appointments  printing - on demand  mailing and distribution 
Getting the message across to clients is becoming an increasingly targeted and timed affair, writes David Catt. Potential clients are becoming an increasingly discerning breed. Overloaded by marketing messages and faced with a decreasing amount of time to process them, traditional techniques of mass mailing printed marketing material or bombarding businesses and homeowners with telephone calls during meal times no longer generates a profitable, or pleasant, response. Phone calls are terminated abruptly, and printed brochures land in the bin before they are even glanced at. In recent times, advances in direct marketing techniques have become the answer.

The term ‘direct marketing’ is a broad term, encompassing a large number of technologies, not just print. While the advent of digital television does provide for the future possibility of televisual direct marketing, internet and email provide the other two most effective means apart from print. For printing, direct marketing can be broken down into three primary categories – essential mail, which is black and white printing in high volume at low cost; highlight colour, which offers high production levels without full colour; and full colour, which is printed on high-end digital solutions, and in some cases, even on offset presses, depending on volume.

Direct mail and marketing are also not new concepts. Utilities companies have been using it for years in processing and sending out billing forms. Australia Post brought the issue of direct marketing into the spotlight during the 1980s, but only now is the concept gaining popularity, particularly as new technologies push the frontiers further and as potential targets for marketing become less and less responsive to the traditional print marketing techniques of printing massive volumes of marketing material and distributing it through the mail. People are also becoming far less responsive, and even scornful of direct marketing techniques over the phone and by email. In fact, recent legislation outlawing spam will further push the focus of direct marketing campaigns towards a print-based medium.

John Venett, Konica Minolta national product marketing manager, says, "What we are finding is that variable data is coming back for a number of reasons. Number one is spam. Legally, it is becoming more and more difficult to send out an email mailout because there are legal issues to deal with, as well as the volume of spam that is out there. 80 per cent of all emails at the moment is spam, and people don’t want to be interrupted during their personal time.

Chris Aked, Océ Australia product and market manager, believes that in the process of planning ahead as a commercial printer it could be easy to succumb to the belief that the future will encompass a dog eat dog world in a commodity driven market. What is certain, he says, is that a majority the traditional business models will have to change in order to survive new global trends that permeate far beyond the printing world.

"The internet has allowed globalisation to take on new meaning and traditional value chains will continue to change in order to achieve the same results. Print buyers demands are not the same today as they were five years ago and these demands will only increase as technology advances," Aked says.

"However, there is hope and these inevitable changes could prove to be advantageous to the industry as printers identify new business opportunities and print buyers identify new possibilities; possibilities they are willing to pay extra for."

Aked points to the fact that printers today have already recognised the need to reinvent themselves to ensure they protect their future. He notes that in a recent survey, 27 per cent of printers now see ‘expanding our digital printing services’ as a top sales opportunity; and 13 per cent see ‘variable data print jobs’ as another high priority (whattheythink.com).

So, why is Océ so confident that its VDP solutions can ensure businesses can respond to customer demand? "Firstly because we estimate that each and every day over 50,000 kilometres of VDP is printed on Océ technology worldwide. Secondly, Océ works with many of the largest companies globally, companies that rely on Océ for the integrity, security and quality of personalised printed output. Océ know and understand our customers, but more than that, Océ also understand our customers’ customer," says Aked.

"Océ enables organisations worldwide to enhance their profitability through the growth of VDP applications. Not only do we provide the education to ensure our customers can attract new VDP business but we provide a total workflow solution including e-procurement, document design and creation, submission, production and finishing. Our extensive experience along with our innovative technology and know-how ensures our customers can successfully manage the industry challenges of today with a proven partner who will help steer them into a bright future."

Potential abounds
For Australia though, direct mail marketing is still a largely untapped industry. Currently, Australians only receive one tenth of direct mail marketing volumes per capita than United States residents, and only one-third the amount compared to residents in the United Kingdom. According to Simon Lane, Fuji Xerox production printing systems marketing manager, the potential for direct marketing in Australia is huge, but that the take up has been, and continues to be, below expectations.

"I could send out 20,000 brochures via the mail, or 100 pieces featuring variable data to carefully considered and chosen customers that I know will respond. I will save a fortune in printing costs, which can be directed into other campaigns, and the response rates will be far higher," says Lane. However, he believes that ultimately the big winners in direct mail marketing will be those companies that have already amassed large databases on their clients and their purchasing habits, with many already utilising the Internet and email to continue to assemble this driving force of direct mail marketing.

Fuji Xerox has continually underlined its commitment to the growing direct marketing industry with its development of high end digital production printers, such as the DocuColor 6060 and iGen3, and for years with its DocuTech high speed black and white solutions which service the essential mail printing market. However plans are for the company to tackle the highlight colour market, launching a highlight colour solution later this year.

"There is amazing opportunity in highlight colour for direct mail marketing opportunities. It is a low cost way of adding colour and getting the results you desire. Printers can very easily make a colour flyer using only red and black that is very effective in generating a response. You don’t always need to make the jump to full colour. We think that there is a half-way point," says Lane.

The company’s well-known DocuTech products, which have being producing essential mail products for a number of years now, also received a fillip this year, with Fuji Xerox launching an all-new DocuTech platform at drupa. Lane says it will boast higher image quality and wider stock handling capabilities. The first of these will arrive in Australia in July, with a production version of the machine arriving towards the end of the year.

Konica Minolta is also making significant inroads with its growing portfolio of high-speed colour and black and white solutions. Venett says, "We have high speed black and white, which has been around in the marketplace for a long time, and one of the good things about these machines is the processing speed. It is one thing to print 1000 prints of the same page, it is another thing to print 1000 different pages. With our rips, we are able to run variable data pretty close to the rated speed of the machines.

"With our latest colour gear, the same applies. With our 8050 model, the rip is designed to output mail merge of not only names, but also merging data as well. We work with Printshop Mail, Create Print, Paris, but we are also working with the new technology that is emerging, PPML, which is something our supplier Fiery is very much attuned to."

Garnering a response
The high-speed digital printing arena for the purposes of mailing is already a well developed arm of the printing industry, pioneered by the likes of Scitex and continued under the banner of Kodak Versamark after the Scitex Digital Printing business was recently sold to Eastman Kodak.

According to Stephen Pratt, Kodak Versamark regional sales and marketing manager, the results generated by direct mail more than justifies its use. Pratt’s research shows that by adding personalisation and colour to mail pieces increases response from two per cent to up to 39 per cent, increase order value by 24.5 per cent, increases follow-up orders by 47.6 per cent, increase revenue by 31.6 per cent, and reduce response time by 33.9 per cent. Colour documents are also 55 per cent more likely to be read than black and white ones, and the likelihood of a purchase being made increases up to 80 per cent.

"Why utilise colour and personalised data? Response rates when you use blocks of personalised data such as text and images are much higher then generic text. And its not just response rates, but also comprehension, and that is more important sometimes than response, to get the message across about what you are trying to sell," says Pratt.

"Colour just adds another dimension to that. We live in a colour world - everyone thinks in colour, uses colour, sees in colour and responds to colour. If you look at the number of low-end colour copiers going out into the marketplace, it is telling us that people are wanting to produce in full colour, with variable data on them."

Like Lane, Pratt emphasises that although it is important to have the right equipment to produce the work, the key element to a successful direct mail campaign is the database.

"Provided a mail generator has a database with the right information ordered in the right way, you can produce documents that are completely timely, relevant and personalised 100 per cent to the individual receiving them, based purely on their demographics, buying patterns and past responses. For HPA, which has just bought our Versamark Business Color Press, this is an exciting opportunity," says Pratt.

"In terms of our other equipment, many of the direct mailing houses and commercial printers have been using our Dijit range of printheads to put variable data onto a whole range of different mail pieces, whether it be something sophisticated like the cut sheet work produced by Penfold Buscombe and Kings Mailing, or Dynamic Direct in Victoria, who may have done it on a continuous or roll-fed solution."

However, not everyone is of the belief that personalisation and colour are prerequisites of a successful mailing campaign. Steve Brown, Canon Australia national product manager for production and graphic arts, says, "It’s a fairly generic statement when people say that adding personalised data or colour increases response rates, because that is not always the case. I can take a very ordinary black and white, done in an old typewriter font, and send it out and get just as good a response rate as someone else who went to the hilt with colour and variable data. At the end of the day, it is not about the colour or the variable data, it’s about the marketing message, and if the marketing message isn’t right, then it’s not going to work.

"Also with variable data, you must consider your return on investment. If you want to send out 500 packs, and each product is worth $5, and you get a three per cent response rate, and if it costs me $300 to send out the packs, then I haven’t got my return on investment. What you really need is good marketing, good hooks, and a good message, and once you get that right, and it may take a few attempts, you have to keep on doing that. You can’t just sit back, you have to keep on hitting them, and you may have to consider a variety of mediums."

This is not to say that colour and variable data do not present good opportunities in direct mailing, according to Brown, but rather they need to be used carefully and thoughtfully, and not when black and white standard text will more than suffice. Another consideration is the databases being used. If they are not up-to-date, much cost can be incurred when the material is sent back due to an incorrect address or because the intended recipient has left the address.

For black and white printing, Brown recommends the Canon iR 7285 and iR 105 digital printers, and in colour, the iR C3200 and CLC5100 printers. However, he believes that in this case, a black and white solution will often be much more applicable.

Nicole Cook, Distribution Alliance International publishing services manager, agrees wholeheartedly with Brown, a comforting sign that vendors and service suppliers are seeing eye to eye on a number of the issues that ultimately affect the quality of service provided to mail and marketing message generators.

"Distribution costs are a large part of any direct mail campaign’s budget so the first thing that’s important is that the lists are current and up to date. Invest time in making sure any returns you’ve received from previous mailings are noted. Also spend time or money in qualified de-duping - do you really want to be sending out 1000 letters to an unknown ‘marketing manager?’ Use telemarketing to get the names of the important decision makers you are trying to contact correct," says Cook.

"Getting your piece right is another important step. As my father used to say, ‘The essence of stupidity is doing the same thing a second time and expecting a different result’. If you’re not happy with your current results from your direct mail campaign invest time in re-creating your piece. A ‘think tank bank’is always a good idea. Keep a file of all the direct marketing you receive and go through and note the common elements of the pieces. You will notice a pattern from several sources, which means it will be getting the desired result for different people in differing industries.

"One common element you will notice is getting the pieces to mirror standard envelope sizes, again being clever about your creative piece will reduce your distribution costs if they fit into standard sizes allowing you to reap the maximum benefits postal providers can give."

Timely marketing
The success of one to one marketing can be blunted somewhat by ineffective timing. When to launch a particular campaign is the responsibility of the marketing customer and the customers will book the work for print when they need it, however the best print job in the world is no use if it is left to stand idly by or is jammed in a bottleneck when the work reaches the inserting and distribution stage. Mailing systems come in two forms: lower volume devices like the ones supplied by GBC and Pitney Bowes, and the higher volume machines from InTelmail and Buhrs, among others.

According to Tony Cartwright, GBC Australia Mailroom Division national product manager, there is little understanding amongst the printing industry at large about exactly what folding and inserting machinery is, and what it actually can do in such areas as direct marketing. He believes that as the understanding grows, more and more printers and marketers will be drawn to the GBC solutions due to their attractive pricing.

"We are finding that printers with variable data capabilities are printing off all this work and asking, ‘Where can I sell this?’ If they go off and look at a large mailing machine that may suit their output, a lot of them are going to say, ‘Well, I don’t have half a million dollars for a large folding/inserting system’ and will find that there is this large gap between what they are doing, and the high end mailing machines. Most of them will then just outsource to a mailing house and miss out on the opportunities that are there.

"What they don’t realise is that there are machines that fill that void very well, such as our Neopost machines which are designed for runs of 120,000 to 200,000 per month. To a printer that may not be a lot, but more than one can be purchased, and they are a lot more adaptable than some of our more industrial competitors. The larger machines are set for a certain output, and they miss out on some of the smaller, yet still profitable, runs."

Cartwright says that the most simple of variable data applications, such as bills and statements, are the most critical of all, and it is a growing market that many are unable to tap into due to bottlenecks at the distribution stage. He says the various high-speed digital printing solutions from the likes of Xerox and Océ are all well and good, but are under-utilised at best without a reliable folder/inserter. He believes that the key to growing variable data applications to their full potential is for the print vendors to market their machines in tandem with, or with an understanding of, the distribution side of the workflow.

A step up in terms of output and speed are the solutions from inTelmail and Buhrs-ITM, which are both supplied locally through inTelmail. The inTelmail feeding systems can feed and accumulate up to 35 sheets at 55,000 A4 sheets an hour with the A model. With the VAF model, it feeds, folds and accumulates up to 15 flat sheets, 12 sheets half folded and eight sheets letter folded at 55,000 A4 sheets an hour. With both C4 and C5 Series inserting systems, no matter what configuration, online inkjet printing, digital monitoring for variable data printing, varification, and suspect envelope diversion can be added to the process. Envelopes can be matched, addressed and metered on-line. Cut sheet or reel-fed prints can both be processed by adding the appropriate feeder, and can be done in-line with the printing or as a stand-alone device.

The Burhs-ITM line of inserting, poly bagging and addressing systems handle larger mail types, such as magazines. The inTelmail and Buhrs-ITM machinery brands can also be integrated. The Buhrs-ITM BB300 Envelope Inserting System is capable of inserting B4 and DL formats at a rate of 8000 products an hour. Non-standard products such as magazines, cheque books and CDs are also handled. The BB600 can run at speeds up to 13,000 products an hour and process format sizes from C5 to DL. Larger and irregular-shaped items can be mailed using the poly and paper wrapping systems. The Buhrs 1000 and 3000 can process magazines, catalogues and direct mail at 13,000 and 15,000 products an hour respectively, with the Buhrs 2800 processing thicker products of 35-80mm at 12,000 an hour. The Buhrs 4000 is also available for higher quality paper and plastic processing, while larger, irregular mailing items can be inserted and poly/paper wrapped with the Buhrs 2500.

Garry Morrison, inTelmail sales executive, says the speed of these machines, coupled with their intelligence, makes them an indispensable part of serious mailing exercises, and with the vast majority of mailing houses utilising at least one of the aforementioned devices, many seem to agree.

"The direct marketing industry places a lot of demand on the mailing industry. There are many changes in marketing, information-wise and insert-wise. They wish to have something presented, to put things into an envelope in a different order, or they want something folded differently. There’s always something a direct marketer wants to change to get the edge on somebody else," says Morrison.

"On top of that, timing is very important. It must be done over a certain time. Everything comes together – it might be four different inserts coming from four different printers, it’s all got to be timed, co-ordinated and put together, and it may well be they want delivery to coincide with a TV or radio spot, it has to be timely or it all falls over. That’s where our technology comes in handy."

Standing out
inTelmail’s machinery may have an almost blanket coverage in the larger-scale mailing houses, but rarer are mailing houses devoted to the Buhrs solutions. One such company is AP Mail Management in Sydney, and it is using these devices to offer services to its customers that it believes cannot be currently offered anywhere else in Australia. The centrepiece of AP Mail Management’s facility is a Buhrs poly/paper wrapper, which on top of being able to wrap in plastic and paper, is also capable of foil wrapping.

Peter Collier, AP Mail Management sales and marketing manager, says that while the paper and foil wrapping abilities have yet to be used extensively, the possibility is generating much interest among its publishing customers. The paper wrap is a particularly interesting option for added revenue generation, as advertising can now be sold on the envelope in addition to its contents. However, it does require more planning than a plastic wrap, as artwork and printing needs to be factored in early in the posing process. Paper wrapping is also more environmentally friendly than plastic wrapping, which is also capturing the attention of the company’s more green-minded customers. However, Collier is quick to underline his opinion that paper-wrapping is more suited to a targeted campaign as opposed to being a regular mailing process.

Additionally, AP Mail Management also offers Post-It Note placement. "It may not sound like much, since Post-It Notes have been around for years, but what we can do with them is mechanically attach them to a publication or a direct mail piece, attracting attention to an advertisement, a special offer, or whatever. This is getting us a lot of attention from direct mailers and marketers," says Collier. "While many mailing houses offer this service, they attach it by hand, while we have a machine that can attach it automatically."

Saving a bundle
Pitney Bowes is another company that specialises in the in-house folder/inserter market, but has also chosen to extend its reach into production-grade machinery as well. Its systems extend from the 900 DLX envelope per hour DI200 OfficeRight desktop system to the DI800 FastPac, a modular system capable of inserting up to 4200 DL-C5 sized envelopes per hour with up to eight items depending on the chosen fold. It also features optional OMR (optical mark recognition) technology to enable variable insertions and greater integrity.

The company has also launched the Fastpac Inserter system, which is capable of handling 3600 C4 or C5 mail pieces per hour, inserting up to six A4 or A5 flat pieces per envelope. This makes it an ideal solution for magazine mailing, or mailing high-quality marketing pieces that customers would prefer not to be folded due to quality issues. After all, why pay good money for a print run of high quality work on an expensive paper or board, only to then fold it unnecessarily? The company’s range of folder/inserters are complimented by DM Series mailing systems for weighing, feeding and postmarking of mail. The range extends from the DM100, which can process up to 30 mail pieces per minute, through to the DM900, which can process up to 240 pieces per minute. All are government approved for accurate postmarking.

Additionally, Pitney Bowes offers the DOC1 Series 5 document composition software system, which facilitates the creation of direct mailing pieces such as bills and forms. This program offers the ability to tap into the fledgling market of adding personalised advertising to forms to accompany the traditional personalised billing and name data, and thereby open up further avenues of revenue generation. This would make sense, as such billing mail as telephone, electricity and credit card bills and statements make up the bulk of mail sent and received daily. Such advertising is already taking place within Pitney Bowes on all of its billing statements, which the company says is proving to be a successful exercise.

According to Jamie Geerin, Pitney Bowes marketing and postal strategy director, the combination of all these solutions is designed to not only expedite the finishing and delivery of mailing pieces, but also to enable users to overcome some of the greater pitfalls of large-scale mailouts – fines and overcharging.

"There are a lot of companies out there who are overpaying for their postage, and often it is a lot of money they are handing over, as they are afraid of the fines that Australia Post imposes for understating postage, and these fines can be quite large as well. These fines are around $1.50 for each offending piece, plus the difference between what was paid and what should have been paid," says Geerin.

There is much to consider when developing a direct mail piece, or looking to get into the business of producing them regularly. While the messages and warnings appear a dime a dozen, the best course of action is to calmly and objectively view the needs of each individual mailing run in the light of the overall mailing and marketing needs of the company, and make the decision that will yield you the best return of investment, whether colour or black and white, static or variable, outsourced or developed in-house.




What is PPML?


PPML, or personalised print markup language is an open, interoperable, device-independent standard that its pundits are hoping will enable the widespread use of personalised print applications. It is based on XML, or extensible markup language.
The Printing On Demand Initiative (PODi), the group charged with the development of this new standard, says PPML is a standard developed with commercial intent, to create commercial impact - to genuinely change the economics of personalised printing. The group says it will allow personalised print to be more flexible, easier to use and more affordable to produce. It supports a full range of on-demand printing ranging from the office environment to high-speed production environments. Namely, it seeks to address efficient file size and resource management, as well as enabling printers to run at their full rated speeds in both textual and graphical environments, promote personalised printing, automate document workflows, and provide easy integration with enterprise systems and web services.
Members of PODi include Adobe, EFI, Creo, Hewlett-Packard, NexPress, Xerox, IBM, Lexmark, Océ, Pageflex, Kodak Versamark and Xeikon.







CPI’s mailing guide


Direct mail has consistently been a growing print market, but an area that continues to cause much confusion with regard to correct selection of paper. CPI (with the assistance of Kings Mail, Permail and Mail Marketing Works) has therefore created the CPI "Direct Mail Guide", which lists the major stock lines from CPI tested by the companies for both short and long run applications. Whilst a guide, it does act as a short track to the selection process and makes recommendations to the design, print process and conditioning of stock for end-use laser or inkjet personalisation through direct mail.