SOME THINGS A CATALOGER SHOULD KNOW

The following is a perspective by postal commentator Gene Del Polito for Catalog Success.

There's a lot that's already been written on both the passage of postal reform and the 2006 postal rate case. To your never-ending relief, I have no intention to speak to either issue here.

Sure, rate cases are exciting, sometimes highly-charged events, and the passage of the first new postal law in three decades is nothing to sneeze at. Nonetheless, it's the "little stuff," the seemingly niggling changes in postal rules and mail make-up procedures that can carry costs that might add more to the cost burden mailers would have to carry than inflation-bounded rate changes. As one of PostCom's board members likes to put it regarding postal rules: "Either God or the Devil can be found in the details."

One area that recently has garnered a great deal of Postal Service attention are the many matters pertaining to addressing. This should not come as a surprise, since the address is the single most important mailing element as far as delivery is concerned. Think about it. If the whole purpose for sending an advertising or marketing message by mail is to make contact with the intended recipient, ensuring that the recipient's address is as accurate and complete as possible makes sense.

You'd never know that, though, judging by the volume of Standard Mail that still is considered undeliverable-as-addressed (UAA). Recent Postal Service data show that by 2008 UAA mail will reach some 10 billion pieces with a cost of some $1.6 billion. This is far from small cheese, and it's just one of the reasons why Postmaster General Jack Potter has made elimination of UAA a Postal Service priority.

Bad addressing (i.e., any address that's erroneous or incomplete) creates other adverse effects, which, if ignored, will cost catalogers a great deal more than just the cost of paying postage on mail that will never get delivered. For instance, very few mailers cull their lists of names of deceased persons. Mailing to the dead, particularly after survivors have made an effort to have the mailings stop, leaves one with the impression that either commercial mailers are insensitive louts, or that the cost of their postage is way too cheap and a more sizeable postal rate increase is well in order. Mailing to people who are no longer alive, to someone's underage children, or to Bosco the dog serves only to stoke the ardor of those who believe that government should stem the flow of unsolicited, unwanted mail by creating mandatory "do-not-mail" lists, just as is the case today with "do not call," "do not fax," or "do not email" lists.

Every medium that can be used by businesses for communication and commerce comes with constraints that are unique to that medium. The advertisement you'd publish in a newspaper is often nothing like the ad you'd air on television. Likewise, the ad you'd air on the radio often will have remarkably different characteristics than the written offer you put in the mail.

Mail is a medium, and it requires those who use that medium to observe constraints that are its own. For instance, the single most important facet of any advertisement or marketing message that's distributed via mail is the address. That's the equivalent to the ten digits that most of us dial when we choose to use the phone, or the email address that must be correct in all regards if our message is expected to be routed to our intended recipient.

How addressing information is used to ensure proper distribution and delivery have been undergoing significant change for the past several years. Today, more mail is sorted and routed by machines rather than people. Machines read written characters and convert them into binary digits, which form the language that machines are manufactured to interpret. Addresses that are incomplete or wrong in any way fail to provide modern mail sorting equipment with the information they need to ensure proper routing and distribution.

In an effort to get addresses on mail in a more perfect form, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is stepping up the requirements with which mailers will be expected to comply to qualify for the lower postage that goes with mailer worksharing. The USPS has instituted more stringent addressing rules in conjunction with its implementation of the 2006 postal rate case, and its informing mailers now of the even more stringent requirements that will be applied in the very near future.

In postal vernacular, the rules for proper addressing are operating now in what we call the Cycle L environment of CASS -- or Coding Accuracy Support System. The Postal Service has begun to educate suppliers and end-users about its Cycle M requirements, which will take effect Aug. 1, 2008. An example of addressing rules for Cycle L is the new requirement for mailers to process their lists against the Postal Service's LACS database to convert rural route addresses into their city-style equivalents. While Cycle L allows for leeway regarding incorporating LACS changes into their actual mailing databases, the rules next summer will require it. Further, Cycle M rules will also require manufacturers to offer an option known as SuiteLink, which allows mailers to run their addresses against a new USPS addressing product that can append any relevant apartment or suite number information to a business address.

And this is only the beginning. The USPS has announced its intention to require all users of Standard Mail to process their addresses through Move Update--yet another USPS product for updating names and addresses used in a mailing.

What's important for catalogers to remember is that the rules governing USPS addressing are being stepped up. While this article may not be the place to detail all the addressing changes that have been made already or those that are on the way, the message that should be retained is that closer attention will need to be paid to this one particular characteristic associated with the mail medium.The USPS is convinced that high-quality addressing and properly printed associated delivery point barcodes will enhance greatly the processing and delivery of mail. The tools available to catalogers and their service suppliers are many. Now's the time to take those steps that will help ensure that every penny you invest in marketing by mail has the greatest potential of adding to your company's bottom line.