Innovations in European Postal Systems Set New Tone
Clemens Beckmann is the executive vice president of innovation of the German post office’s mail division. Now when is the last time you heard the words “innovation” and “mail” used together in the United States? Mail volumes decrease by 1-2% every year, the post office here loses millions of dollars, and we continue to argue about one-cent increases and Saturday delivery.
But in Germany, according to an article in Sunday’s New York Times, post offices have changed. “After selling off all but 24 of 29,000 post office buildings in the past 15 years, the German postal service is now housed mostly within other business ‘partners,’ including banks, convenience stores and even private homes. In rural areas, a shopkeeper or even a centrally located homeowner is given a sign and deputized as a part-time postmaster.”
That’s actually kind of funny because those of us of a certain age can recall television shows like Green Acres and Northern Exposure where shopkeepers did hand out the mail—before automation and progress, of course. What’s more serious though are the innovations that postal services are making in Europe. “Bills and catalogs can go first to digital mailboxes run by the post office on customers’ computers, and the customers can tell the post office what they want it to print and deliver. And while Americans are asked to send in suggestions for what celebrity should grace the next stamp, Germans can buy virtual postage from their cellphones.”
In addition, Deutsche Post bought the logistics company DHL in 2002, so many of us are their customers. Also interesting is that the article says that the new postal models—including the Swedish post office [Posten] which “allows vacationers to transmit cellphone photographs that Posten prints as postcards and delivers as physical mail—can provide a big assist to direct mail. “PostNord—an umbrella company that includes both the Danish and Swedish postal services—now even helps smaller companies develop direct marketing campaigns through its ‘Advertising Planner,’ which boasts: ‘It’s just as natural for PostNord to ensure that your offer reaches the right customer at the right time via satellite and cyberspace as via a traditional postman.’”
It all makes perfect sense. Instead of fighting against the digital onslaught, why not ride the wave and yes, innovate along with it. While the U.S. debates its penny pushes and the United Kingdom’s Royal Mail fights over whether it is still giving first class mail priority over second on Saturdays, Deutsche Post runs “online marketplaces similar to eBay for freelance writers” and lets customers pick up items at automated banks of lockers in places like train stations (the locker number and opening code are sent to cellphones). Many of these innovations also are designed to reducing carbon emissions, so it’s all good.
(In an article about that U.K. mail debate, Royal Mail spokesman David Simpson defended his country’s mail service—sort of: “The UK is one of the few countries in Europe that provides a six-day postal service. That service is expensive to run and it has been losing significant amounts of money for some time.”)
So what’s the take-away for SIPA here? There has been much talk lately about not neglecting direct mail in your marketing efforts. And indeed, I have been receiving more direct mail the last few months than in some time—including from some of the most successful marketers like Geico, Costco and Capital One. But it also seems that direct mail could be given a boost here in the U.S. with some of these innovations. Deutsche Post, for one, seems to be doing a good job of innovating but keeping some of that old-school feel. (If you haven’t clicked the New York Times link, do so just to see the great photo they have showing this.) In fact, a shopkeeper who now runs a post office in his store, says “Most buy stamps or envelopes and grab a paper as well.” A paper? Now that’s a whole other column.
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Let’s continue this conversation at SIPA’s
international conferences that are coming up:
The Annual Marketing Conference, Dec. 7-9, in Miami
(the early-bird deadline is getting very close!);
and the SIPA UK Online Publishing and
Marketing Summit, Jan. 25, 2012, in London.
One thing that makes SIPA Conferences great is that
you don’t have to guess what’s happening internationally.
You can just ask the person next to you.
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