Will Royal Mail's 'delivered by' labels affect direct mail

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Will Royal Mail's 'delivered by' labels affect direct mail marketing? http://www.ashdowngroup.com/news/will-r ... -800630832" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

People in marketing jobs have expressed concerns that the Royal Mail's plans to place a 'delivered by...' mark on mail items will have an impact on direct mail.

The move, which will be enforced from September, will mean that all machine-sorted mail features a stamp reading "Delivered by Royal Mail".

This will account for around 60 per cent of all letters delivered by Royal Mail.

Speaking to Marketing Week magazine, one senior marketing director said that as the branding will appear prominently on packaging it will limit companies' options in terms of branding their envelopes.

"It is a high handed approach that adds little or no value to the mailing process and will adversely affect any creative options, and potentially response rates from direct mail packs," he added.

In a statement, Alex Jones, head of postal and environmental affairs at the Direct Marketing Association, also criticised the move, expressing disappointment that it had not been consulted on the move.

He hinted that it could set a 'dangerous' precedent whereby Royal Mail could choose to print whatever it liked on envelopes.

"It is already causing a lot of concern within the direct marketing industry and we are consulting with the regulator, other trade associations and postal user groups to decide on the next course of action," he added.

It is well recognised within the marketing industry that the envelopes communications are held in is integral to whether people will open them or not.

Effective tricks of the trade used to make people want to see what's inside the envelope, and which could be hampered by the Royal Mail's proposal, include disguising the letter as something else, adding a 'teaser' message and featuring company logos prominently if a well-known big brand.

According to the latest Bellwether report, direct marketing budgets increased during the second quarter of 2011, meaning these changes could have implications for a lot of companies.

[demon]

so we should

[pinstripe]

Would it even be legal for RM to print anything on the envelopes? After all, they do not own them. The envelopes remain the property of the sender until delivery. At no point in the collection/delivery pipeline does ownership pass to RM.

[DGP1]

If they all hadn't run off to DSA then this wouldn't have happened and as I said before , if they don't like it then they can deliver it themselves.


nb. I assume this only counts for DSA mail and not those that come from RM

[fishtank]

Would it even be legal for RM to print anything on the envelopes? After all, they do not own them. The envelopes remain the property of the sender until delivery. At no point in the collection/delivery pipeline does ownership pass to RM.

We better stop cancelling stamps then.

[pinstripe]

Would it even be legal for RM to print anything on the envelopes? After all, they do not own them. The envelopes remain the property of the sender until delivery. At no point in the collection/delivery pipeline does ownership pass to RM.

We better stop cancelling stamps then.

Good point! Then again, at the same time the DSA parasites don't own them either.

[Stormproof]

I don't know why these companies have branded envelopes anyway, its only us and the householder that see them.

[chunk]

How dare rm take up valuable advertising space!
The customer could find this very distracting...

Honestly he doesnt represent any self interested group
although the advertising industry never had it so good since the introduction of (below cost) dsa !
Its never been cheaper to reach customers with a mailing subsidized by the taxpayer!
Mailing companies need advertisers -advertisers need mailing companies
They all drink out of the same trough.

I would love a list of shareholders or directors in these firms using dsa.
If there wasn't a vested/conflicted interest somewhere i would be surprised.