SOLUTIONS


WHAT DO PRINT BUYERS WANT? Buck Crowley, Owner, Buck Automation


DIRECT MAIL


There is a confl ict between what your customers say they want, what they really want, and what you really can give them!


Experienced print buyers have learned that certain requirements are more luck than intention. They have come to know you and understand what is reasonable to expect from you. However, the market is maturing and technology is improving. The tools and techniques are now in place to lead your competitors, retain your customers, and grab a larger share of the market. It takes understanding what’s valuable to your customers and providing it to them in a profi table way.


The Magazine 12 05.2016


The emphasis should not be on “what a buyer asks for” but on “what a knowledgeable buyer would ask for if they thought it was reasonable.” What do they hope for, and what do they worry about not getting in their direct-mail campaign? This assumes good quality and highly personal- ized messages are a given. You know how to get a great looking product out on time, but what else is there that’s important with direct-mail production?


The production process, from the point that the mail-content fi les are ready until it is on the USPS truck, involves many people and has several processes. Equipment manufacturers are changing direct-mail produc- tion with new processes and supporting machines. This article sets the profi le for the next generation of direct-mail production methods.


We interviewed the consultants who coach print/mail buyers and studied the list that mail-inserter manufacturer’s off er with their equipment. We have discovered that mail/print-buyers want three things:


1) Reduced cycle-time (turn-time or turnaround): The time from when their content changes are frozen and the direct-mail piece is in the hands of the addressee.


2) Mail piece integrity: No misuse of the piece or the information such as advanced leaking of content, using the coupons or information not as intended, or altering the piece in a way not approved.


3) 100% accuracy: Every name on the list goes in the mail stream. Or 100% saturation is mailed for that class of mail.


While these three requirements may seem obvious, they are not easily or often achieved because the typical production process requires manual intervention. Lots of steps and lots of people touch your customer’s product.


There are typically at least fi ve production processes: data prep, print, preparation (fold/tab/glue/insert), address, and tray, and maybe more such as co-mingling. Manual intervention means moving from machine to machine often in other departments and sometimes with a decreasing level of technical understanding as the mail approaches the shipping door. At each step there may be a diff erent set of employees who have the opportunity to add three issues: delays, integrity-loss, and mistakes.


In today’s competitive marketplace, equipment manufacturers have looked for more ways to help you provide your print customer something new and diff erent that contributes to their bottom line. This means more automation, less manual intervention, and tighter process controls.


Forty years ago the industry began fi nishing and addressing mail inline with web presses. About four years ago, addressing on press was added by inkjet. At fi rst look this seems like a major breakthrough in the produc- tion process. More than 20 major companies adopted inkjet addressing on web presses for direct mail. But it turns out when addressed mail has to be sorted, trayed, and palletized to USPS standards it can require 10 to 30 man-hours offl ine for every hour the press runs. It is far more complex to tray mail once it has been addressed on press. Traying unaddressed mail on typical letter shop addressing mail tables or envelope inserters is much easier.


The traditional direct-mail process takes unaddressed pieces off press and into a direct-mail processing area, or to a direct-mail outsourcing provider. For addressed mail, they would feed the printed product into inkjet addressing tables or mail inserters and manually tray the mail from conveyors off the end. In addition to preparing the mail, there was the opportunity for delays and mistakes due to the human factor.


The new inline direct-mail process with a web press takes addressed pieces off the press in trays and processes them immediately to waiting trucks. It’s impressive to watch this automated procedure as the fi nished mail comes off the press and out the door shortly after printing. Trays, straps, sleeves, and pallets are brought into the press area and completed trays are fi lled every few seconds and taken out of the press area.


The usual web pressman’s needs are taken care of; waste and samples are handled automatically both by a combination of procedure and equipment. The usual mailroom needs for processing direct mail are also accommodated—everything is processed to the USPS Direct-Mail-


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