Best practices for Postal Business development My Criteria: delivering relevancy ▫ Services companies are excited about and willing to pay for ▫ Ideas / services that make the media more relevant In this presentation ▫ 3 examples of best practices ▫ 3 challenges to deliver relevancy ▫ What will be best practices in the future

1. Best practices in postal
business development
Fighting for relevancy…

2. Notes on this presentation
 This presentation was prepared by Bryan Cassady for a
speech at the Triangle Mail conference. At this time he was
managing Postal-Solutions. A consulting company focused
on business development in the Postal Sector. Bryan
Cassady is now the managing director of Fast Bridge
Consulting
 He has done long term projects for the following postal
services.
▫ The Belgian Post
▫ The US Post
▫ Canada Post
▫ TPG (The Dutch Post)
▫ The Royal Mail (UK Post)
 As has done short-term projects with 14 other national
postal services
2

3. The good news
•USPS vs. top US companies
•The Forbes 100 1917 to 1987
▫ 61 Dead
▫ 21 survived but fell off the list
▫ 18 still part of the top 100
▫ 2 outperformed the market
 GE 7.8 % CGAR
 Kodak: 7.6% CGAR
•USPS during the same period
▫ 1917: 290 million
▫ 1987: 29.6 billion
CGAR: 6.7%
That’s not bad !
Company
General Electric 7.8
Eastman Kodak 7.7
Dupont 6.9
Exxon 6.9
General Motors 6.9
Ford Motors 6.9
Sears 6.9
USPS 6.7
Procter & Gamble 6.7
Amoco 6.5
Westinghouse Electric 6
Chevron 5.9
Mobil 4.8
Texaco 4.7
Pacific Gas & Electric 4.2
Citibank 3.9
Southern California Edison 3.3
AT&T 2.8
USX 2.1
21 companies growth < 2.1%
61 companies out of business
Growth Rates: 1917 - 1987

4. The perils of good management
Good management is the most powerful reason [these
firms] failed to stay atop their industries…
[because] … they carefully studied market trends and
systematically allocated capital to innovations that promised
the best returns they lost their positions of leadership…
Clayton Christensen
The Innovators Dilemma
They were too risk adverse..
They didn’t make a new future for themselves
I believe the Posts need to find a new future

5. Back to the Postal world
A decline in volume/share growth rates
 USPS Growth rates
100%
120%
140%
160%
180%
200%
220%
1975
$4.1B
1980
$7.6B
1985
$15.6B
1990
$23.4B
1995
$32.9B
2000
$44.6B
2005 est.
$52.5 B
Estimated
Direct and Advertising spending 1975-2005 (est)
Year
Direct
Mail Mil $
5 Year Growth
Trend
Total
Advert.
Mil. $
Direct
Mail
Share
1975 4,124 149% 27,900 14.8%
1980 7,596 184% 53,730 14.1%
1985 15,550 205% 94,900 16.4%
1990 23,370 150% 129,590 18.0%
1995 32,866 141% 162,930 20.2%
2000 44,591 136% 247,472 18.0%
2005 52,500 118% 261,500 20.1%
Sources: DMA factbook 2003, WARC (note Total ad spending different than DMA estimates !)

6. Relevancy is a real issue
For Consumers And Advertisers (Response rates)
• In a 1982 Gallup poll consumers were asked: "what is the event you most look forward to your daily life?"63% said getting and
reading the daily mail.
• Today 39% of consumers believe their next bundle of mail will have no value
• People not opening advertising mail has doubled since 1987 (18% 2003 vs. 9% in 1987)
• Mail volumes continue to increase and the percentage of interesting mail continues to fall. This has led to dramatic declines in
response rates in many categories
Average Credit Card Mailing
Response rates by year
Sources: DMA factbook 2003

7. Doing what you do well better.. will not be enough
 At the turn of the century, streets were lighted with gas lamps, when
electricity came they innovated… cut costs by up to 50%, but they died
anyways !
 We’re moving from a world where uncertainty can be managed to a
world of ambiguity
▫ Uncertainty: Is about predicting and planning/ Expected returns/
forecasting. Eg. how can we manage expected labor cost increases
and reduce headcounts
▫ Ambiguity: Who will be using mail in 10 years and why, will we still
be delivering it, who really cares except for us
Uncertainty Ambiguity
You know something We don’t know enough
But not everything to know if we are even
Change can be managed asking the right questions !

8. The world is moving quicker
“If you don’t like change you are going to
like irrelevance even less”
Eric Shinseki (US Army)

9. What are best practices ?
 A focus on direct mail (where companies have a choice)
 My Criteria: delivering relevancy
▫ Services companies are excited about and willing to
pay for
▫ Ideas / services that make the media more relevant
 Today
▫ 3 examples of best practices
▫ 3 challenges to deliver relevancy
▫ What will be best practices in the future

10. Selling Direct Mail: Royal Mail
 The issue
▫ Direct mail was growing, but not
keeping
pace with other media
▫ Lack of support for the media
 The Solution
▫ Taking responsibility for
promoting direct mail
▫ Creation of the Media Marketing
Division
 Advertising to change consumer and
advertiser perceptions.
 A new media centre was set up to
promote and sell direct mail
 Regular training and industry events
 Other investment in the growth of
DM
media
growth
mail
growth
Ireland 165% 116%
Spain 139% 104%
Italy 153% 116%
Belgium 143% 111%
Switzerland 132% 104%
France 126% 103%
Netherlands 128% 107%
Norway 120% 101%
Austria 146% 126%
Portugal 176% 153%
Germany 124% 110%
Finland 128% 116%
Sweden 132% 124%
Denmark 103% 103%
Great Britain 126% 138%
Average 136% 116%
Growth Rates: 1999 – 2004
(Estimates)

11. Working with customers: Tagespost Germany
 The issue as expressed by customers
▫ We can’t afford to do as much direct mail
▫ Rates too high
▫ We need better ways to target consumers
 Talking together they found
▫ The groups that advertisers need to reach are the
people that are receiving mail already. (Mail active
consumers)
 Tagespost
▫ A new system reaching consumers already
receiving mail
 Lowest price 50€/1000 vs. 80€ thousand
▫ Better mail out results
▫ Savings for Deutsche Post
Identified by leading direct mailers as the
best way to attract new clients after
member gets member activities
Costs
Response Rates
Profitability

12. Starting where clients start
UK, Denmark, Australia
 What is the first question advertisers ask
when deciding how many mailings they will
send
How many addresses do we have ?
 The Solution:
▫ Asking consumers what mail they want and
don’t want for hundreds of advertisers at the
same time.
 Results:
▫ Mailing response rates up 40-400%
▫ Consumer/ advertiser approval ratings over
90%
▫ Each address collected generating +/- 30-40
more mailings per year
For perspective, in the UK this represents
Over 100 million extra mail pieces/year
United Kingdom

13. 3 challenges
for the future
Test Layout 13

14. Challenge 1: Investing in Relevancy
 What is in the mail now ?
▫ Personal letters are becoming a thing of the past
▫ We’re left with bills and advertising mail
 Where is the value???
I recently met a man on a plane. He set up internet billings, and then
stopped his mail deliveries while he was in Europe. He didn’t miss it…
and never went to get his mail. After 6 months his Post Office called and
said he needed to pick it up.
His reply : “ You can keep it”
How can you make the mail relevant to him ?

15. The solution is content management…
 Content management is not about taking the
“junk out of direct mail.”
If you only take out the junk, there will just be
less junk
 Content management is about:
 Adding content that consumers will find interesting
 Increasing the percentage of mail relevant to consumer interests
 Changing consumer experiences with the mail

16. Challenge 2: Getting ready for real change
 Postal operators around the world are operations driven
 Huge progress has been made taking inefficiency out of
mail deliveries
 However, the basics of the business haven’t changed in
years
Beware of the tyranny of making Small
Changes to Small Things. Rather, make
Big Changes to Big Things.”
 Roger Enrico, former Chairman, PepsiCo

17. Challenge 3: Making room for change…
Some food for thought…
Ninety percent of what we call ‘management’ consists of making it difficult
for people to get things done.” – Peter Drucker
“The Bottleneck is at the Top of the Bottle”
“Where are you likely to find people with the least diversity of experience,
the largest investment in the past, and the greatest reverence for industry
dogma?
At the top!”
Gary Hamel/“Strategy or Revolution”/Harvard Business Review

18. Words for the future
The Past The Future
Planning Doing
Investing in operations Investing in relevancy
Incrementalism Big Ideas
Merging (Big is good) Spinning off
Power Point Let’s Talk
5 Years plans 5 Week plans
Top down Bottom up

19. ▫ Taking action
▫ Accepting failure is sometimes the price of success
▫ Developing and selling real benefits
▫ Doing things that really matter to your customers and
consumers
Final words of Wisdom…
Alan Leighton: (Royal Mail) If it is not good for
consumers or customers you shouldn’t be doing it
That’s good advice…
The future is about relevancy …

20. Who is Fast Bridge

21. 1. Business start-ups
2. International expansion
3. And go to market for established companies
Over 200 independent consultants in 16 countries… helping companies
move faster in 3 areas:
Who is Fast Bridge …
Introduction 21

22. 1. We work with more senior consultants
2. A stronger focus on business execution
3. Better value for money: 80% of fees go directly to consultants
4. We are willing to link our payments directly to a client’s business
results
The bottom line: more results for your money
How we are different …
Introduction 22

23. Test Layout 23
Tools and solutions to fit your
company, not your company fitting our
solutions…
We measure our success by the results
we help you achieve…
A simple philosophy…

24. Getting started…
We believe in Tools and solutions to fit your company, not
your company fitting our solutions…
With every client we follow a 4 step process
1. A discussion of objectives
2. Clarification of objectives (do we understand what you need)
3. A formal proposal (Targets, Timings, Responsibilities, Metrics)
4. Building a team (internal and external to make it happen)
24

25. Who to contact ?
Fast Bridge is a network of Academics, Entrepreneurs, and Business
experts focused on helping companies move faster and reduce risks.
Based on partnerships with leading international companies we are
able to offer the world class innovation solutions. With our local
network of over 200 freelance consultants we offer go to market
expertise in almost any industry.
Contact: Bryan Cassady Bryan@fast-bridge.com / +32 475-860-757

26. More information…
 More information is available on our site www.fast-bridge.com
 Postal Presentations(Postal-Solutions)
▫ 7 keys to building mail profitable mail volumes
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/704747/Brazil%20Post/7%20keys%20to%20building%20profitable%
20mail%20volumes.ppt
▫ “Quality of Service & Opportunities for improvement across Europe
▫ https://dl.dropbox.com/u/704747/Brazil%20Post/Postal_solutions_gettingtoyes.ppt
▫ Working together to improve efficiency and success
▫ https://dl.dropbox.com/u/704747/Brazil%20Post/QualityofserviceM_Ms.ppt
 Some more thoughts on how we look at business innovation are available in these presentations
▫ The 7 myths of business innovation
http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/716245/7-Myths-of-Business-Innovation
▫ The Fast Bridge Innovation Audit
http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/716238/Fast-Bridge-Innovation-Audit
 Bryan Cassady’s CV is available at this link
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j5xf5urkqzeofxw/7_9_2012_Bryan%20Cassady%20CV.pdf
V 26