Mailing/Fulfillment - Postal Trends

Structural Graphics worked directly with the Staples team to produce a brochure with video capability for Staples Advantage B2B program.

This week Structural Graphics features a loyalty campaign it created for Chase and a short Flipagram video highlighting Structural Graphics best moments and coolest projects of 2013.

The price of a First Class stamp will rise from 46 cents to 49 cents next Sunday, January 26. Someone who buys a Forever Stamp this week, for 46 cents, and uses it a month later in place of a normal First Class stamp will save 3 cents and have an annualized return on investment of 113 percent.

Next Sunday’s price increase for First Class letters has two parts. One cent of the increase is the usual, annual inflation-based postage hike. The other two cents are from a temporary “exigent” price increase that is slated to expire within two years.

This week Structural Graphics is featuring a New Year's card which it designed and mailed out to its clients. It uses Structural Graphics' brand new (patent pending) "Magic X-Ray Viewer" that was created by the company's paper engineer Rob Kelly.

On December 24, 2013, the Postal Regulatory Commission approved an exigent increase that shot postal rates up 6 percent and sent direct mail marketers and their accountants back to their strategic models and financial forecasts to remake plans for 2014. Mailers had hoped the PRC would soften the blow with a lower percentage increase and were disappointed by the Commission's ultimate decision to give USPS the rate it asked for.

To learn more about what was behind the PRC's decision, Direct Marketing News spoke with Commission Chairman Ruth Goldway.

The exigency rate increase on the price of postage, recently approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, amounts to little more than a short-term stopgap measure. Even worse, it will ultimately cause further damage to the long-term viability of the Postal Service.

Under the law, the Postal Service is not allowed to raise prices above the rate of inflation unless there are serious exigent circumstances. These increases are meant to create better business in times of need, but unfortunately, this increase is not the silver bullet the Postal Service’s budget requires. It won’t solve the financial crisis, nor will it create a

This week Structural Graphics highlights a Christmas card that it produced for Swedish company Iggesund Paperboard. Structural Graphics also recently took part in an event in New York City, A Night with Invercote, hosted by Iggesund showcasing remarkable design in print from top designers around the world.

Joe Schick wasn't surprised by the lumps of coal left in mailers' stockings by the Postal Regulatory Commission on Christmas Eve. He'd hoped a reduced number might be put into play by the PRC, but he didn't blink when he learned that the PRC went for the full 4.3 percent increase. Instead, Quad/Graphics' long-time director of postal affairs had the resigned attitude of a man whose wife had run off with his best friend and stole his car to do it.

The fact that the PRC limited the exigency to two years or the collection of $2.8 billion in added revenues

The U.S. Postal Service hoped to boost deliveries per work hour from 41.0 to 42.7 during FY2013, but the annual report said it fell short partly because so many new employees had to be brought up to speed. Having more mail volume than anticipated (a decline of less than 1 percent, versus 5 percent the previous year) also hurt productivity, despite improving USPS’s finances, the report noted.

The report does not discuss another productivity measure—mail pieces delivered per work hour—but that appears to have changed little during the year.

Downsizing of the workforce, consolidation of facilities and carrier routes, and greater automation

This week Structural Graphics is featuring a dimensional folder from UC Riverside that it used to send out information about its different colleges to prospective students. The piece starts off as a seemingly flat printed folder, but when you open it up, an intricate pop-up immediately rises from the center.