intelligent mail barcode
The IMB has great possibilities, but they don’t come free!!
Unknown to many mailers, the Postal Service last week quietly distributed to Confirm subscribers an update to its Publication 197, Confirm User Guide, which includes specifications and requirements to Confirm data provisioning for Full Service Intelligent Mail barcode users that will result in the need to purchase additional Confirm subscriber IDs at $2,500 for each non-subscriber in order to have the data provisioned to that entity. Mailers are not pleased at what some see as a covert move by the Postal Service that will result in onerous price increases for Confirm Service.
Chinese postal worker sentenced to death for $265m embezzlement
I guess that would be a deterrent to further crime…
April 26, 2009
From the Sydney Morning Herald
A POSTAL bank official in southern China was sentenced to death for siphoning more than 1.3 billion yuan ($265 million) to pay her gambling debts.
State media reported yesterday that He Liqiong, 45, was given the death penalty by a court in Guangdong province. She was convicted of siphoning deposits from a post office bank in Foshan city to pay off debts incurred whilegambling in casinos in neighbouring Macau.
Officials gambling away public funds in Macau have become a headache for Chinese authorities. Several corruption incidents have been linked to gambling.
Liberating the Postal Service
Government bailouts of high profile private corporations have obscured the fact that one of the largest government enterprises, the U.S. Postal Service, is also in dire financial straits. Its requests for immediate relief, however, should be turned into long term, and long overdue, reforms that will strengthen a great national institution for the future.
In essence, what the Postal Service needs is to be free of congressional interventions and allowed to operate as a regulated corporation in a competitive delivery services industry. Ever since 1970, when it was created by Congress to succeed the old Post Office Department, Congress had said that it wants the Service to operate like a business. Yet ever since 1970, whenever attempts are made to respond to that mandate, some old congressional hobby horses ride forth and interfere.
In January, Postmaster General Jack Potter asked Congress to accept the fact that some day we might not need the mail delivered six days a week to every address in the nation. Potter asked for nothing more than flexibility for the future, yet several members of Congress immediately cried “Foul!” and insisted on retaining an outdated law that mandates six-day delivery. He faced the same committee again last week, but change cannot be expected.
Six-day postal delivery was not invented by the Founding Fathers as many today seem to suppose. Until the Civil War, almost all Americans had to come to the post office to collect their mail. Not until the last third of the nineteenth century was postal delivery gradually extended to the main cities. Postal delivery in rural America (where most Americans still lived in 1900) was introduced in the first third of the twentieth century. Even so, as late as 1950, one in six Americans still collected his or her mail from the local post office.
In the late 1970s, the country hit a rough economic patch. Inflation surged, and the federal budget turned red. To save money, Congress decided to renege on its promise to cover the costs of the Postal Service’s unprofitable services. Worried that this might force the a cutback on Saturday delivery, Congress “fixed” the problem by ordering the Postal Service to maintain six-day service without the public funds through a temporary one-year order added to the annual funding bill. Presto, something for nothing!
The problem is that almost thirty years later, the same temporary fix is still attached to the postal appropriations bill. After the first couple of years, Congress did not even bother to update it. The provision still requires that the Postal Service maintain delivery frequency at 1983 levels even though no one in Congress, and no one in the Postal Service, can say what the service levels in 1983 were. Furthermore, about 75% of those commercial mailers and households surveyed in a George Mason University study done for the Postal Regulatory Commission said they would be happy with five day delivery. The Postmaster General had a good understanding of what the public wanted.
The annual postal appropriations “rider” has become a bad habit. It is time to get rid of the rider and give the Postal Service freedom to adjust delivery frequencies to the actual levels of mail and the real needs of addressees. Not unlimited freedom, but flexibility subject to oversight by the independent Postal Regulatory Commission and, of course, ultimately by Congress.
Yet this is only illustrates one facet of a much larger problem: how to equip the Postal Service to meet the needs of the twenty-first century.
The base problem confronting the contemporary Postal Service is that the environment in which it operates has changed drastically. It is less and less a conduit for exchanging first class letters and more and more a broadcast medium, primarily for the distribution of advertisements, periodicals, and parcels. None of these classes of mail is covered by the monopoly on first class mail, a monopoly adopted by Congress in 1872! Today, the reasons for establishing the Postal Service as a government monopoly are fast disappearing. First class mail is shrinking rapidly as telephone and Internet have replaced most hard copy correspondence. Advertisements now comprise most of the mail.
We need to think seriously about transforming the Service from a government monopoly into a regulated, competitive enterprise. There are numerous examples from abroad on how the transition might be made. The European Union has ordered the end of virtually all national postal monopolies by the end of the year 2010). And in this country, there ample precedents and lessons to be learned from regulatory reform in other industries.
A restructured postal system would give the Postal Regulatory Commission, an independent and impartial body of experts, the authority to define the truly public interests which must be protected. For example, the Commission might require delivery of individual first class letters to, say, 98 percent of all addresses in the U.S. within three business days at a maximum rate of 50 cents for the next five years. It would be up to the Postal Service to figure out how to do that. If the Postal Service cannot do the job at a profit, the Commission might contract with a private carrier to provide the necessary service. Meanwhile, the Postal Service might find it commercially sensible to reduce rates for some types of letters — for example, local utility bills. If it can offer lower rates in some places or to some mailers (without unfair price discrimination), it should do so. And if mailers want enhanced service, they should be able to get it and be willing to pay for it. We need to get away from the idea that the same level of service should be provided to all mailers everywhere. The true public interest lies in a guarantee of a reliable nationwide delivery service at an affordable maximum price.
Public policy towards the Postal Service has grown unwise by not changing with changing times. We now have a system in which Congress feels obliged to oversee the execution of a public monopoly granted in the nineteenth century, while the Postal Service is struggling to adapt to life in the twenty-first century. This mismatch between policy and reality endangers the future of the Postal Service. It is time to allow the Postal Service to manage itself subject to clearly stated and impartially implemented rules that protect — and where necessary pay for — the essential minimum level of nationwide postal services required by the people.
A. Lee Fritschler, Professor, School of Public Policy, George Mason University, was Chairman of the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission. With colleagues James I. Campbell Jr., Robert H. Cohen, and Christine Pommerening, Professor Fritschler recently completed a study on the development and future of universal postal service for the Commission.
Spain’s Banco Santander Makes a U.S. Deposit
This is a great article about the power of data modeling and analytics and the amazing effect it can have on a business, from Business week, April 15th.
With its Sovereign Bancorp purchase, Santander takes its strong acquisitions record to the American market
Madrid – Spain’s Banco Santander has every right to be smug. While rivals were jumping into investment banking and complex derivatives, Santander stuck largely to its plain-vanilla retail operations in Europe and Latin America. That extra-safe strategy helped Santander rack up $11.7 billion in profits last year even as its peers were hemorrhaging cash.
One place Santander has largely avoided is the U.S., but that’s about to change. The bank in October paid $1.9 billion for the 75% of Reading (Pa.)-based Sovereign Bancorp (SOV) that it didn’t own already. Emilio BotÃn, Santander’s 74-year-old chairman, plans to use Sovereign’s 747 branches and 2 million customers in the Northeast to muscle his way into U.S. retail banking. That will involve spending some $400 million by 2012 to upgrade back-office technology, retrain staff in marketing techniques, and consolidate a far-flung management team. The deal will make the U.S. Santander’s No. 3 deposit base, behind Britain and Spain.
While the expansion may be a gamble in these tough economic times, Santander has a strong track record in acquisitions. In Spain, Britain, and Latin America, the bank has followed a similar strategy: Buy a small stake in a local player to get to know a market, then jump on bigger game when they come up for sale. In the past two years, Santander has spent some $31 billion on nine deals across three continents. “BotÃn always has been a hunter,” says Robert Tornabell, former dean of ESADE Business School in Madrid.
But cracks are appearing just as BotÃn embarks on this U.S. adventure. In 2008 the bank’s nonperforming loans doubled, to $8.9 billion—2% of Santander’s portfolio—and they’re expected to double again this year as Spain, Britain, and Brazil hit the skids. A $3.1 billion loss related to Bernard Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme also has tarnished the bank’s credibility. “Even Santander’s conservative retail banking model won’t do well in the current climate,” says José Manuel Campa, a finance professor at IESE Business School in Madrid.
Not so, says Santander Chief Financial Officer José Antonio Alvarez. He says bad-loan provisions—mandated by Spain’s central bank—will ensure that Santander can weather the crisis. He also notes that Santander has a healthier loan book than most of its rivals. “We only invest in markets that we understand well,” Alvarez says.
And BotÃn knows how to squeeze every last dollar, euro, and pound from customers. Branch managers use in-house technology, dubbed Parthenon, that provides constant updates on clients. The system analyzes accounts and suggests products, such as credit cards or home equity loans, that customers are likely to want. And it flags clients who are falling behind so the branch can work out a payment plan. “We know who pays and doesn’t pay, and the exact services to sell,” Esther Sanchez, a manager with Santander unit Banesto in Madrid, says as she thumbs through client files.
GROWING PAINS
Santander plans to replicate the strategy at Sovereign. Last year productivity at 30 branches around Philadelphia jumped by 50% when managers started using Santander’s selling techniques. That pilot program has been expanded across all Sovereign branches, a move Santander expects could net the bank $215 million in savings over the next three years.
Still, Sovereign carries some risks. Santander already has written down $2 billion of Sovereign’s questionable assets. And the Spaniards want to get rid of a further $10 billion in loans by yearend. Despite those growing pains and its troubles back home, Santander remains confident about the U.S. “It’s not about luck,” says Juan RodrÃguez Inciarte, the bank’s strategy chief. “We make decisions at the right time.”
Survey: CMOs Not Happy With Digital
April 18, 2009
By Todd Wasserman
CMOs see digital as the medium of choice in this economy, but aren’t getting what they want out of it, according to a new survey from Heidrick & Struggles.
In December, the Atlanta recruiting firm polled 111 senior marketing executives at firms with $1 billion or more in annual revenues about their digital strategies. The impetus, said Lynne Seid, partner in the firm’s global consumer practice, were comments from H&S clients expressing frustration over the fact that so much information exists online about consumers—like their search and social media behavior—and yet marketers felt they were accessing it poorly.
Information on existing customers is especially valuable since in the current down economy, many are focusing on retaining such customers, and cross-selling and up-selling to them, in addition to trying to win over new customers.
Respondents to the survey found their current ability to access ROI and metrics on their digital marketing lacking and rated their companies behind the curve. Many said they would have to look outside the company for help, whether that means hiring new employees or relying on ad agencies—though the marketers said they weren’t happy with their current agencies either.
Time after time in the survey, marketers expressed an awareness of digital’s potential along with a recognition that they weren’t close to tapping it.
For instance, one of the selling points of digital media is its ability to let marketers respond quickly to new opportunities, but only 16 percent of respondents rated themselves “very satisfied†with their ability to do so. Fifty-one percent said they were “somewhat satisfied.â€
On a more granular level, the respondents rated marketing ROI, Web behavioral analyses and CRM as the most important parts of their digital marketing mix. Not many marketers thought that they were good at those functions at this point. Only 18 percent said they were “very satisfied†with their ROI analysis, only 13 percent said the same of their CRM program and 19 percent were happy with their search engine optimization.
There was also some debate over who has responsibility for analytics like Web traffic and usage reports. Most marketing departments are currently handling those functions, but they would like to fob it off on IT. Though search marketing also scored high, pulling up the rear on that list were blogs, social networking tools and mobile advertising.
On the bright side, most respondents thought they had Webinars down pat and they were fairly confident in their ability to execute online surveys and contests. On the other hand, most rated their ability to pull off mobile ads and video ads fairly low.
For what ever reason, marketers think their companies are behind the curve on digital marketing, but they don’t see themselves that way. “That’s called ‘irony,’†Seid said. Their agency partners are another story. Fifty-five percent disagree with the statement: “We trust our ad agency partner to provide us with the digital marketing expertise that we need.â€
Seid said the big takeaway from the survey is that there’s still enormous room for improvement for most companies’ digital marketing strategies.
“What I’m hearing anecdotally is there are now sometimes half a dozen digital agencies and suppliers specializing in social media and search,†Seid said. “We don’t have anyone managing, integrating and demanding best practices in those areas.†Seid envisions a “digital CMO†taking responsibility for managing those disciplines. Said Seid: “That will be the CMO of the future.â€
Old Navy, Chrysler, Palm among Top 12 Brands Likely to Disappear
Goodbye old friend
From Marketing Charts, April 20, 2009
As the recession deepens, economic forces continue to drive consolidation in the retail industry, debt comes due and increasingly discerning consumers buckle down on discretionary spending, an analysis by 24/7 Wall Street predicts that a number of well-known brands are likely to disappear before the end of 2010.
To determine which brands are most likely at risk, 24/7 Wall Street examined 100 large brands it believes are in trouble and, for each, looked at public financial records, sales information, analyses from industry experts, the competitive landscape in each’s industry and the likelihood that a brand could be sold off in the case of parent-company financial trouble.
The analysis points to the most serious peril for the following 12 brands which, 24/7 Wall Street says are most likely to disappear by the end of 2010:
1. Budget rental cars: Though Budget’s parent company currently says it will continue to operate both the Avis and Budget brands, increasing debt problems, a weakening travel industry and intensifying competition will nonetheless cause the demise of the Budget brand, 24/7 Wall Street predicts.
2. Borders books: Declining sales, heavy losses and pressure from competitors Barnes & Noble and Amazon – especially from new e-book readers – may prove too much for the brand when large amounts of debt come due in April 2010.
3. Crocs footwear: The decline in stock price from $72 per share in late 2007 to $2 today, ongoing financing issues, consumer belt-tightening and the end of a fad, leads to to 24/7 Wall Street’s declaration that “Crocs won’t make it through the year.â€
4. Saturn vehicles: As General Motors faces bankruptcy, 24/7 Wall Street said it will almost certainly shutter the brand, whose sales dropped 59% in the first quarter of 2009.
5. Esquire Magazine : While the Esquire brand is plagued with ad revenue declines and intense competition in the crowded men’s-magazine market, parent company Hearst faces problems on both the newspaper and magazine fronts and will not hesitate to close down underperforming brands such as this one to bolster its overall position.
6. Old Navy apparel: 24/7 Wall Street said that parent company Gap – which currently markets the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic brands – is “a three-brand company living in a two-brand body†and cannot continue to sustain all three in the midst of steep, across-the-board sales declines. Old Navy, which is the weakest brand, will most likely not survive.
7. Architectural Digest Magazine: Amidst drastic cutbacks in high-end home sales and expensive redecorating, the once-healthy publication has lost 47% of its ad pages this year. Faced with other financial problems in its newspaper and magazine businesses, parent company Conde Nast will not be able to sustain the brand, according to 24/7 Wall Street.
8. Chrysler brand cars: Facing similar problems to GM as it teeters on the edge of bankruptcy, Chrylser LLC will not be able to support product design, manufacturing and marketing for a brand with many less sales that Dodge or Jeep as it gears up for restructuring.
9. Eddie Bauer: Faced with declining sales, a stock price under $1, major debt problems and a CCC- rating, analysts say its lack of differentiation in the marketplace could prove the last straw. 24/7 Wall Street said it could be out of business by mid 2009.
10. Palm: A brand that 24/7 Wall Street says has been “at death’s door for some time,†faces life-threatening competition from RIM and Apple, and can only survive in the unlikely event that it can expand the smartphone market by increasing demand for its “Pre.†Dismal financial results and association with Sprint, the already-#3 US wireless carrier, will spell complete disaster.
11. AIG: The once-venerable insurance giant’s highly publicized financial problems, involvement in the financial crisis and subsequent bailout and indebtedness to the federal government, make it the “one large brand in America which almost everyone would like to see disappear,†according to 24/7 Wall Street. Because many of the company’s operating units do not bear the AIG name, they will continue to do business as they distance themselves from the “toxic†AIG parent brand, which eventually will go away.
12. United Air Lines: As the travel industry faces unprecedented overcapacity in light of the recession, two of the large US carriers will soon need to merge to avoid bankruptcy. While it is not clear yet how such a consolidation will shake out, the stocks of UAL, American and US Air have plummeted. 24/7 Wall Street believes that United – the weakest of the carriers, soon faces a “merger,†which will most likely mean the end of the line for the brand.
Police: Postal worker threw away mail because it was printed on inferior paper
The discerning postal employee…
A former postal worker in upstate New York has been arrested for tossing mail.
Glen Helmer was arrested Thursday morning and charged with destroying mail he was supposed to be delivering.
According to the criminal complaint Helmer admitted to throwing away bulk mail circulars.
Investigators caught Helmer in the act when they followed him on his route last summer.
It is estimated that Helmer tossed business mail between 100 and 120 times during the last eight years.
On the criminal complaint, Helmer said he didn’t like the flyers because they were printed on inferior quality paper.
Helmer’s next court appearance is set for June.
Environmental Impact of Direct Mail
Below I have attached a link to an interesting study that was done on the environmental impact of direct mail. It is actually amazing how little impact direct mail has on the environment, especially when compared to other sources of pollutants, like cars.
Another fallacy this study addresses is that all forests will be lost to make paper for direct mailings. Let’s think about this seriously, manufacturing paper and paper products is a huge industry. Do you really think that paper manufacturers want to put themselves out of business by destroying the very source of their product? Let’s get real. Tremendous effort is put into renewing their raw materials and significant dollars are spent on R&D to develope new products that can be manufactured cleaner than recycled paper products.
Take a look, it is quite interesting.
USPS Offers Discounts for Saturation Mail Campaigns
Direct Newsline
Apr 11, 2009 3:35 PM
While the proposed discounts for high-volume mailers are still in the consideration stage, the U.S. Postal Service has officially rolled out a “Saturation Mail Incentive Programâ€.
Under the terms of the program, marketers who increase their saturation volume can earn per-piece credits. The discounts would be in effect for campaigns dropped between May 11, 2009 and May 10, 2010.
The Postal Service is offering two incentive categories: Total Market, in which mailers increase the volume of saturation letters and flat sent out over a base year’s volume, and Market Specific, in which mailers increase the volume, over the base year, of Saturation Enhanced Carrier Route mail.
The per-piece credit for Standard Mail saturation campaigns is 3.7 cents for regular letters (2.2 cents for nonprofit mailers) and 4 cents for flats (2.4 cents for nonprofit mailers).
The program is open to marketers currently considered saturation mailers. Marketers must have at least a two-year history as Standard Mail saturation mailers. The marketers must have undertaken at least one mailing during 2007, and six mailings during 2008, within their markets.
Mailers must apply for participation at http://ribbs.usps.gov/index.cfm?page=saturationmail. The deadline for applying is June 11.
Did you know you could ship animals through the mail???
The Postal Service proposes to revise the Mailing Standards of the United States Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM®) by changing the refund guarantees for Express Mail shipments of live animals delivered within 3 days of the date of mailing. In some instances, the Postal Service must reroute Express Mail shipments of live animals to alternative flights or routes in order to protect the well-being of the live animals. This is particularly necessary if other shipments on the same flight contain dry ice or solid carbon dioxide, which will evaporate en route and may displace oxygen. If live animals were shipped in the same cargo hold, the carbon dioxide could cause asphyxiation. The use of alternative flights and rerouting to protect the well-being of the live animals can delay shipments. Therefore, even though the live animals arrive as promptly as possible and in good health, these shipments may not meet normal Express Mail service guarantees. In those instances, some mailers then apply for full postage refunds.
Currently, postage refunds for Express Mail shipments of live animals are granted based on the next day or second day delivery guarantee provided at the time of mailing. This current postage refund policy does not account for the flight changes that may occur to protect the well-being of the animals. Therefore, the Postal Service is proposing that Express Mail shipments containing live animals be exempt from the next day or second day delivery guarantee and that the delivery commitment for Express Mail of live animals be extended to within 3 days of the date of mailing. Postage refund requests for Express Mail shipments of live animals delivered after 3 days of the date mailing would still be granted.
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