6 Comments

1. Bob Houghton 01/19/2009, 5:03 pm Reply

   Very interesting subject. Since I am in direct mail printing, I am frequently asked this question and my answer is very similar to your observation. Even before the internet and e-mail, the periodic increases from the Post Office would generate the cry that the Post Office was killing itself by making it too expensive to use it as a marketing channel. One of the solutions suggested then was to stop Saturday delivery and go to an every other day model.

   It wasn’t really necessary then, but if the states are successful in the future of implementing do-not-mail lists, the Post Office will have no choice.
2. zincink 01/19/2009, 6:43 pm Reply

   The mail doesn’t seem dead to me! I still get catalogs, postcards, and other assorted goodies. I think they need to re work their situation. Blaming the economy seems like the thing to do these past few months.

   I, as a customer and designer, am more willing to go through a full color catalog instead of waiting for a page to load on my screen. I am also more willing to use a fancy 4-color coupon than printing it out from email. I don’t want to wait. It is too easy to see OldNavy, GAP, JCrew in my email box and deleted it without even looking.
3. Velochicdunord 01/20/2009, 6:27 am Reply

   Very interesting. I’m from Canada, where the catalog shopping started to decline a generation earlier than stateside, mainly due to one national retailer (Eaton’s) getting out of the business in the seventies. Eaton’s went into bankruptcy in 1999. Are the two linked? Yes.

   Historically, our postal costs have been higher than the United States because while we have more urban population, we also have vast underpopulated reaches where postal delivery must be subsidized. Is it a coincidence that many institutions went to electronic payment earlier? No.

   The remaining mail business is in effect, the freight business. Delivery of online and catalog purchases is the remaining sector of business. There is fierce competition in that area from the courier companies, with FedEx and UPS occupying the fast delivery=higher cost niche, and currently able to deliver anything short of requiring a forklift. The USPS currently occupies the slow delivery/cheap cost sector/universal coverage sector. They have to be sure that they can do this in a cost effective manner. From the Canadian perspective, one of the Canada Post/USPS marketing advantages is that (for the average consumer) they handle cross-border delivery more cost effectively than the courier companies, haveing no additonal customs brokerage charges. There has to be a maketing advantage in that!

   The long-term future of the post office is to tighten the global alliance with other post offices worldwide, move into secure e-payment competition with Paypal, Western Union, offer secure money transfer services at a lower cost than the banks (as many other postal services do worldwide) offer secure legal e-document delivery (as they have register and signing systems already set-up)

   Catalog shopping
4. Velochicdunord 01/20/2009, 6:30 am Reply

   Oops. My bad.

   Catalog shopping is deeply tied to mail/freight delivery systems. I can see the increasing use of delivery to centralized mailbox/neighbourhood mail serivce centers being the end result of this.
5. Rick Littrell 01/20/2009, 10:45 am Reply

   Thanks for all of your great feedback. I don’t believe that the Post Office will go away completely, but they are going to have to change the way that they operate to reduce costs. With their increasing of the postal rates, they are putting themselves in a bad situation. But what really got me was the union blaming the high volume direct mailers for their problems and then continuing to blame the economy for all their problems. Their problem is their business model and high overhead costs. Increasing automation will help, but will not “cure the disease”!. They will have to change the way that they do business. Blaming the discounts that high volume direct mailers use seems to be to be biting the hand that feeds them.
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