Let sampling campaigns prove the power of your product.

By Burt Rhodes

Sure, good marketers are experts at explaining to consumers the many benefits and advantages of a new product or brand. But convincing those same customers to purchase isn’t always as simple as broadcasting a commercial or aiming e-mails at them.

Sometimes, say experts, winning consumers to a product means letting them try it before they buy it. Sometimes, a brand has to lead by a sample.

“Product samples are a way of creating excitement,” explains Rico Cipriaso, a corporate marketing veteran who has spearheaded product sampling campaigns for major international beauty brands. “Sending samples is one of the best ways to reproduce a store experience in the customer’s home.”

Indeed, sampling continues to rank among the most effective tactics in the history of direct marketing, in part because of its ability to do what no other medium can: put a physical product in customers’ hands. Moreover, the practice is finding new adherents even in the digital age.

Consequently, while some CMOs struggle to make sense of new media initiatives, many others are enjoying steady success thanks to a rediscovery of the appeal of product sampling and the power of direct mail to get these campaigns to customers.

“Sampling is growing in importance [because] consumers are bombarded with messages,” says Cindy Johnson, who worked as the corporate sampling programs manager for Procter & Gamble before starting her own marketing consultancy. “It’s just really hard to make an impact on consumers today. But people love samples.”

Certainly, sampling allows companies to extend their message. According to figures from the Promotion Marketing Association, product samples reach 70 million households each quarter. A recent PMA poll also found that 75 percent of customers say they have become aware of a product through a sample.

And consumers are acting on this awareness, with many saying that product sampling helps them choose among brands. For instance, 81 percent of consumers said they would try a product after receiving a sample, according to a poll conducted in December by Opinion Research Corp. on behalf of the United States Postal Service.® Moreover, 61 percent of those polled said that sampling a product is the most effective way to get them to try a brand.

“It is the consumer-preferred method of marketing,” Johnson says. “[Consumers] are tuning out the advertising, [but] they love to try new things. That’s why product sampling works.”

Like Cipriaso, Johnson maintains that product sampling is an ideal way to win customers’ faith in a product. “Consumers feel the sample gives them the actual experience of the product,” she says. “They don’t have to risk any investment to be able to try it.”

This is important, continues Johnson, because many consumers are still anxious about the current economy and have become much more discriminating about their purchases. “That’s why sampling is even more successful right now,” she says. “Because they don’t want to invest dollars in new products. So they are relying on that trial experience to tell them whether they are going to like the product or not.”

Brands can get samples to consumers through an assortment of avenues, of course, from event marketing giveaways to newspaper inserts. Direct mail efforts, though, offer one of the surest avenues to reach consumers, say marketers.

Nick Peragine, product sales manager for Georgia-based lighting manufacturer PureSpectrum, says his company recently used mail to send samples of a new energy-efficient light bulb to a wide assortment of B-to-B contacts. “We came to the decision to use direct mail primarily because it was the easiest way to introduce our products to a large number of potential constituents over a broad area — and to be able to get actual samples of our product in their hands.”

Johnson says the precision of mail marketing also gives it an advantage in product sampling campaigns, although she acknowledges that targeting isn’t everything when it comes to sampling. “With sampling, targeting is very important, but there are other elements that go into the return on investment. Like if you’re resampling the same person: I don’t care if you have the right target, if you have poor sample control there’s no point in doing the program.”

And while it’s a natural fit with direct mail, product sampling also can be integrated into larger, multimedia campaigns. In the Opinion Research Corp. poll, 84 percent of respondents said they would be likely to log on to a Web site to receive samples if they received a post card driving them to the site.

“A lot of retailers have sites where you can request a sample,” Johnson notes, pointing out how one grocery chain has blended mail and sampling with digital elements of its marketing mix. “And because consumers are thinking they get the sample through that supermarket, then that’s where they go to find the product if they want to buy it. Consumers link the brand with the retailer.”

Thus, the retailer enjoys the bump up in brand opinion and recognition, she says, while its sampling vendor carries the actual responsibility for distributing the products.

Johnson says these integrated programs also give marketers a chance to learn more about their customers. “A lot of times [after sending a sample], we give them a Web site to register on,” she explains. “We say, ‘Here’s a Web site. We’re collecting information about your sample, giving away a small prize.’ And they will go online and register, and provide us with the feedback that way.”

Likewise, many brands are making use of social media networks in their sampling efforts. It’s becoming increasingly common, for instance, for brands to mail samples of new products to a select list of targets and then watch as those recipients go to Facebook® and other sites to post rave reviews about the samples.

This suggests that product sampling also engenders consumer loyalty, much like frequent flyer programs and other initiatives, Cipriaso says. He notes how quality product samples, despite usually being distributed in small quantities, have a way of getting consumers to come back to certain brands. “After we introduce you to our products, we want to make sure we keep you forever,” he says.
“We also know that the best customers tend to replenish. They buy the same product over and over again because they use it every day and they love it.”

And these customers also present ideal targets for sampling campaigns designed to expand a brand line, says Johnson: “Let’s say you’re already using a shampoo by a particular brand. If that brand is expanding into the antiperspirant and moisturizer categories, the person who already uses another product by that brand may be more receptive to buying the product. Sometimes, giving them a sample will help make that transition happen.”

But for all their enthusiasm about product sampling, Johnson and others don’t hesitate to warn CMOs about taking sampling campaigns too lightly. No marketing strategy is ever easy to execute, Johnson points out, so marketers need to approach sampling as wisely as they would any other tactic. “The famous misconception is that product sampling is easy,” she says. “You really do need to dot your i’s and cross your t’s.”

In the end, though, when done right, product sampling can yield not only invaluable brand exposure, but also solid ROI, richer knowledge about customers and a stronger bond between companies and the people who buy their goods. Put simply, says Cipriaso, “It’s a business case that works.”

A little goes a long way

Consumers love getting something free — even if it’s a tiny bit of something, as evidenced by recent sampling initiatives from these brands.

Texas Pete Hot Sauce

The hot sauce brand recently touted its flavor varieties by offering a limited number of product samples through the social networking site Facebook.® The company planned to distribute its 10,000 samples over a four-week period, but hit that number of requests in just six days. Each sample contained a 1.9-ounce bottle of the consumer’s flavor of choice, a can koozie and a coupon that held a unique bar code to help the company track its redemption rate.

PureSpectrum

When the Georgia-based lighting company needed to distinguish its new 20-watt dimmable compact fluorescent lamp from rival products, a sample campaign was the answer. Test products were mailed to the company’s target audience — the 964 rural electrical co-ops across the United States. The campaign results generated an influx of purchase orders, product sales and requests for quotes.

Splenda

In July, the sweetener brand used sampling to give consumers a first look at its new pocket-sized mist spray and to gather feedback before rollout. Splenda required requesters to become fans of its Facebook page, which let the company better target its key demographic — women 25 and older — through their profiles on the social networking site. More than 16,000 samples were given away in just two weeks.

Living Proof

Free samples flew off the virtual shelves when the beauty brand offered Facebook® users a trial of its No Frizz hair care product. More than 15,000 samples were requested in a 48-hour period. Plus, fan numbers for the product spiked from around 1,000 to more than 7,000 during the promotion, even though consumers weren’t required to become a fan to receive the sample.

New Beauty magazine

Four times a year, the publication’s beauty sampling program, TestTube,™ sends subscribers deluxe-size samples of beauty products along with a booklet detailing the products’ features and benefits. After the first year of the program’s launch, 96 percent of recipients said they purchased a fullprice version of a sample item. The TestTube™ currently has over 20,000 subscribers, and the program continues to grow.

Cablevision Systems

Last fall, the New York–area cable operator brought interactive banner ads to TV that let its nearly 3 million subscribers order product samples from companies, such as Benjamin Moore, with a click of their TV remotes.

Sephora

The retail beauty chain offers consumers up to three free product samples with every online order. Customers select samples during checkout and the trial offerings are mailed with their purchased products.

Lead by a sample

Samples endure as a powerful way to win customers. In December, Opinion Research Corp. surveyed 1,000 consumers on behalf of the USPS® — all of them primarily responsible for sorting their household’s mail.

Here are a few findings:

81% of those surveyed said they will try a product after they receive a free sample.

61% said an actual product sample is the most effective way for a brand to get them to try a product.

65% said they would prefer to have samples mailed to their home.

72% said they would prefer receiving multiple samples in a single sample box.

89% said that an accompanying coupon would increase the value of a mailed sample box.

84% said that they’d likely log onto a Web site and sign up to receive samples if they got a post card from the USPS driving them to the site.

A product sampling expert tells why sampling campaigns may be more effective than ever.

By Pamela Oldham

Cindy Johnson spent more than 15 years at Procter & Gamble, including her tenure as the corporate sampling programs manager. In that time, she worked with nearly all of the P&G products and developed some valuable insights into how and why sampling continues to win over customers.

Johnson, who now consults with top marketers as head of her own firm, Sampling Effectiveness Advisors, sat down with Deliver® recently to share those insights and explain why recent advances in mail samples could make them more formidable than ever.

DELIVER: What makes sampling effective?

CINDY JOHNSON: With over 30,000 different products on the shelf in the average grocery store and with the typical consumer receiving as many as 3,000 advertising messages a day, a sample trial is one of the few ways that guarantees a brand due consideration from its target audience.

DELIVER: Is sampling growing in importance?

JOHNSON: [Today’s consumers] aren’t taking as many risks on a new brand or a new product. They love to try new products, but don’t want to spend $7 or $8 on a new shampoo to see if they like it. So they are relying on product trial experiences to tell them whether they are going to like the product or not. Coupons are nice if you’re going to buy the product anyway. But if you want to reach a new consumer who has never tried your product, the best way is going to be through a sample.

DELIVER: Why are more samples being mailed today?

JOHNSON: Two or three years ago, 80 percent of all purchase decisions were made in store. People were out of the home more often, and brands had to reach people where they were — out having fun or at work, or whatever. But now, because of the economy, 70 percent of purchase decisions are made at home. [Consumers] are making lists, and they’re going through their cupboards and figuring out what they need. Plus, they’re just not going out as much. So brands really have to try to reach the consumer and provide samples at home, where the decisions are being made.

DELIVER: What sampling innovations excite you?

JOHNSON: There is a new technology developed by First Flavor (FirstFlavor.com) called Peel ’n Taste.® It’s a film sample you put in your mouth that dissolves and gives you the same flavor experience as the product. For beverage brands especially, this will be a good way of sampling because in the past, they’ve really only been able to sample in store or at events [from a can or bottle] and there hasn’t been a good way to reach households. It will significantly reduce the cost and complexity of sampling for them. With this technology, they can actually send a sample through the mail, in a regular letter-sized envelope. Peel ’n Taste® will open up a lot of doors for companies to send samples to consumers.

Cindy Johnson’s tips for a successful sampling campaign

1. Reach your target consumer when and where they are likely to try the sample, now most likely at home.

2. Limit the program to one sample per customer.

3. Use a proven program with an experienced vendor.

4. Measure so you know what to do (or not do) next time. A purchase conversion measurement also lets you determine ROI.

WGN radio wins over top advertisers with a highly personalized multichannel marketing campaign.

By Paula Andruss

When Chicago radio station WGN decided to take its best advertisers out to the ball game last year, the station figured it should drive them to the Web first.

To that end, the station, which is the broadcast home of a professional baseball team, launched a colorful and highly personalized multi channel campaign that mixed direct mail and digital messaging into an engaging effort that drew some of its most lucrative advertisers to a party and ball game on the team’s 2009 Opening Day. Along the way, the station also underscored how new technology is allowing marketers to rewrite the rules of personalized campaigns.

The mailer, a 6-inch by 9-inch card die cut in the image of a baseball glove and delivered in a clear envelope, featured the recipients’ first and last names and included a call to action to visit their own personalized Web address to RSVP to the event.

That landing page dropped recipients into an elaborate baseball stadium scene containing personalized text, audio and an animated short video. In the video clip, the recipient, outfitted in a personalized jersey, is announced at the plate, hits a home run, runs the bases and watches the scoreboard light up in fireworks and spell out his or her name as an announcer calls out that name again.

“The request for a response was really a call to action to visit the personalized URL that was created for each individual recipient,” explains Frank Defino Jr., vice president and managing director for Franklin Park, Ill.–based Tukaiz, the marketing communications company that produced the campaign. “It was like watching a new movie personalized to you.”

That individual touch had a big impact. WGN sent out 300 invitations to an elite group of executives from some of its biggest advertisers, including a brewery and an automaker. The piece prompted 270 recipients to reply, a response rate of 72.3 percent.

And unlike past efforts to attract those execs, this campaign didn’t quickly slip the minds of recipients, says Defino. “In past years [WGN] had to follow up by phone with many people who had forgotten about the invitation to get their response. That was not much of an issue with this campaign,” he says, adding that the organization has already inquired about doing a similar campaign with Tukaiz for Opening Day this year.

WGN executives echo this sentiment, saying they were thrilled with the mailer’s response. “The campaign was hugely successful,” says Wendi Power, director of sales for WGN Radio. “The personalized invitations really set us apart, and our clients were very impressed with their own personalized URL (PURL) to RSVP.”

For its part, the die-cut mailer had been inspired by a baseball-themed direct mail piece that WGN had received from Tukaiz several months earlier. (For more on the seminal Tukaiz mailer, go to delivermagazine.com/case-studies/2009/01/13/tukaiz-sports.)

Defino says WGN invested heavily in the multichannel campaign — and in direct mail in particular — because station officials felt that the campaign’s “wow factor” would quickly engage a time-pressed audience too often inundated by other marketing messages and proposals. “!ere is no greater delivery mechanism out there than the United States mail,” he says. “E-mail is good for certain things, but direct mail has a tremendous effect in getting your message from point A to point B because it creates an engagement the minute they hold that piece in their hands.”

Adding image and name personalization to the WGN mailer forged an even stronger emotional connection that began the moment recipients saw the piece, Defino says: “We put them in a clear envelope so recipients could see the message instantly. They were immediately engaged because their name was right there on it.”

Audio further enhanced recipients’ visits to their PURLs. Tukaiz recorded the names of the 300 invitees so that when their Web image stepped up to the plate, the voice announced, “Now batting …” before calling the recipient’s name. “The audio was the frosting on the cake,” says Defino. “It’s not mainstream at this point, so it’s different from anything you’ve ever seen. When someone sees this technology for the first time, their jaw just drops. It’s very cool to stand there and watch their eyes light up.”

But for all of the stylishness of the postcards and digital elements, Defino says the mail pieces succeeded largely because of their substance and adherence to marketing fundamentals. “We still include the message, the offer, the response and the call to action,” he explains. “And we carefully measure results. All of those Marketing 101 rules that you need to follow are included in there, but we like to break those rules ever so slightly, and personalization does just that.”

Defino also says that the ability to track recipient behavior through the PURL provides added value to the strategy. He admits that some at WGN were initially apprehensive about the integrated campaign and how the assorted elements would all come together. However, once they learned how they would be able to capture data and gauge response, those fears were assuaged. “Through the PURL,” he says, “WGN could track a variety of recipient behaviors regarding the invitation, from when they first accessed the Web site to how long they stayed on it and which links they clicked on while they were there.”

It’s all part of an effort for marketers to set themselves apart from the pack, something Defino says highly personalized mail campaigns are uniquely positioned to do. “Whether someone is interested in the product or service being sold or not, when you use this kind of dynamic personalization, people just can’t help but look at it; it’s just human nature,” he says. “They feel compelled to look more closely and check it out.”

The marketer behind the winner of the Deliver® “Best of the Brag Room” competition tells how he makes direct mail work for his clients.

Interview by Chantal Todé

Commercial printer Montage Graphics has a knack for helping its clients gain an edge through direct mail. Most recently, the company devised an effective and engaging mail campaign that has helped Savvi Formalwear, a marketing and sales cooperative composed of 35 men’s formalwear retailers, hold its own against even the larger retail chains. Relying on deep personalization, the series of four-color mailers have helped boost business by driving in-market consumers online and into stores for Savvi tuxedos. The mailers also earned Savvi (and Montage) more attention after it was named the winner of the Deliver “Best of the Brag Room” online competition. The magazine recently sat down with Toby Gadd, president of Montage Graphics, to talk about integration, personalization and the makings of a winning mail effort.

DELIVER: We hear a lot about personalization these days. Is there anything unique about the direct mail from Savvi?

TOBY GADD: A lot of one-to-one campaigns happen only once. What is unique about this program is that it is ongoing. Savvi members have continued using the same 8.5-inch by 5-inch oversized postcard, making this one of the most successful ongoing, personalized, automated direct mail campaigns out there.

DELIVER: What can other marketers glean from Savvi’s success?

GADD: Direct mail is good, but if you can make it retainable, you go a lot further toward encouraging the recipient to follow through on an offer. We were able to do this for Savvi via digital print technology that incorporates a name into an image. When this type of personalization is done in a way that is appropriate and creative, the piece becomes retainable. For example, Savvi uses an image of a bride and groom on a beach in which the groom is writing his and the bride’s names inside a heart in the sand. This particular piece has become a keepsake for many brides.

Another reason for the program’s effectiveness is that consumers are being slammed with e-mail and it is becoming noise. This, in turn, creates a situation where direct mail is more likely to be noticed by the recipient and to imbue the sender with credibility and prestige, something that matters very much in the bridal market.

DELIVER: How is the personalized direct mail generated?

GADD: It’s generated with the SavviOne system, which was built on Montage Graphics’ ParticleLogic one-to-one platform. It automatically generates direct mail, e-mail and personalized landing pages incorporating image personalization, variable coupon offers, retailer branding and store locator maps.

We do a mail drop every week, and it is usually a big mix of campaigns at different intervals from a variety of Savvi stores.

The system also handles all of the data. Members send us lists of leads, which come primarily from bridal shows. We get up to 30 different lists a week from members around the country. These go to a primary database and, each week, every lead is run through NCOA software to keep the database current. This helps keep track of people who are moving around, something Savvi’s younger demographic does a lot. Leads are then assigned to a specific member based on where the person lives.

DELIVER: What do the stores do to determine mailing intervals?

GADD: Each store typically sends us the data for their bookings, and we determine how far out from the wedding date most brides in their area book the groom’s tuxedo fitting. The membership of Savvi also meet twice a year to share what’s working and what’s not. Often, members will borrow a successful strategy used by another store and test it.

DELIVER: How does the direct mail fit with other elements of the program?

GADD: The direct mail campaign is the entry into a comprehensive multichannel marketing system. The direct mail pushes recipients to a personalized URL to learn more. Once someone goes to the Web site, this triggers a message to the appropriate telemarketer to follow up with a call.

DELIVER:You mentioned this being a keepsake. Do you keep any direct mail pieces because they inspire certain feelings?

GADD: I have around 100 pieces I hold on to. They are my inspiration bank.

There’s one piece I used to keep because, at first, I thought it was a good example of how not to use personalization since the only apparent personalization was the use of my name. However, the piece was from a well-known direct mailer that continued to use this strategy, so I decided I must be missing something.

After speaking with people who liked receiving these pieces, I realized that it wasn’t the incoming personalization that was significant, but that recipients could personalize their response back using information provided in the mailer. This taught me that while push personalization is important, the pull aspect can be even more valuable. So now when I develop direct mail campaigns, I’m always trying to find ways to allow someone to show their preferences or describe their lifestyle.

DELIVER: What types of direct mail pieces make you cringe or get you excited?

GADD: I receive a lot of direct mail without offers or calls to action, which makes me cringe. When someone puts a mailer out there and it’s not evident what I am supposed to do as a consumer, it’s a waste of money. Simply making me aware of the fact that a store exists isn’t enough to drive me in there or make me a loyal customer.

I love it when I see a mailer that is retainable, makes the call to action obvious and has an offer that applies to my need at that time. In an instant, I know what I am supposed to do. That really does inspire me.

Don’t let the buzz surrounding social media obscure the real story

If half of life is just showing up, as the old saying goes, then the other half is paying attention.

It’s easy to get distracted — by the details, the facts, your emotions, the noise and the clutter. It’s harder to stay on track, follow the game plan and keep sight of the ultimate goal.

As marketers, we’re even more prone to get distracted. We love shiny new toys as much as, if not more than, any other profession. So we buzz about the “just came out” this and the “revolutionize the industry” that. We’re nuts about new.

The danger is that we start following the new, and the tried-and- true becomes, well, boring. We’ve done that, we understand how it works, we’re tired of it already — even if the world of consumers and customers is not. We change our marketing campaigns, our slogans, our packaging, our minds — not because the current program isn’t working but because we’re tired of it already.

So it shouldn’t be surprising that the buzz throughout the marketing world is all around the latest social media platforms or the microblogging technique that’s going to light up the world — when in reality, most of our audience hasn’t a clue about these.

True, it’s always great to be out in front of a trend — try explaining to the CMO how you missed the “obvious” and you’ll know what we mean — but we shouldn’t allow the newness of an idea to overwhelm our strategy. In other words, don’t abandon what works.

Most of America doesn’t know what microblogging is (69 percent in one recent poll), or doesn’t have (or really make) the time to post regularly to a blog or belong to a social networking site (only 46 percent of adults do).

Yes, marketers need to pay attention to the growth of social networks and new ways to connect — but more important, we need to pay attention to what works. It’s time to stop being distracted by the noise and focus on the game.

Traditional media isn’t the new kid on the block, but it’s still an effective way to reach the largest audiences. And it makes an incredibly good partner with digital. Consider that a recent study found 76 percent of Internet users bought an item or a service thanks to the influence of direct mail. Any cataloger will tell you that sending a print catalog helps boost online sales, and many retailers know that it’s the print circular that drives customers into stores.

So, next time you hear someone going on and on about the latest-greatest social media site that’s going to revolutionize the business, nod your head and listen. But don’t lose sight of what’s really important: marketing that sells more product. In the end, you’ll be glad you did.

Kohl’s plunks down extra cash for marketing when many competitors don’t

By Sandra Beckwith

While many retailers cut back on promotional spending during the 2009 holiday selling season, Kohl’s department stores stayed top of mind with cost-conscious consumers by leveraging a depressed media buying market and spending more on direct mail.

The Wisconsin-based chain’s holiday campaigns stressed the value offered by what the retailer calls “stackable savings opportunities.” Advertising, social media marketing and direct mail highlighted how shoppers could save the most by combining charge card offers, special deals at specific times and Kohl’s Cash coupons.

Direct mail efforts focused on Kohl’s Charge customers, offering them cardholder-only events, special Pick-Your-Day offers, and a bundled gift guide and jewelry mailer.

In addition, cardholders in select markets received a men’s holiday gift guide that included extra savings offers.

Colors to use (and avoid) when looking to achieve specific results

By Christine Hansen

Don’t worry, the fashion police won’t come looking for you if you don’t choose the perfect colors for your next direct mail campaign. But your customers may not either. Colors aren’t as clear-cut as words, but there is a loose meaning for most. And while color usage isn’t an exact science, hues definitely can influence the outcome of a direct mail campaign, says Cynthia Cornell, color researcher with Color Communications Inc. So when choosing, be conscious of the message you want to convey and how you want customers to perceive your products.

Blue-based reds (such as raspberry red) are associated with more expensive products. Stick with yellow-based reds (like tomato red, which is imagined as less expensive) if you’re looking to downplay a high price.

Use orange to play up affordability.

Yellow is the first color the eye sees, and when used with dark colors for high contrast (e.g., black type on a yellow background), it becomes more powerful and more easily read.

Choose green to convey possibility and hope.

Blue connotes confidence and safety, making it a great choice for financial and medical institution mailers.

Purple is especially hot right now, but it’s typically used with high fashion, sports teams or sweet treats (e.g., chocolates or perfume) rather than direct marketing.

Black conveys a strong sense of power, promise and the ability for high contrasts. Add sheen or matte to black, and it becomes more powerful.

White (especially when presented tone on tone) implies sophistication and formality — but also a high-end price point.

Don’t just tell consumers about your product — let them sample it for themselves.

By Marc McCrery

Sure, your marketing team can come up with clever slogans to help sell products. But is that really going to grab consumers’ attention, especially when they’re bombarded daily with branding messages across all sorts of mediums? Your product needs to stand out — and giving consumers a free sample they can try for themselves is hard to ignore.

Sampling drives purchase consideration. In fact, 61 percent say sampling a product is the most effective way to try a brand, and 81 percent will try a product after they receive a free sample, according to a recent survey conducted by Opinion Research Corp. for the United States Postal Service.®

The survey also shows that consumers actively seek samples, with almost half of respondents requesting one within the past year. And many are doing so through innovative new channels, such as social networks, which many big-name global brands are using to promote product samples.

Marketers also are capitalizing on TV commercials to drive traffic to Web sites where consumers can ask for a sample to be sent to their home — the place most of them want to try products, according to the Opinion Research survey. That’s because receiving samples at home lets consumers experience a product in a place that is comfortable and convenient for them.

But while these new channels are great ways for marketers to promote trial offerings to many, the key to any successful sampling program is focusing on the consumers who are most likely to give your product a shot.

Mail is the only medium that really enables you to target consumers — and gives you access to their homes. Plus, mail is highly measurable, meaning you can better track whether your sample actually converted into a sale.

As marketers continue to look for new and creative opportunities to get samples to consumers to increase trial, the Postal Service™ is actively exploring new ways to help them get samples to customers — from creating a co-op box of product samples to exploring ways to leverage Post Office™ locations. To learn more about USPS® sampling options, or to share how you are creatively using sampling as part of your marketing mix, e-mail us at samples@usps.gov.

Marc McCrery is the executive director leading the sampling initiative at the United States Postal Service.®

Despite our increasingly virtual world, people still appreciate tangible items, as evidenced by Matter — a Royal Mail service that places brands directly in consumers’ homes via a box of free product samples.

30,000+ boxes mailed. 85% of recipients recall receiving the items. 41% used the items. 21% gave an item to a friend or family member. 20% spoke with a friend or family member about one of the brands.

New software helps find and correct apartment and suite numbers

If there was a 40-percent chance your direct mail piece wouldn’t reach your customer, would you still pay to send it anyway? It’s exactly what you’re doing if your mailers don’t include the correct apartment or business suite numbers.

But no worries; there are easy ways to rid your database of these inaccurate and undeliverable addresses. Data quality and address management solutions company Melissa Data, for example, has launched AddressPlus — a new (and free!) addition to its address verification API and MAILERS+4 postal automation software.

The software analyzes residential and business addresses and will append or correct them with the right apartment number based on last name or the appropriate secondary suite information.

“Now companies can avoid the waste and high costs associated with mail undelivered or returned simply because of a missing suite or apartment number,” says Greg Brown, Melissa Data’s marketing director.

New study shows Americans have a print preference

Digital media is no substitute for traditional printed pieces, according to a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive® on behalf of Earthtone, a firm specializing in comparison pricing for printers. The majority of employed U.S. adults (64 percent) say print media is easier to read than the digital equivalent. Further, more than two-thirds (68 percent) say they feel more comfortable reading something on paper than on screen, suggesting that we associate things we can touch and feel as being more “real.”

Direct mail top driver for U.S. Olympic Committee fundraising

By Christine Hansen

Despite the grim economy, the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) had its most successful fundraising campaigns in 2009.

More than $9 million net was raised last year through all fundraising channels, and $8.5 million of that was generated through direct mail pieces sent to Team USA supporters, according to Janine Alfano, USOC chief development officer.

“We use direct mail because it has historically been a really big revenue driver,” says Alfano, who adds that USOC mailings typically offer Team USA Olympic branded premium items.

And testing proves these front-end offers are working. “For each mailing, we take segments and test different elements, then compare those elements to the control to see what works best with our donors and fans,” Alfano says. Now that’s the way to support your team.

Giving an established brand a new look is not to be taken lightly. Fortunately, mail can be a great way to make the transition a bit smoother.

By Bruce Britt

As the new century dawned, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority was beset by image problems, not the least of which was its name. “It’s six long words that ends in ‘authority,’” says Michael Lejeune, the county agency’s creative director. “That’s about as cold, unfriendly and bureaucratic as you can get.” The organization’s old nickname, MTA, didn’t inspire much excitement either, he says.

A worse problem, however, was declining ridership. Though more than 1 million Angelenos board county buses every weekday (with another 300,000- plus taking the Metro Rail lines), only 10 percent of area commuters were taking public transportation. “We need people to choose public transportation, because getting more people out of their single driver habit is key to improving,” Lejeune says.

Sensing a connection between the drab image and limited ridership, officials at the transportation agency launched a full-on, multichannel rebranding campaign. This included a new emphasis on the popular name for the company, “Metro.” “All over the world, ‘metro’ means movement,” Lejeune says. “Think of the Paris Metro or the Washington Metro. The word is shorter, friendlier and feels right.” In addition, the agency repainted its buses and launched ads across multiple channels. A redesign of the old logo, which already incorporated the “Metro” term, completed the rebrand.

And to get out lengthier messages about the rebranding campaign, Metro turned to mail, sending out thousands of brochures and calendars to riders and employees to heighten awareness of its latest moves and, as Lejeune says, “to entice residents to try it.”

Though mail is traditionally associated with direct marketing, the Metro campaign is one of many recent efforts that illustrate how major marketers also are embracing mail to help them rebrand their companies. Since a rebrand can be potentially confusing for consumers and even employees, marketers ranging from big-box stores to restaurant chains to municipal agencies are relying on mail marketing for its ability to convey substantive messages about a rebrand quickly and easily.

Rerouting perceptions

In the case of Metro, Lejeune and his team sent out more than 160,000 brochures to residents within a half-mile of its Orange Line route. The four-color brochures contained information about the new Orange Line route and, in an appeal to eco-conscious Angelenos, about Metro’s new high-tech/low-emissions buses.

The agency also coordinated its mailings with other ad channels.
For instance, Metro last year began mailing calendars that promoted a campaign dubbed “Opposites,” originally launched in outdoor media. Featuring a stark black-and-white design scheme, the outdoor campaign showcases transportation problems and solutions. For example, one ad features a silhouette of a gas pump with the word “problem,” while an opposing image of the Metro logo bears the word “solution.”

Metro mailed about 4,000 “Opposites” calendars to 600 of its Employee Transportation Coordinators — volunteers at private companies who educate employees about transit options, promote ridesharing and work with Metro to get the latest on its programs and services.

Metro also created 10-second drive spots for local radio, ran twice-monthly insertions in more than 60 smaller papers around L.A. County and posted online banner ads on its site and high-traffic local sites.

So far, the campaign is working. Average weekday ridership on Metro Rail had jumped more than 40 percent by late 2008, and bus ridership on various Metro color-coded lines increased around 10 percent. Meanwhile, Lejeune and the Metro creative department have even captured prestigious awards for the rebrand. “The recognition has been very exciting for us,” Lejeune says. “It’s a validation that we’re doing good work.”

Of course, Metro isn’t the only organization or business benefiting from the integration of mail into its rebrand.

High steaks

Take Cincinnati restaurateur Jeff Ruby. Fueled by his own larger-than-life image, Ruby built a culinary empire on what is known as “The Jeff Ruby Experience” — a combination of award-winning steakhouse cuisine, VIP service and upscale ambience. It’s a formula that initially came together in his flagship venue, Jeff Ruby’s Precinct, which has attracted world- renowned entertainers, pro athletes and other luminaries for decades.

Problem was, as recently as a few years ago, many Midwestern food lovers were unaware that the five-star Ruby dining experience could also be enjoyed at more than just his namesake locations, including The Waterfront (a floating steak and lobster house with a Miami– South Beach vibe and raw bar) and Carlo & Johnny (situated in an old Cincinnati casino and Mafia hangout). Each restaurant has its own unique aesthetic, menu and patrons, but the company wanted to expand its brand equity to encompass the entire family of eateries.

“The challenge was coming up with a unifying theme while continuing to promote these restaurants individually so that they’re able to live on their own,” says Ben Stallard, who worked with the Ruby organization to guide the rebrand. “We asked ourselves whether Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment would be better served operating as a branded house or a house of brands.”

After some careful consideration, Stallard pitched a simple idea: bolster the umbrella brand under which all Ruby restaurants would fall. Thus, an upscale steakhouse like Carlo & Johnny would become Jeff Ruby’s Carlo & Johnny. “There was this huge piece of equity that the company owned in ‘The Jeff Ruby Experience,’ but people on the street would talk about it in pieces,” Stallard says. “What we did was put it all together, articulating that Ruby brings his dining experience to every property he owns. To communicate that message, we agreed on a hybrid solution: It would be best if Jeff Ruby’s became a branded house of brands.”

They also determined that direct mail was one of the ideal channels to use to get out word about the rebrand. As part of the seven-month initiative, Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment developed a list of people who had recently moved to the Cincinnati area and sent them cards hand signed by the general manager of a particular Ruby’s restaurant.

The cards were die cut into oval shapes featuring Jeff Ruby’s new logo on the front. Inside, recipients were treated to brilliant, four-color romance shots and food photographs. “The messaging was ‘Welcome to the neighborhood, come in, ask for me (the general manager) and let me introduce you to the Jeff Ruby Experience’,” Stallard says. “It proved very successful, with people new to the area appreciating the outreach.”

Further leveraging direct mail, Ruby pored over his private data, including his own mailing list, customer comment cards and promotions redemptions. The restaurateur then partnered with a national luxury-brands direct marketer that mails packets of gift certificates to patrons. Ruby’s specified that it wanted to focus on recipients who had not recently visited a Ruby’s restaurant. The standard postcardsized gift certificates, included in a packet of similar offers from other upscale brands, invited customers to visit a specific Jeff Ruby’s restaurant to take advantage of the special offer.

Though Stallard declined to specify just how many direct mailers were sent out (he would only say that they mailed “thousands” of cards and invitations), he notes that the combination of Ruby’s private customer data, the mailing list of recent Cincinnati residents and direct helped Jeff Ruby focus his marketing outreach plan. “Instead of using only mass media like TV and radio to reach our target group, we identified direct as one of the most effective ways to reach them,” Stallard says. “We were able to develop messaging much more specific to the wants, needs and mindsets of the people who drive our business. Direct is a tool that savvy organizations can use to be much more selective, focused and efficient.”

During a time when many U.S. consumers are cutting back due to the economy, Stallard says the Jeff Ruby rebrand has helped the chain weather the downturn. In late 2008, Ruby launched Bootsy’s, a Mediterranean fusion tapas restaurant operated in Cincinnati in partnership with the iconic R&B/funk entertainer Bootsy Collins. Ruby already operates two steakhouses in bordering Kentucky and Indiana, and now there’s talk of expanding beyond the region into St. Louis.

“The Jeff Ruby brand has a comprehensive base to work from when it expands,” Stallard says. “People won’t have to wonder each time ‘What does this place stand for?’ If it’s a Jeff Ruby restaurant, they’ll know what it stands for.”

When the Logo Has to Go

When companies rebrand, lots of forethought goes into overhauling the corporate coat of arms. Here, the brains behind the makeovers of the Metro and Jeff Ruby’s logos riff on their work.

Old logo: “Our old logo did not hold up well in certain necessary reproduction sizes. Also, it was too similar to another metropolitan transit authority’s logo, which was copyrighted, so change was needed.”

New logo: “This bold letterform is crafted in two parts, which our lead designer likened to two different roads that meet in the middle. The word ‘Metro’ is much larger, bolder and more easily read in all sizes. Also, the logo appears only in black and white. This is because we wanted to convey a strong, reliable, consistent presence through our logo.”
— Michael Lejeune, Creative Director, Metro (Los Angeles)

Old logo: “Precinct, Waterfront and Carlo & Johnny didn’t have the Jeff Ruby name attached, which was significant because ‘The Jeff Ruby Experience’ carries such positive equity. They were missing an opportunity by not obviously extending the identity across the entire platform.”

New logo: “We maintained each restaurant’s name and recognizable typographical look and feel by pulling the evolved font treatment into the oval shield. This associates each property with ‘The Jeff Ruby Experience,’ and gives each restaurant the flexibility to maintain those positive equities they’ve built on their own over time.”
— Ben Stallard, Independent consultant for Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment

Ryan Vero of OfficeMax explains how mail makes the retailer stand out.

By Chantal Tode

Office supply retailer OfficeMax has earned high praise in recent years for carving out well-fitting places for itself across a variety of media. While some of the kudos in recent months have been in response to its digital campaigns, the company also is gaining attention for its work in more traditional channels.

Direct mail initiatives continue to loom particularly large at OfficeMax. For instance, it still offers a variety of catalogs. Also, mail plays a central role in helping the retailer understand specific customer segments. Deliver® reached out to Ryan Vero, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer at OfficeMax, to talk about why mail remains a mainstay in the company’s media mix.

Deliver: Has the economy affected your direct mail marketing efforts?

Vero: Direct mail is one of the areas of marketing to which we have remained committed. That’s because even with the economic downturn, it’s a tremendously effective vehicle for us — and historically has been. Catalogs still are part of the mix, but more recently we’ve been doing a lot of non-catalog direct mailing both for prospecting purposes and to continue the dialog with our small- and large-business customers. Direct mail lets us send targeted communications to specific customer segments in a cost-effective way.

Deliver: What segments are you targeting these days?

Vero: We’re focusing our marketing communications more on our female customers. In general, women control the majority of purchasing for individual consumption, but more important for us, for business consumption, too. However, we noticed that this customer was not being taken care of in the office industry in general. Direct mail gives us the opportunity to send very targeted communications to this customer segment that specifically address her needs. So far, the response rates have been very good.

Deliver: What’s helping you better understand customer needs?

Vero: We’ve updated and refined our modeling efforts in the past year across various customer segments, and even subsegments within these larger groups. It’s helping us better identify the type of offers, communications and messages to send to a particular customer. Working with the customer data provided through our MaxPerks customer loyalty program, we can ascertain a lot about a customer and model them against other customers. This gives us insight into how effectively we have communicated with the customer in the past. We can determine what savings opportunities they’re not taking advantage of, or which ones we should show them. For example, a customer who purchases presentation materials also is likely to need to make copies for those presentations. If those customers aren’t making any copies with us, we can send a relevant direct mail offer with an incentive to try our copying services.

Deliver: Are you getting any surprising responses?

Vero: For years, we’ve been sending out an acquisition letter that comes from me personally. It’s amazing the number of times I get a note back from someone thanking me for sending them a letter and telling me something about their experience with OfficeMax. This is a terrific level of engagement with our customers, and it’s driven by direct mail. In fact, the response to this campaign has increased over time. It’s a reflection of how special it is to get a personalized letter these days.

Deliver: Any other efforts you’re particularly proud of?

Vero: A direct mail campaign we used to bid on the business of a large bank.
We sent top executives a metal suitcase filled with stacks of paper money. The top bill of each pile communicated some of OfficeMax’s services and solutions. Inside there also was an MP3 player loaded with videos we produced of our executives talking about how OfficeMax would serve the bank’s needs. It helped us break through the clutter and get our message in the hands of a number of senior executives at the bank with a targeted communication that spoke directly to them.

Deliver: What new trends do you think will change the way we market?

Vero: I find it inspiring that we’re getting very close to a cost-effective rate for variable data printing for high-volume mailers. There’s been a lot of talk about being able to do true one-to-one direct mail, but so far it’s been more theory than reality. Sure, you could do it from a technological standpoint and get better response rates, but the higher costs meant the return was a lot lower. However, as the costs have compressed and the technology has improved, I’m optimistic that we’re going to achieve true one-to-one marketing on a large-scale basis sooner rather than later.

New paper easier on the wallet and planet

Innovation

Marketers now have a new cost-effective, eco-friendly choice for coated stock. Xerox’s Digital C1S (coated 1 side) paper is ideal for single-sided printing, but also features a smooth, lighter surface gloss on the second side that gives it the advantage of a C2S (coated 2 side) paper at a C1S price. “It’s perfect for marketers who need to produce mailers featuring exceptional image quality with true color rendering,” says Maggie Ochs, manager, Paper and Supplies Business Unit, Xerox Corporation. Additionally, the paper has received Forest Stewardship Council certification (SW-COC-002570), which ensures responsible use of forest resources. — Bob Butz

Oversized windows entice recipients to find out what’s inside

Prospecting

Back in vogue are oversized-window envelopes that give recipients enough of a peek at the contents to convince them to open it.

The Wilderness Society — a Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit — adopted the larger windows for its bimonthly donor recruitment package, which it mails 2 to 3 million of annually. It now places the traditional single envelope used for the prospecting piece inside another envelope with an oversized window. And donors have taken notice.

When the double-envelope approach was tested against the single envelope, the oversized-window piece produced a 35-percent higher response rate, according to Robin Hickman, the group’s director of membership services. She adds that a subsequent test also generated a higher response rate, proving that doubling your efforts really can pay off. — Paula Andruss

DMA report predicts $1B jump in direct mail spending

Spending

In defiance of predictions about its decline, spending on direct mail marketing is expected to increase by more than $1 billion in 2010, according to an annual study from the Direct Marketing Association.

The “Power of Direct” economic impact study released earlier this year reports that spending on direct mail will rise from the $44.4 billion doled out in 2009 to $45.5 billion next year.

The study also reports that noncatalog direct mail continues to boast impressive ROI. According to the report, non-catalog direct mail returned $15.22 for every dollar spent in 2009.

The report further points out that e-mail, once thought to be next big thing as a prospecting medium, drives fewer sales than most other channels. Commercial e-mail drove $26 billion in sales in 2009. Non-catalog direct mail, by comparison, drove $445.8 billion in sales in 2009. — Darrell Dawsey

Reaching decision makers means not adding to the clutter

Targeting

How do you get the attention of IT decision makers who are constantly bombarded by marketing messages? You send direct mail.

To promote its fiber-based network, tw telecom employed a promotion that began with a folded self-mailer featuring a repositionable note prompting recipients to query their name in a major online search engine.

On the results page, a customized pay-per-click ad took them to a URL where they viewed a personalized 90-second video on the benefits of tw telecom’s new network.

The approach generated an 8-percent meeting rate — double what the company typically sees from a promotion, according to Tiffany Duncan, senior manager of marketing communications.

“Most marketers assume IT managers only will respond to online communications,” Duncan says. “But pairing different mediums allowed us to cut through the clutter and interact with them on several different levels.” — Sandra Beckwith

Maybe what you really need is some out-of-the-box thinking about what you communicate.

What’s your brand stand for?

We’re guessing you probably work a lot on that one, don’t you? You and your marketing team spend hours crashing through strategy documents, pulling out nuggets of customer insights, determining differentiators in the industry and understanding what it is that makes your corporation unique.

And in the end, you have a vision of who and what your company is about. It’s that vision that helps establish relationships with customers, win over prospects and get your company noticed in this increasingly chaotic and fragmented world.

Then, after all of that strategic work, comes the execution part of the marketing plan and you decide to go digital. You send an e-mail — which looks just like any other e-mail in your best customer’s inbox.

Oh, we know, you finely tune the colors to match your brand (despite the fact you can’t calibrate how that color appears on any one monitor) or you include photography and graphics (which don’t download until the users request them) or you include the all-important link to your heavily branded Web site (although fewer than 10 percent click through).

So, maybe it’s not the optimum branding experience, but it’s cheap. Boy, is it cheap. And it’s efficient — you can reach hundreds of thousands, heck, even millions in a single blast — and really, you’re getting the word out there.

Then the economy picks up, but your sales don’t jump as much, and at the next marketing meeting, as you’re puzzling over the numbers, someone asks why your customers aren’t so loyal anymore. What’s happened to that great relationship your brand used to have with them? And there’s a lot of this and that around the table, mutterings about “empowered consumers” and “everything’s a commodity,” and the meeting rolls on. You shrug your shoulders and concentrate on the next campaign. There’s work to do.

We understand. It’s not an uncommon problem. It’s just that, well, you could stand for something. You could put something in your customers’ hands, something branded. Imagine that: those finely tuned colors, the carefully selected images, the perfectly worded summation of what your brand is all about sitting right there in the hands of the people you most want to reach. It’s right there at their fingertips.

And inside that package, something amazing — something they could never get digitally. A sample, a tchotchke for their desk, a magnet for the fridge, a baseball bat, a brick, a salami — who knows? Something that’s amazing and brilliant and relevant, just like your brand. A piece that says “Hey, I know you,” and reminds that customer why he or she came to you in the first place and what your brand is really all about.

You could do that. But that’s direct mail, and that’s old school. No point in doing that, right?

Figuring out which channel motivated a sale can help you predict future purchase patterns.

By Kevin Hillstrom

From postcards to paid search, most brands use 10 to 20 microchannels to reach customers. So determining which ones are working and which aren’t has become more critical — and difficult — for marketers than ever.

But there’s something that compounds the problem: the evolving buying habits of customers. Say a customer referenced your catalog or direct mail piece during his or her last online purchase. Does that mean these print pieces are needed to influence future buys? Or will that customer simply go online after the first purchase without being prompted?

Tracking exactly what motivated customers to purchase will help you predict what they will do next — and allow you to take action by more effectively allocating marketing dollars.

To help my clients predict purchase intent, I developed a process called Multichannel Forensics, which takes actual transactions sourced from client databases and evaluates how their customers are interacting with products, brands and various microchannels.

If customers who purchased after receiving a postcard mailing respond to print again, then I suggest allocating more marketing dollars to print. If customers are only responding online and ignoring print, then I’ll suggest allocating marketing dollars accordingly. If the customer uses both print and paid search, then I suggest maintaining a print budget.

However, there are some things to remember when thinking about print marketing in an increasingly digital age. It does drive a customer online to place an order. In fact, for many of my clients, 50 percent to 80 percent of all online orders come from customers who received print-based marketing in the past month or two.

But one of the most interesting things I’ve noticed is the interaction between print marketing and customer service. My projects continually show that the most valuable customers tend to be those who are responsive to print marketing and require human interaction to place their order. In other words, when print marketing causes a customer to pick up the phone and speak with a live voice, or causes a customer to participate in a live chat session online, you end up with a customer who has higher-than-average, long-term value.

And as they become more loyal, they generally become less receptive to all marketing messages — they buy because they trust the company, not because of the advertising offered to the customer by the company.

Kevin Hillstrom is president of MineThatData (minethatdata.com), a consultancy that helps multichannel CEOs understand the complex relationship between customers, advertising, products, brands and channels.