Transforming Paper To Mail

Consumers get bombarded daily with print and e-mail messages, while marketers struggle to target audiences and rise above the media clutter. Despite inroads by online billing and banking services, mailed monthly statements—for utility bills, credit cards, investment plans and the like—are still packing American post boxes, with more than 30 billion delivered last year.

Some 95% of this correspondence is opened and read, according to market research firm InfoTrends. Yet more than six in 10 consumers say they would prefer to see more colorful communications, says InfoTrends, even carrying marketing messages, rather than plain-Jane transactional documents. Blending promotional messages into these transaction documents is creating the newest of marketing vehicles: transpromo print.

Printers interested in entering this field will find themselves serving a unique customer because transpromotional print buying is more allied to business process outsourcing than the usual marketing-related print purchase channels. As a leading-edge medium, printers can expect to incorporate components needed to turn transpromotional runs into integrated, cross-media promotions, including such extras as tip-on affinity cards, PURLs and printed barcodes that link cellphone cameras direct to websites.

Offering such sophisticated transpromotional services moves print production away from commodity markets priced at costs per page, as customers offset the marketing effort by their revenue- generating potential.

Transpromo key components (one-to-one marketing, full-color printing, performance-measurement tools) have been around for years. But the transpromo market now is expected to grow dramatically at a compound annual rate of 91% by 2010, thanks to advancements in data and marketing software, print technology and new postal rates favoring carefully sorted “saturation” mail.

While the postage costs on nearly every class of mail increased last year—and in some cases nearly doubled—it is now actually less expensive to send higher-weight letters. For example, the postage on a First-Class 2-oz. letter decreased by nearly 8%, according to Pitney Bowes Group 1 Software. InfoTrends studies reveal that 66% of document owners expect to add marketing to transactional documents within the next 18 months, and a third of those will be printed in full, digital color output, now faster and more affordable than ever. The cost to print a color page using an Indigo digital press, for example, dropped to as low as 3¢ a page in 2006 from almost 10¢ a page a decade earlier, the firm reports. Adding color also helps to increase comprehension and response rates.

Statistics aside, many marketers are not using transpromo effectively. Some 64% of consumers to a recent InfoPrint survey said they would use personalized coupons if printed onto monthly bills and statements (with nearly half saying these would encourage brand loyalty). But 86% of consumers said they have never purchased a product or service after receiving a separate promotional document with their monthly statements. Four in 10 mentioned that inserts accompanying their monthly statements are “always impersonal and irrelevant.”

In addition to Pitney Bowes and Group 1, examples of transpromo data enhancements come from BCC Software (a Böwe Bell + Howell company) and GMC Software Technology, which will showcase their latest solutions at Graph Expo (see pp.36-41). GMC's PrintNet software lets users design and create personalized documents with data-driven messages integrated for cross- and up-selling. The company serves thousands of worldwide users, including many customers producing in excess of 100 million personalized documents per month.

Another transpromo example comes from the hospitality industry, where a hotel account statement can include an ad reflecting a customer's loyalty-program status or past purchase history—then combine that offer with a personalized URL (PURL) and promotion code. At check-in, the guest is presented with a key folder personalized with loyalty points and a coupon for hotel services most likely to resonate with him or her.

“The more services that can be delivered on site—in the business center or on the golf course or in the spa—the more the customer experience is expanded, leading to greater revenue and customer satisfaction potential,” says Lee Gallagher, manager of global solutions at InfoPrint Solutions Co., the 15-month-old joint venture between IBM and Ricoh.

Similar opportunities abound in other markets. A retailer can include a personalized e-mail offer that sends the customer to a PURL. After a purchase is made and the product ships, the retailer can insert in the box a personalized delivery slip containing a thank-you message and a complementary offer.

DST Output uses Kodak inkjet print heads and its own, patent-pending technology to produce full-color invoices for clients such as Ford Motor Credit. The invoices are designed around what car brand a customer drives, allowing the automotive-finance unit to include tailored service reminders, bonus cash offers, lower financing, and deals on new cars on the approximately 200,000 invoices it prints each day.

Behind the scenes in many of these operations, electronic verification systems ensure the accuracy of variable-data print mailings—that an insert gets married to the correct envelope.

One such system is Axode's SMART solution (pictured on p.28). Another camera verifier will debut next month at Graph Expo. From Lake Image Systems, PrintScan images the entire width of a print web, performing quality and data integrity verification on every printed piece at speeds of 500 fpm and faster. The camera checks every physical page for number and character legibility, barcode quality, streaks and voids, front-to-back matching and print alignment, while providing piece-level tracking and reporting. An image of each defect is archived and triggers actions such as tab insertion, designation with an inkjet marker or machine stoppage.

“PrintScan eliminates costly rework, throughput delays and liability risks associated with incorrectly printed pieces,” says Lake Image VP Pat Hoskins. “This capability is especially valuable to printers who must comply with HIPAA [privacy] legislation or others responsible for protecting private information.”

For higher volume transpromo work, roll-to-roll and roll-to-finish digital presses from HP, Kodak, Océ, Screen, Xerox and others churn out the bulk of the pages. Paper handling and finishing equipment help turn these printed documents into mail.

The Standard Hunkeler VariWeb modular web finishing system is designed for a multitude of applications, including personalized mailers with integrated reply cards and envelopes. Operating at speeds up to 492 fpm, the VariWeb is flexible with the capability to expand and add to a line at any time as product needs change.

Unwinders and rewinders from Standard Hunkeler provide constant web tension for uniformly tight and straight rolls. These peripherals offer the ability to unwind and rewind in either direction, eliminating the need for a web flip bar. Tight, even rolls ensure non-stop inserting at highest speeds.

Also, Standard Hunkeler roll-to-sheet feeders convert rolled paper into cut sheets on demand for various high-speed laser printers, providing up to 20 hours of non-stop productivity. They can deliver up to 40,000 sheets non-stop, whether the job requires 8.5x11´´ or 11x17´´ cut sheets.

Hunkeler CS6 rotary cutting technology ensures clean, accurate single- or double-cut chipouts, at 600 fpm, for bleeds at the head and foot of forms.

On the digital press side, Océ was part of the TransPromo Competence Center at drupa. In a joint effort with mail expert Böwe Bell + Howell and paper maker UPM, full-color transpromo documents were produced on the JetStream 2200 printer, finished and prepared for delivery on a Böwe inserting system.

The Océ portfolio includes the Vario-Print 6000 family for black-and-white, duplex cut-sheet printing, and the Vario-Stream for high-speed continuous feed environments, from 1-over-1 to 4-over-4 colors.

The Kodak Versamark VL2000, shown earlier this year at the On Demand show and drupa, is designed for data centers with volumes of more than 1 million images per month of transactional, promotional and transpromo documents, such as billing, account statements and direct mail solicitations. This model marks the first high-speed drop-on-demand (DOD) printer from Kodak, which had previously offered only high-speed continuous inkjet (CIJ) printers. The VL2000 provides the same print speed as the existing CIJ Versamark VT3000 but with a higher quality color image.

Operating at a maximum production capacity of 1,090 letter-sized impressions per minute, the VL2000 Printing System provides a cost-effective solution for data center printers outputting short runs of high-quality documents, as well as longer-run transaction and promotional materials. Low operational costs make this system particularly economical for applications such as multi-page financial systems, credit card bills and telecommunications invoices, says Kodak.

Also seen at drupa: Xerox showed a comprehensive print-mail solution with mail finisher Megaspirea. Its Mailliner 100 was configured with a continuous-feed printer. Megaspirea introduced the concept of dynamic envelope creation, which produces both the content and the envelope from one continuous roll of paper. It's cost-effective, eliminating the need for pre-manufactured, pre-ordered, stored and staged envelope stock.

“Furthermore, because the envelope is printed on the same roll as the document, each envelope can be branded on demand and targeted, personalized messages can be printed directly on the envelope itself,” says Hersch Reich, president of Megaspirea. “The Megaspirea envelope is also recyclable, whereas the traditional window envelope is not, and postal sortation can be conducted prior to printing which leads to greater postal efficiency, cost reduction and a more environmentally sound postal delivery process.”

Scott Gerschwer, the firm's global marketing VP, adds, “Mail is the new middleware for leading edge companies that want to communicate most effectively with their customers.”

Kern, Inc. offers the 515 EasyMailer to produce an individually created mailing with envelope. An 8.5×11´´ letter and corresponding envelope can be printed in color and with various images and text on the front or back side—in a single pass. The printed letter is integrated in the finished envelope, ready for the mailstream.

Xerox says its 490/980 Color Continuous Feed (CF) Printing System is the industry's fastest toner-based, full-color continuous feed device, printing at up to 226 fpm. A 19.5´´ web allows for printing two-up letter-size images or three-up book images in 6×9´´ format.

CF users can choose one print engine for simplex or two for duplex. Every page is printed with variable data, forms and graphics in one pass on blank roll stock. An integrated onboard print controller with graphical user interface allows for management of all print functions from the printer or remotely from an optional PC.

Its monochrome cousin, the 650/1300 CF is Xerox's fastest black-and-white printer at 300 fpm. In both models, flash-fusing technology delivers crisp image quality, expands the range of media types and weights, and reduces paper shrinkage, curl and static—improving performance and reliability in both the printer and inline finishing devices.

And then there are the big inkjet web presses shown at drupa by Kodak and HP. It's still too early to know what impact this new technology will have on hybrid and transpromo printing. At drupa, HP revealed two U.S. beta sites for its Inkjet Web Press: a Taylor Corp. facility and Los Angeles-based O'Neil Data Systems, a provider of data-driven publishing and marketing communication services. The technology is expected to be commercially available in time for Print09 next September.

Meanwhiile, Kodak's Stream Concept Printhead, coming to market in 2010, is said to be capable of delivering monochrome, offset-class VDP applications at up to 1,000 fpm to offset printers.

“Today's most profitable printers connect with customers to conduct business around the clock, reduce costs while handling thousands of short-run personalized jobs and enable new revenue with expanded applications and services,” concludes Mike Salfity, VP of Xerox's Workflow Solutions Business Unit.

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