax;
• Sales or use taxes are owed by the purchaser unless the sale is exempt from sales tax even though purchased remotely, including over the Internet, telephone or catalog;
• The purchaser is required to annually file a sales/use tax return with the Colorado Department of Revenue and pay tax on those purchases on which the resident has not paid sales tax;
• The marketer is required to provide the purchaser with a year-end summary of the purchases the consumer made on which sales taxes were not collected; and,
• The marketer is required to provide the Colorado Department of Revenue an annual report on the total amount of all the purchaser’s purchases on which sales tax was not collected.

More information can be found at www.taxcolorado.com.

Taxing indeed!

The proposed year-end notice to the Colorado purchaser regulations require the following:

• Notice sent by Jan. 31 only via First-Class Mail with “Important tax document enclosed” appearing prominently on the envelope;
• A summary of dates of purchase, description of product purchased and dollar sale amount for each purchase;
• A statement that Colorado requires that the purchaser file a sales/use tax return at the end of the year and pay tax on all Colorado purchases on which no sales tax had been collected;
• Inform for the purchaser that the form and further information is available at www.taxcolorado.com;
• Notification that the marketer is required by Colorado law to provide the Colorado Department of Revenue with the total dollar amount of purchases the purchaser made; and,
• Though not required, it may inform the purchaser whether an item purchased is exempt from Colorado sales tax.

The notice to the Colorado Department of Revenue must include this information:

1. Name of the Colorado purchaser;
2. Billing address of the purchaser if provided to the marketer;
3. Shipping address of each purchaser if provided to the marketer;
4. If the marketer has multiple billing and/or shipping addresses of the Colorado purchaser (Colorado purchaser is a consumer who has product shipped to him/herself in Colorado), provide all such addresses; and,
5. Total amount of Colorado purchases made by the purchaser from the marketer.

For more information, please feel free to contact Don Landis, Arandell’s VP of Postal Affairs, HDLandis@arandell.com.  He can also be reached at 800.558.8724.

Related posts:

1. ARE YOU AFRAID TO TALK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS?
2. No Postal Increase for 2010
3. 9 Reasons to Mail More in 2010

Gary Sierzchulski, VP, Arandell Data Services

This past week I was in New York.  It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon and I was sitting on a bench at Noon eating a hotdog and watching everyone rush by on 6^th Avenue.  What I noticed more than ever is that most people were not enjoying the great weather or for that matter, the people walking around them; they were too busy with their heads down looking at their phones.  I did a quick test.  For one minute I counted the number of individuals who were not using their phone either to (believe it or not) talk or to look at their emails, websites and yes, mobile apps.  There were only 33 people who fell into that category…33 people out of hundreds that rushed by!  That is incredible but not unusual.  We have become obsessed with our phones and their ability to do just about everything for us.  Here is an interesting fact; people sleep more nights with their phones than with a human person.  These phones must be something special.

Today there are over 285 million mobile phones in use in the U.S. and of those, 160 million have the ability to text.  Get this, even though there are “only” less than 50 million iPhones and Blackberrys in use, the Apple store has downloaded over 2 billion apps so far. You do the math.

So you have two choices; embrace this new technology or think it’s a passing fad that will be gone as soon as the next major communications invention arrives.  Let’s take the side of embracing it.

When we look at the different marketing channels we think of the basics; brick and mortar, direct mail and the youngest member, the Internet.  Now there’s a new kid in town - mobile, and he’s growing bigger each month, more than the other three combined.

So how do you get on the mobile wagon?  There are a few steps to take to see if it’s right for you now.  Keep in mind it’s not a question of IF its right, but rather a question of WHEN it’s right for you.  Sooner or later you will be riding the Mobile Wagon.

1. Look at your customer base.  How much of your sales are generated through the Internet? (Don’t be confused with “through the Internet” as opposed to by the Internet.)  Most likely you see that number growing, meaning your customers are savvy, technological capable, and want to control the buying decision when they want to.  If you answer, “yes” to this - you are ready for mobile.
2. In analyzing your web results, what percentage of hits is from mobile phones?  If you see any at all - you are ready for mobile.
3. Do you want the ability to “talk” to your customers at any time or any place they are, maybe even as they just walk into your store?  If yes - you are ready for mobile.
4. Do you want to give your customers the option to experience a rich, visual, and inviting view of your store that is always open for business?  If you say yes to this - say mobile.
5. Can your customers walk and talk at the same time?  Are they over the age of six?  If yes - you are ready for mobile.

Keep in mind, mobile will not, repeat, NOT replace any of your existing marketing channels.  What it will do is give your customers another alternative to see your products, understand your company and most importantly buy from you in a very different environment.  Used strategically with your other channels, mobile is a great new addition to your weaponry. 

There are several ways to break into the mobile market.  The beauty of this technology is that you can take it very slowly and build over time or go hog wild from the get go.  Either way, you will be adding a whole new dimension for your customers and prospects to interact with you.  And since this technology is relatively new, most marketers have only begun to unleash the ability of this channel so you can get very creative and give your customers a highly unique experience before others copy your great idea.

So do not fear, mobile is here and is not going away.  But it is a great marketing partner for you and its possibilities are only limited by your creative abilities.  Give me a call to learn how Arandell is embracing this technology and how we’re working with our customers to incorporate mobile with the Mother of all marketing channels - The Catalog.

Related posts:

1. Arandell Announces Mobile Solutions, Powered by Digby
2. The Catalog Lives!
3. 9 Reasons to Mail More in 2010

Blake Hutchison, Director of Purchasing

In honor of Earth Day, I thought it might be a good time for a follow-up on my previous posts about the sustainability battle between electronic and printed media.

Let me be clear: I am not advocating the elimination of digital media.  On the contrary, I am a big supporter of it.  What I am not a fan of is the false notion that paper and print are more harmful to the environment than digital.  If you really dig deep and think of the total lifecycle of a product, you can clearly see how that particular product, from cradle to grave (or cradle to cradle) has the ability to impact the environment.

I recently came across a couple of articles that correspond directly with what I am trying to achieve through this dialogue; one from the New York Times and one from PBS. In addition, this post from the Dead Tree Edition blog discusses what one publication did to fully understand what its environmental footprint really is.

Point is, let’s really think about these matters in a way that encompasses everything.

I look forward to hearing your feedback on this post. Feel free to contact me any time!

Related posts:

1. Electronic vs. Printed Communication: The Sustainability Battle (Part II)
2. Arandell Announces Mobile Solutions, Powered by Digby
3. The Effect of Post-Consumer Waste Paper (PCW Content)

Don Landis, VP, Postal Affairs

The American Catalog Mailers Association (ACMA) held its third National Catalog Forum April 13-15 in Nashville, TN. From a personal standpoint, I thought it was one of the best forums of this kind I have attended in a long time. I should know; I have been in the mailing industry 44 years and have attended more events than I can count.  Looking around the room I saw some of the most influential catalogers in the industry. 

The forum started off with Mark Acton, Commissioner, U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission. Mark covered a list of postal issues that may impact catalogers. I was impressed with the quality and thoughtfulness of the questions asked by attendees. Pat Donahoe, Deputy Postmaster General of the United States Postal Service, discussed several topics, the one of the highest level of interest being the Flats Sequencing System (FSS) and how it will affect future postal ECR rates.

Other topics covered include co-mailing, Do Not Mail, prospecting, USPS catalog marketing efforts and growth in catalog mail volume.

The ACMA is THE advocate for catalogers. Its annual forum is packed full of valuable information that will impact all of you. In the future, I highly encourage all catalogers to attend the forum, so that we as mailers have a bigger voice in Washington.

For more information, please feel free to contact Don Landis, HDLandis@arandell.com.  He can also both be reached at 800.558.8724.

Related posts:

1. Arandell Corporation Recognized at 2010 National Postal Forum
2. USPS to Propose Exigent Rate Increase
3. Stay Tuned: USPS Nearing Final Decision on Winter Postage Sale