Direct Mail Outlook -- Meeting the Challenge

According to Thornton, the economy has varying impacts on specific vertical markets. With the economy causing ad budgets to contract, he sees a refocus of effort on direct mail because a traceable correlation can be drawn to actual revenue generation.

“We are seeing clients use more data-driven mail to customize their message and offer,” Thornton adds. “As a consequence, they rely on RR Donnelley’s database solutions and variable imaging technology to execute their mailings. While there is certainly an uptick in customer mailings within specific vertical market segments, we are seeing more selective targeting, especially in the financial sector, which has reduced volumes. On the other hand, our retail services category has gone heavily into mailing their customer files.”