March 2004

The Presidential Commission on the USPS
The commission's report is in and causing waves in the direct mail industry. Opinions are widely divided on the necessity, effectiveness and benefits of the commissions recommendations. 

While the commission gave the USPS a long-needed ability to streamline their service network, it also recommends they have the option to close post offices they deem costly to operate. Facilities on the chopping block would most likely be small, rural post offices. Closing them might mean rural residents may have to travel long distances to get their mail, or wait longer for their mail to be delivered, and could impact the postal services available to them.

Another hotly debated proposal is instituting a pay for performance or bonus type program for all USPS employees. Union proponents are staunchly against performance rewards, especially when accompanied by the removal of salary caps for USPS executives, also proposed by the commission. Opponents of the salary cap elimination cite the problems caused by an increased gap between executive and non-executive wages. 

But before you agree with the unions on keeping the salary caps, realize that the Postmaster General Jack Potter is the CEO of a $70 billion organization and is paid only $174,500 annually. In comparison, Andrew Card, the President's Chief of Staff and Condoleezza Rice, the President's National Security Advisor, are both compensated only $151,000 each year. Last year Bill Gates was paid $865,000 from Microsoft, a $35 billion company.

Do Not Mail Registry?
The CAN SPAM Act took effect January 1, 2004 and opinions differ on its value. But with the spotlight on SPAM, many miss a little-known provision in the CAN SPAM Act that allows for the creation of a Do Not Mail registry. As mailers, we should be concerned about this development, but only a little.

This newsletter has often exposed the differences between mail marketing and other types of obtrusive marketing such as telemarketing and SPAM. These differences are the very motivation for legislation that creates Do Not Call lists and the CAN SPAM Act. The mail is a part of our economy, a $900 billion industry that continues to grow. The mail is a part of our American tradition. An International Communications Research survey found that 75% of consumers preferred marketing mail over other forms of advertising and 86% preferred to have their bills and financial information mailed to them.

News Poll
Send your vote to mailto:webmaster@mailCCI.com or vote online. Visit http://www.mailCCI.com and in the Interactive menu choose Today's Survey.

Do you believe a Do Not Mail registry is in our future?

____ Yes
____ No

We'll post the poll results here in next month's e-newsletter.
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Results of last month's poll: 

Is your web site just an online version of your business card?

36% Yes
35% No
29% Do Not Have A Web Site

See the results of other surveys CCI has conducted online at http://www.mailCCI.com/data/surveys.asp.

www.mailCCI.com
Ever wonder what's in that barcode on your mail? Or maybe you'd like to be able to check a barcode your printing for accuracy. We can show you how. 

We developed a short tutorial on what barcodes are and how they are created. In this tutorial, you'll learn an easy to remember trick to decoding a barcode that will allow you to read a barcode anywhere, anytime. 

How to read a barcode: 
http://www.mailcci.com/direct-mail-tips/how_to_read_barcodes.asp

And we also have an online barcode creator and translator. By simply clicking the numbers, you can create a barcode. Or, click the bars of the barcode to make it look like the one you're trying to read. The numbers below the bars will decode your barcode into the numeric digits it represents.

Create and Translate a barcode:
http://www.mailcci.com/direct-mail-tips/barcode_translator/