Royal Mail's ambitions need a reality check

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/opinion/ ... 10.article" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Royal Mail hopes by offering brands enhanced planning, creative and data solutions they will be reminded of the “power of physical”, an appreciation lost in the rush to embrace digital. Is the launch of Market Reach an new dawn for physical direct marketing? Or the last desperate throw of the dice for a channel in terminal decline?

The intention for Market Reach is not management of decline. Royal Mail is hoping that the full-service solution will inspire brands and agencies to either add DM to their channel mix or substitute it for another. The hoped for outcome is to increase physical DM’s share of the UK’s advertising market.

A lofty ambition. Even loftier when you consider the prevailing winds. Report after report from respected sources have indicated that spend on direct marketing is declining. Received wisdom has it that the sector is losing out to younger, nimbler and, in some cases, cheaper alternatives.

This should not read as an admission of defeat for DM. Nor should it be taken as an answer to the question posed at the start of this missive.

It has long been argued that the key stakeholders in the physical DM market need to get smarter. Efforts to enhance creativity, effective planning and relevance need to be steeped up, it is said.

Time will tell whether Market Reach proves itself on all counts but the good intentions to tick all of those boxes are there. More creative DM at a reasonable cost (Royal Mail’s charges are as yet undisclosed) can only bolster its appeal to brands and agencies. Aligning with digital, or as marketing director Antony Miller puts it “by providing a route to digital” is an already well worn path that should be encouraged.

The answer, therefore, to the questions posed up top falls somewhere between the two. If it is a new dawn, it is for Royal Mail and not DM - a refocusing of its efforts to concentrate on the areas of its business that are likely to provide returns ahead of privatisation. What it should be viewed as instead is a welcome addition that should, if handled correctly, provide brands with more reasons to use DM.

Grabbing a larger slice of the advertising market might be out of Royal Mail’s reach. Holding its ground by providing reason for it to be considered is a humbler but more achievable ambition.

[chunk]

Had I at age 14 submitted a draft like this to my English teacher,
it would have been thrown back (after a reading of the first sentence) ,
and marked with a D or an F.

Why use 200 words to say something that could be said in 50 ?

[chunk]

the short version:

"RM is in decline
because of younger cheaper sevices like e mail
they are now offering some new services(market reach) in order to win more of the dm (junk mail) market.
its a desperate attempt and its wasting its time as it will soon be privatized
ha ha! "

he could hardly be more wrong we practicaly "own" dm or junk mail
the dot com bubble bursts have shown that these electronic houses of cards fall as easily as paper ones.
and hes a knob.

[POSTMAN]

LOL chunk.

[RedBagMan]

Had I at age 14 submitted a draft like this to my English teacher,
it would have been thrown back (after a reading of the first sentence) ,
and marked with a D or an F.

Why use 200 words to say something that could be said in 50 ?

That's why it's called "marketing"