My competition is yellow
Direct Marketing II With its Directpoint web platform, Swiss Post is becoming a competitor to its industry clients.
Direct Marketing II With the Directpoint web platform, Swiss Post is becoming a competitor to its industry customers Is Swiss Post running out of letters? It has long had competition from electronic mail systems: in the banking and insurance sector alone, considerable volumes of payment orders, account statements and other correspondence have disappeared. Letter volumes are expected to fall by one percent annually over the next few years. Added to this is the fact that the letter delivery monopoly is to be largely abolished by 2006 at the latest. No wonder the yellow giant is increasingly focusing its attention on what continues to flow through its big belly in huge quantities: Promopost. Although unaddressed bulk mail also recorded a significant decline in the first half of 2003 (by 6.2%), it still accounts for a considerable share of the advertising pie at CHF 481 million.
It is difficult to determine what proportion of the total letter volume is accounted for by addressed direct mail items. The envelopes rarely show what's inside. A survey carried out on behalf of the Swiss Advertising Statistics Foundation puts the cost of direct advertising in 2002 at CHF 1.14 billion - although this only includes postage and distribution costs. Even so, that's a considerable slice of the pie that is worth fighting for.
Dialogmarketer Post
It is therefore only logical that Swiss Post is committed to dialog marketing, particularly in the Promopost segment. It not only sponsors the annual Dialog Marketing Prize and invites people to the DirectDay symposium (see box) - it has recently moved even closer to its customers: Via the DirectPoint Internet platform, it delivers DM know-how directly to office screens. Visitors are guided through the various process stages of a direct marketing campaign, from planning, address handling, production and dispatch to the question of how the creative message needs to sound in order to be heard. Checklists, templates, budget grids, order forms and much more are available for download. Swiss Post maintains four competence centers for questions and projects. These offer comprehensive specialist knowledge and personal advice at conferences, seminars and events. After all, the "Service providers" section provides space for traditional industry providers to present themselves and their expertise.
In principle, Swiss Post's efforts are welcome, confirms Guido Wietlisbach, President of the Swiss Direct Marketing Association. "The fact that Swiss Post is promoting dialog marketing as a whole is a positive aspect for the industry." However, he also considers the situation to be ambivalent, as Swiss Post is not just any DM service provider, but also a monopolist in letter mail delivery. This means it is competing with its own customers - and its biggest ones at that.
When asked about the delicate dual role of Swiss Post, agency managers react calmly. Jürg Ulmann, Managing Director of Lucerne-based Ulmann+Partner AG, is convinced: "You can't change the image with a platform, and Swiss Post has no image as an advertising agency." Nadja Kistler from St.Gallen-based DM-Plus Direktmarketing AG also doesn't believe that Swiss Post will snatch customers away from her: "We offer other solutions." The general assumption seems to be that Swiss Post's target group is not identical to that of the agencies. The know-how offered on the Internet platform would encourage small to micro companies in particular to launch their own mailings. For traditional agency customers, Swiss Post's experience - which has so far been more machine-oriented than customer-oriented - is unlikely to be sufficient. Not yet, fears Peter Stössel from MS Mailing Service in St.Gallen: "At the moment, Swiss Post does not have the same starting position as we do in terms of human resources - but in time, the competition will have to be taken seriously."
Love-hate relationship in yellowLike Stössel ("Swiss Post should concentrate on its core business"), Erwin Schnee, Managing Director of Adim Agentur für Direkt-Marketing AG in Hünenberg, sees the situation, but formulates his assessment more provocatively: "Swiss Post is trying to offer DM services with subsidized francs - that's protectionism!" He also finds it offensive that, as a reseller for Swiss Post, he does not receive any significant resale discounts: "With my work, I generate business for Swiss Post and in return, I'm competing with them!" Nevertheless, Schnee, who describes his relationship with Swiss Post as a love-hate relationship, also has praise for them: "The sales people at Swiss Post make an extraordinary effort to do a good job." Could other areas of Swiss Post be more supportive? "Better tariffs would help us the most," Wietlisbach explains laconically, speaking from the hearts of many association members. However, he admits that the issue of rate setting is complex and depends more on politics than on the management of Swiss Post.
There are plenty of good reasons for agencies and Swiss Post to step up their cooperation. By 2006 at the latest, when the monopoly on letter post transportation is scheduled to be abolished, more foreign carriers and with them larger European DM service providers are likely to be clogging up Swiss letterboxes. Whether they will really wait that long is questionable. For Susanne Hornikel, an expert in international address handling and Managing Director of the Stuttgart-based agency Directsuccess, cross-border mailing campaigns are already part of everyday life: "There are many companies that now manage a large part of their DM measures from one country." Erwin Schnee fears that increasing foreign competition will only exacerbate the delicate situation with Swiss Post: "Swiss Post International makes these producers a favorable offer and distributes the mailings produced in Germany in Switzerland - bypassing us."
So it's high time for customers to get closer to their service providers for once and to inform them in detail about their needs: joint strategies instead of short-sighted battles for market share.
From 2006, more foreign carriers are likely to flood Swiss letterboxes.
4th DirectDay
On November 27, 2003, Swiss Post is holding a conference in Freiburg on the topic: "Direct marketing on the brink of extinction? The transparent customer in the field of tension between politics and marketing". Speakers include publicist Roger de Weck, data protection expert Hanspeter Thür, consumer advocate Jacqueline Bachmann, SDV President Guido Wietlisbach and Swiss Post CEO Ulrich Gygi. Special guest is Alinghi sports director Jochen Schümann.
For information see page 28.
Helps small businesses to get on the right DM track: Information material from Swiss Post in the form of work aids for mailing campaigns.
Katrin Piazza
It is difficult to determine what proportion of the total letter volume is accounted for by addressed direct mail items. The envelopes rarely show what's inside. A survey carried out on behalf of the Swiss Advertising Statistics Foundation puts the cost of direct advertising in 2002 at CHF 1.14 billion - although this only includes postage and distribution costs. Even so, that's a considerable slice of the pie that is worth fighting for.
Dialogmarketer Post
It is therefore only logical that Swiss Post is committed to dialog marketing, particularly in the Promopost segment. It not only sponsors the annual Dialog Marketing Prize and invites people to the DirectDay symposium (see box) - it has recently moved even closer to its customers: Via the DirectPoint Internet platform, it delivers DM know-how directly to office screens. Visitors are guided through the various process stages of a direct marketing campaign, from planning, address handling, production and dispatch to the question of how the creative message needs to sound in order to be heard. Checklists, templates, budget grids, order forms and much more are available for download. Swiss Post maintains four competence centers for questions and projects. These offer comprehensive specialist knowledge and personal advice at conferences, seminars and events. After all, the "Service providers" section provides space for traditional industry providers to present themselves and their expertise.
In principle, Swiss Post's efforts are welcome, confirms Guido Wietlisbach, President of the Swiss Direct Marketing Association. "The fact that Swiss Post is promoting dialog marketing as a whole is a positive aspect for the industry." However, he also considers the situation to be ambivalent, as Swiss Post is not just any DM service provider, but also a monopolist in letter mail delivery. This means it is competing with its own customers - and its biggest ones at that.
When asked about the delicate dual role of Swiss Post, agency managers react calmly. Jürg Ulmann, Managing Director of Lucerne-based Ulmann+Partner AG, is convinced: "You can't change the image with a platform, and Swiss Post has no image as an advertising agency." Nadja Kistler from St.Gallen-based DM-Plus Direktmarketing AG also doesn't believe that Swiss Post will snatch customers away from her: "We offer other solutions." The general assumption seems to be that Swiss Post's target group is not identical to that of the agencies. The know-how offered on the Internet platform would encourage small to micro companies in particular to launch their own mailings. For traditional agency customers, Swiss Post's experience - which has so far been more machine-oriented than customer-oriented - is unlikely to be sufficient. Not yet, fears Peter Stössel from MS Mailing Service in St.Gallen: "At the moment, Swiss Post does not have the same starting position as we do in terms of human resources - but in time, the competition will have to be taken seriously."
Love-hate relationship in yellowLike Stössel ("Swiss Post should concentrate on its core business"), Erwin Schnee, Managing Director of Adim Agentur für Direkt-Marketing AG in Hünenberg, sees the situation, but formulates his assessment more provocatively: "Swiss Post is trying to offer DM services with subsidized francs - that's protectionism!" He also finds it offensive that, as a reseller for Swiss Post, he does not receive any significant resale discounts: "With my work, I generate business for Swiss Post and in return, I'm competing with them!" Nevertheless, Schnee, who describes his relationship with Swiss Post as a love-hate relationship, also has praise for them: "The sales people at Swiss Post make an extraordinary effort to do a good job." Could other areas of Swiss Post be more supportive? "Better tariffs would help us the most," Wietlisbach explains laconically, speaking from the hearts of many association members. However, he admits that the issue of rate setting is complex and depends more on politics than on the management of Swiss Post.
There are plenty of good reasons for agencies and Swiss Post to step up their cooperation. By 2006 at the latest, when the monopoly on letter post transportation is scheduled to be abolished, more foreign carriers and with them larger European DM service providers are likely to be clogging up Swiss letterboxes. Whether they will really wait that long is questionable. For Susanne Hornikel, an expert in international address handling and Managing Director of the Stuttgart-based agency Directsuccess, cross-border mailing campaigns are already part of everyday life: "There are many companies that now manage a large part of their DM measures from one country." Erwin Schnee fears that increasing foreign competition will only exacerbate the delicate situation with Swiss Post: "Swiss Post International makes these producers a favorable offer and distributes the mailings produced in Germany in Switzerland - bypassing us."
So it's high time for customers to get closer to their service providers for once and to inform them in detail about their needs: joint strategies instead of short-sighted battles for market share.
From 2006, more foreign carriers are likely to flood Swiss letterboxes.
4th DirectDay
On November 27, 2003, Swiss Post is holding a conference in Freiburg on the topic: "Direct marketing on the brink of extinction? The transparent customer in the field of tension between politics and marketing". Speakers include publicist Roger de Weck, data protection expert Hanspeter Thür, consumer advocate Jacqueline Bachmann, SDV President Guido Wietlisbach and Swiss Post CEO Ulrich Gygi. Special guest is Alinghi sports director Jochen Schümann.
For information see page 28.
Helps small businesses to get on the right DM track: Information material from Swiss Post in the form of work aids for mailing campaigns.
Katrin Piazza
