News Maker: Alex Batchelor, Preaching the gospel of direct mail

The first thing Alex Batchelor did when he joined Royal Mail as marketing director last September was to accompany postmen on their rounds.

"He wanted to understand the business from the bottom up," says Neil Jones, MD of Royal Mail's media buyer Carat.

It takes little stretch of the imagination to think of the genial Batchelor mucking in with Royal Mail postmen. "Very lively, perceptive, funny, with a brain the size of a planet," is how former colleague Graham Hales, executive director at Interbrand, describes him.

Batchelor joined Royal Mail at an interesting juncture in its 350-year history. Since 1 January, the postal services market has been opened fully to competition, and Royal Mail is fighting to retain its place as the market's biggest player. Batchelor, the former executive director of worldwide brand at Orange and before that joint MD at Interbrand, was hired for his commercial marketing nous.

Mobile phones seem far from Batchelor's mind when we meet before Christmas.

He is aware of the DM industry's scepticism that Royal Mail can shed its monopolistic behaviour and become more commercial. He says huge strides have been made in Royal Mail's customer service. "All I ask is that direct marketers judge us on what happens now, whether that's in customer service, or the actual advantages we have in terms of delivering to every household every day."

Royal Mail's long-anticipated 'product roadmap,' is an attempt to simplify the company's portfolio for marketers, he says. "Rather than needing an encyclopaedic knowledge of Mailsort 2, we tell the customers the levers they need to pull to get the best price."

Does he worry about clients that have switched from Royal Mail to a competitor, such as Lloyds TSB? "No. Some customers may feel that now they have the choice, they should try someone else. And that's how it should be."

Batchelor acknowledges that direct mail is an embattled medium and stresses that Royal Mail alone cannot stem the decline. "I'm disappointed by the industry that surrounds direct marketing. Our share of the overall media budget over a decade has grown to about 14 per cent, but in the last year that's dropped half a per cent or quarter per cent. The industry just seems comfortable with it going backwards."

Compared with TV advertising, direct mail delivers much better ROI, he says. Batchelor points to media planners having a responsibility to promote the medium, and to his new competitors as well.

"In the past, the industry looked to us to make the case for direct mail. One of the nice things about the future is we have to do things collectively.

We have to make the case for direct mail regardless of who is picking it up and delivering it. We'd like our competition to take a similar view and help us grow the market."

The internet poses a huge challenge to Royal Mail, but Batchelor sees growth opportunities for mail in FMCG companies and small firms. He keeps a big drawer full of the direct mail he gets sent and laughs about the DM pack he received with his name misspelled, mailed using the service of his competitor, TNT.

"I make a plea to the industry to use the tools we have to make those mailings more effective."

Batchelor rejects accusations by DM agencies that Royal Mail's Pricing-in-Proportion (PiP) scheme, where bulkier packs will cost more, will stymie creativity when the regime is introduced in August.

"After four years of proving things and consultation with the industry, everyone accepts that PiP is more cost reflective than the current environment.

If that has a knock-on effect on creativity, then businesses will have to question whether it's worth a few pennies more to do something because it gets cut through."

Is he enjoying the job? "Hugely", although his love of golf has taken a back seat. As he departs our interview, Batchelor was about to go back to the floor again, joining other Royal Mail managers on Christmas shifts in sorting offices. He seems genuinely excited at the thought.

BATCHELOR'S CHALLENGES

– To change DM users' negative perceptions of Royal Mail

– To head off the competition in a fully deregulated market by making Royal Mail the carrier of choice

– To grow direct mail use within sectors such as FMCG and SMEs.