Tag: Royal Mail

Postcomm – financial penalties

Posted by | Apr 18, 2008 | |

Postcomm has revised its statement of policy in relation to financial penalties (‘statement of policy’).

Under the Postal Services Act 2000, Postcomm has the discretionary power to impose a financial penalty on a licence holder that has contravened – or is contravening – one or more of its licence conditions. Postcomm must prepare and publish a statement of policy, in relation to imposing a penalty and the amount of that penalty.

Postcomm published its current statement of policy in February 2002. Since then, Postcomm has imposed four financial penalties on Royal Mail and there have been a number of significant changes in the postal services market, including the full opening of the market in January 2006 and the adoption of a new price control for Royal Mail in April 2006. Postcomm said, at the time the statement of policy was introduced, that it would consider revising the statement in the light of experience in its application. Postcomm decided that it should consult on revising its statement of policy.

The consultation document was published on 8 August 2007 and sought views on a proposed revised statement of policy.

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UK keeps a digital distance

Posted by | Apr 18, 2008 | |

Whether it is sacking staff by text message or dumping your partner by email, digital communication has made us a nation of cowards, according to a new report out today from Post Office Telecoms.

The findings show that many UK residents are maintaining that famous British reserve by relying on text messages and email to get themselves out of sticky situations – with 73 per cent of people admitting to delegating difficult tasks at work by email and text, and 52 per cent using these forms of technology to contact new business prospects.

The report shows that one in four young people* think it is appropriate to call into work sick via email or text message, with one in seven admitting to having done so in the last 12 months. It also reveals that 3 per cent of UK adults even admit to ending a relationship by text message in the last year.

The report, called ‘Etiquette in the Digital Age’, is authored by etiquette expert Liz Brewer, whose credits include ITV’s ‘Ladette to Lady’.

Stewart Fox-Mills, head of telephony at the Post Office, said: “Digital technology is constantly giving us new ways to communicate, which enriches our day to day lives. But we’ve found that many people are in fact using modem technology to keep a ‘digital distance’ and avoid face-to-face or verbal confrontation.

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UK Competition in Delivery

Posted by | Apr 17, 2008 | |

Postcomm is seeking views on potential barriers to competition in delivery, the so-called ‘final mile’ in the UK postal sector.

As part of the regulator’s forward work plan it is assessing the potential benefits of delivery competition, particularly in ensuring a healthy universal service and supporting a range of reliable, innovative and efficient postal services, including a universal service reflecting the needs of users, valued by customers, and delivered through a successful Royal Mail and a sustainable competitive market.

While competition through access agreements has developed quickly since Royal Mail negotiated the first such agreement in 2004, competition in delivery has actually declined for the last two years.

Postcomm has already identified a number of possible barriers, and the regulator is seeking views on new and emerging issues affecting the growth of competition in delivery.

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Campaign Effectiveness study

Posted by | Apr 16, 2008 | |

Campaign Effectiveness

While the typical item of Direct Mail achieves a 1%-5% level of response, there is a huge range of different rates achieved.

Royal Mail recently commissioned research to identity common characteristics of successful (and unsuccessful) campaigns.

Methodology

Quadrangle was commissioned to undertake this research among a broad base of advertisers.

Screening criteria

Responsible for organising at least one direct mail campaign in the last 12 months
Aware of the response rate you have achieved in percentage terms from your most recent campaigns
Mixture of B2B and B2C campaigns
Base

80 online interviews – 160 campaigns
239 telephone interviews – 446 campaigns

Key Insights

While the typical item of Direct Mail achieves a 1%-5% level of response, there is a huge range of different rates achieved. The most commonly achieved response rate for B2C campaigns is 3%; for B2B campaigns it is 1%.

Successful B2C mailings are particularly likely to have utilised a customer database. Evidence suggests that bought-in lists are more effective in the B2B arena than B2C. For both B2B and B2C campaigns, campaigns with “strong” database quality achieve levels of response that are c. 50% above norm.

Creativity is key to campaign success. Mailings with strong creativity generate over twice the average level of response. Those with weak creativity achieve response rates that are around a third of the average. This holds true for both B2C and B2B mailings.

Amount spent per mailing is less critical than creativity, but there is nonetheless a link between low levels of investment and low response. B2B campaigns with an investment of less than 60p per item perform particularly poorly.

Campaigns that have “strong” integration with other brand activity deliver response rates that are 60%+ above norm for both B2C and B2B campaigns.

B2C campaigns sent via Mailsort 1 achieve a level of response that is 70% above norm.

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Royal Mail reveals secrets to Direct Mail success (UK)

Posted by | Apr 16, 2008 | |

Companies can increase the success of their direct mail activity by at least 50 per cent by following a five-point plan.

That’s according to the Royal Mail on the back of an in-depth study of more than 600 mail campaigns.

The research, carried out by Quadrangle on behalf of Royal Mail, revealed that around 30 per cent of business to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) campaigns pull in response rates of between one and five per cent and a further 30 per cent between five and 20 per cent.

The top performing campaigns – 14 per cent for B2C and 15 per cent for B2B – achieved responses of between 20 and 75 per cent.

The study also unveiled the five most important ingredients to boosting campaign success.

Quality data. Campaigns centred around quality data achieve response rates that are 50 per cent higher than average. Successful B2C mailings are particularly likely to have utilised a customer database while bought in lists are more effective for B2B campaigns.

Integration. Campaigns that have a strong integration with other brand activity deliver response rates of 60 per cent plus above the norm. This reinforces Royal Mail’s recent research which revealed integrating direct mail with digital activity can increase consumer spend by 25 per cent.

Creativity. Campaigns with a strong creative angle generate over twice the average level of response. Less creative mailings underperform by a third.

Cutting costs cuts response. Direct mail campaigns with an investment of less than 60p per item are the worst performing.

Finally the Royal Mail advises that, Logistics make a difference. Campaigns sent via Royal Mail’s Mailsort 1 – a next day delivery service – consistently achieve a 70 per cent uplift.

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