What's the Role of Stamp Marketing?

The U.S. Postal Service is working hard to come up to marketing speed. It needs revenue, and it provides direct-to-door delivery at a competitive price. In fact, given the price of postage around the world, U.S. first-class stamps are a relative bargain.

Now the USPS is being criticized for, well, marketing. Specifically, for issuing stamps with particular commercial value, rather than mere commemorative value. In part, the point is to encourage purchasing and in part, to encourage a revival in stamp collecting among a new generation.

In the bottom row left, the Batman stamp that has been a lightning rod for criticism because it represents an ongoing partnership with Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment. In limited edition, it was released at New York Comic Con. Commercial? Definitely, as was a Harry Potter stamp series and other pop-culture stamps.

In the top row right, the Rudolph stamp for 2014. Issued 50 years after the animated Rudolph special hit TV screens, the stamp evokes nostalgia with a commercial angle--and has provoked comments like this one from a former Postmaster General, quoted in Bloomberg Businessweek: "They have really ruined the stamp program. They have prostituted it in an effort to make money."

What is the role of stamp marketing? One former member of the committee that sifts stamp ideas and recommends subjects says the USPS should avoid issuing stamps "with the same profit motives as Big Macs, Slurpees, jeans or neighborhood tattoo parlors."

Given the financial situation of the USPS, stamp marketing must take profitability into account. Yet tradition has a definite place: Last year, the USPS issued a new version of the "Inverted Jenny," a stamp famous for the airplane (the Jenny) being mistakenly printed upside down. The originals are rare and celebrated.

Issuing a new version was more than a way to stimulate purchasing: It also put a smile on the faces of ordinary buyers and collectors alike, because of the back story and the decades of history involved in the Jenny mistake. Reinforcing a positive attitude is certainly a valuable role for stamp marketing.

Stamp Out Hunger Today

Today is the U.S. Postal Service's annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive. Earlier in the week, a postcard in my mailbox alerted me that the drive would take place today, and well-timed local publicity featuring community postal officials and carriers added a neighborhood element to the campaign. My bag of nonperishable food cans and packages is already in front of the mailbox, awaiting pickup.

 

As of this moment, the campaign's Facebook page has more than 78,000 "likes" and it's using Twitter to spread the word, as well, with #StopDropDonate as the hashtag. A Google search turns up 1.5 million hits for this year's food drive and more than 1 million images. 

I hope the drive collects a record amount of food this year!

Goodbye Saturday Snail Mail

The US Postal Service is poised to propose a five-day delivery week. To cut the organization's expenses and reduce its debt load, Saturday mail delivery will very likely become a thing of the past. Here's what the USPS has to say about its future.

Of course, Saturday delivery isn't gone yet, and months of heated discussion can be expected before a final decision is reached and approved by the authorities. However, given current trends in e-mail and social media, it's not surprising that snail mail volume is way, way down.

Does Saturday delivery make sense in today's world? Although some businesses really need Saturday delivery, most Mon-Fri, 9-5 businesspeople aren't waiting by the mailbox for Saturday snail mail. Even consumers have limited use for Saturday mail these days. Direct marketers don't have to reach their customers by mail; they have numerous electronic options, and of course phone calls are even a possibility.

Meanwhile, the USPS needs to do something about its aging fleet of delivery vehicles. It's looking to electric vehicles for the next wave of innovation, but the price tag could be too steep. USPS has thousands of alternative-fuel vehicles . . . but bringing mountains of direct mail, letters, packages, magazines, and other snail mail to the mailboxes and doorsteps of U.S. consumers is not a cheap process.

The bottom line is that the USPS has to worry about its bottom line. That means we'll probably be saying goodbye to Saturday snail mail sooner rather than later. I can imagine the nostalgia. Remember the days when you had to lick a stamp? Now . . . remember what a stamp is for?

Hello Senate, Hello USPS: A Stamp Is a Promise

The USPS wants to go to a 5-day delivery week. Sounds like a fast way to hammer the business prospects of companies that depend on postal service AND a nightmare for people who pay their bills or send vital documents via snail mail.

This idea gets a thumbs down from me. A stamp is a promise to deliver (Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.)

So, USPS, try dumping all the non-packaging merchandise you carry (tote bags with stamp pictures, greeting cards, stuffed animals, anything that isn't directly related to mailing something). Some of the items for sale in my local post office are from the old 37-cent stamp days. Stick to what you know--dependable delivery.

Inaugural souvenir from USPS

So much of the merchandise on display in post offices is outdated (bearing images of 30-something-cent stamps, for instance). Almost no items have a price tag, either, so customers have to wait on line to ask before they make up their minds. I wish the USPS would get out of the merchandise business, which it doesn't understand, and concentrate on letter and parcel delivery.

This inaugural souvenir is, however, a good fit for the USPS: It's a special "mailing" reminder of an historic event that will draw many millions of viewers in person and on TV. I particularly like that it's being sold online.