Modernizing Mailings

New regulations drive adoption of new software, and co-mail initiatives. Meanwhile digital presses make inroads in volume runs.

By Bill Esler, Editor in Chief -- Graphic Arts Online, March 1, 2009

Going postal is taking on an increasingly positive ring, as opportunities open for printers large and small, in markets that are national, regional and even local. While the economy has provided a major downer for the world of mailing—catalogers are trimming back lists and run lengths, financial services businesses are temporarily on hold pending federal bailouts—new opportunities are also arising as businesses of all sizes scramble to elicit prospects and customer response.

A major catalyst for some of the fundamental growth in mailing services has been the loosening of U.S. Postal Service regulations that open options for more creative mailers—items such as dimensional mail and Post-it Note ride-alongs affixed to magazines and letters. Digital print technologies are also opening the door to multichannel marketing efforts where mail becomes the trigger mechanism, initiating a consumer response either online, by phone or by return mail. This segues naturally into the rising interest in transpromotional mailing—which is, in its simplest form, advertising messaging printed onto statements and bills.

On the grander scale mostly affecting the printing industry giants, are new postal regulations and discounts principally intended to off-load labor from the USPS onto the mailing community—printers and publishers. Discounts for consolidating mail are encouraging big growth in co-mailing. Firms such as Quebecor World, Quad/Graphics and RR Donnelley have for some time been able to offer their own clients the ability to co-mingle publications and catalogs, earning discounts and speeding delivery with carrier-route pre-sortation. Now the next tier of printing firms is entering the arena, with companies like Fry Communications and Brown Printing able to extend co-mailing to a wider range of clients. Integrating new varieties of mailing list processing software to digitally controlled finishing lines, these printers are broadening offerings to a wider range of clients. Even competing publishers that share the same printer may find their mailings are co-mingled in the finishing line, speeding delivery and accruing savings to both parties.

Extending reach and capacity

The newer entrants in co-mailing are trying new tactics to scale up volume to earn discounts comparable to extremely large printers. The larger the volume of pieces that can be sorted together for co-mailing, the higher the discount the printers can earn for clients. Fry Communications has even extended co-mailing services, and savings, to non-print customers, acting as a mailing consolidator for other printers’ clients. The Mechanicsburg, PA publication and commercial firm has expanded its co-mailing capacity twice recently, and just added the ability to co-mail even slippery polybagged materials.

“A few years ago we needed to convey to customers the benefits to consider co-mailing; today on-site co-mailing is a de-facto requirement in the vast majority of all customer inquiries,” says Steve Grande, Fry’s VP Sales. Fry’s in-house PiLoT (Presort Logistics Transportation) team handles the mailing projects.

Brown Printing, Waseca, MN, partnered with an external logistics firm, ALG Worldwide Logistics in Wood Dale, IL, and its sister company Print and Mailing Solutions (PAMS), to scale up its co-mailing volume. The Bertlemsann/Gruner+Jahr unit, which prints 900 titles for 450 clients, also added variable trim binding to its Woodstock, IL facility. Variable trim technology allows for stitching multiple titles with varying face trims in one co-manufacturing pool, enhancing postal savings for catalog and periodical customers. When print projects destined for the mail are co-manufactured, they can be addressed inline and more easily co-mailed, since addressing and sortation are integrated into a single manufacturing process.

With PAMS, Brown says it more than doubled its co-mail volume and more than tripled overall co-mail capacity. With the increased volume, customers will realize greater postage savings. “In combination with Brown’s current mix of logistics services, including in-line co-mailing, Alliance List Services, and robust co-palletization and drop shipping programs, Brown is positioned to maximize postal discounts for our customers,” says Pat Bayer, director of logistics services.

The biggest printers have also adopted new strategies to expand their ability to co-manufacture and co-mail. Quebecor World, which launched the Express Collation Mailing System in 2006, expanded its co-mail offering with the addition of two new 30-pocket machines in the recently opened Somerset, NJ co-mail consolidation facility, coming online several months before the USPS rate changes, which are due in May. Quebecor World creates daily pools and allows participation with just 72 hours notification.

Last year, Quad/Graphics extended and branded its co-mailing capabilities under the IntelliTrim brand. RR Donnelley launched its variable-trim co-manufacturing services under the Variable Trim Binding branding. Like Brown’s variable trim offering, both permit multiple sized products from multiple customers to be bound in-line in one line, removing the barrier of trim-size alignment to permit different products to co-mail and earn postal savings.

Mailing resources for the rest of us

Printers entering the world of mailing services have a wealth of resources. A good place to start is the continuous postings of news and technology at graphicartsonline.com/mailing.

Then there is the U.S. Postal Service itself, which at www.usps.com/nationalpremeiraccounts/welcome, provides a gateway for all types of mailing businesses to learn the rules and the available options. Sections include Business Mail 101, Mailpiece Design, Bundle Preparation, and the latest information about tracking, sorting, and Intelligent Barcodes, now being adopted as standard.

Major trade shows and conferences have also added mailing and fulfillment sections, where suppliers to the field are gathered. January’s Graphics of the Americas had one, as will this month’s On Demand Expo. The National Postal Forum is a key gathering. This event, which is staged by an organization underwritten by the U.S Postal Service, runs May. 17-10 in Washington, DC. Graphic Arts Monthly is official publishing partner for the printing industry. While much of the printer tracks in the NPF conference sessions revolve around the industrial level management of large “flat” mailings—referring to periodicals and large envelopes and catalogs—other days focus on the needs of direct mail marketers and agencies. An attraction here is that there are thousands of printing customers in the aisles and the sessions. So it is a great location for prospecting.

Other major gatherings for key events include Mailcom, April 5-8 in Atlantic City, and Print 09, Sept. 11-16, with one of the largest exhibitions of mailing and fulfillment equipment and related conference tracks.

Other great resources for mailing information are the large suppliers of postage meters and mail handling equipment. The two largest are Bowe Bell & Howell (which includes Buskro, Lasermax Roll Systems and BCC software) and Pitney Bowes.

These firms provide numerous white papers, including outlines on one of the key initiatives by the USPS, the Intelligent Mail Barcode.

Intelligent Mail Barcodes add speed, quality and accuracy to mail delivery process. By some estimates, mail sent using the barcode can be several times less expensive to deliver than other automated mail.

According to a paper on the topic by Pitney Bowes, the new barcode, which is represented above the address line on the opening of this feature, creates a platform for intelligence-based services in the mail stream. With streamlined address correction and piece-level tracking, it will help eliminate undeliverable and returned mail–and the associated costs.

Each mail piece will also be able to be tracked back to a specific sender, and USPS will be able to accurately assess which mailers are sorting, traying and preparing their mail according to its specifications. This last point is important: while USPS promotes that Intelligent Mail provides customers with greater visibility into the mail stream, these barcodes also provide the USPS with better visibility into a printer’s operations, too.

For mailers who are vigilant about address quality and proper postal presort techniques, this could be advantageous. In today’s spot-check enforcement by USPS of its rules, it is possible to be assessed higher postage on an entire mailing (at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars) even if only a handful of pieces were placed in improper trays.

Going forward, these surprise charges would not occur. If, however, firms are less than diligent about address quality, move updates, proper sorting and mail tray preparation, then there may be significant repercussions. So when a letter addressed to Iowa ends up in a Florida mail tray and needs to loop back, the USPS will be able to track back the source of these additional costs to a specific mailer.

Starting May 2011, USPS plans to replace current barcodes, requiring every piece of mail to be uniquely identified by the Intelligent Mail Barcode in order to receive a postal discount. This new “intelligence” technology offers mailers opportunities to access USPS tracking and address change services, improve delivery of mail, increase operational efficiencies, and provide greater visibility into the mail stream.

Meeting this mandate is essential to significant savings in postal discounts. Understanding the requirement, its advantages and implications is also important to the long-term growth in mailing services.

Companies using these intelligence-based services can reap savings. Achieving these benefits requires a change to operating procedures. Many firms avoid change, but with this new USPS mandate, doing nothing is not an option.