August 5, 2011
Royal Mail without consultation to any of its 60 million customers or to major stakeholders in the Direct Mail industry such as Romax, proposed imposing (and maybe still are) what they are calling a Mark Design Specification (MDS). What is an MDS? It is a message that Royal Mail intend to print over the top of all mailed items that they deliver (99 plus % of addressed mail to the UK’s households), in an attempt to inform the public that this mail has indeed been delivered by Royal Mail.
We are opposed to not only the way that this has been proposed (i.e. – without consultation and via email giving only a few weeks notice) but also the damage that it will cause in terms of destraction of the marketing message and potential obscurance of the message being delivered to our client’s customers by Royal Mail’s marketing medium – direct mail.
Below is a letter sent from Romax to Jim Bulmer, Head of Franking and Mailing House Development, Royal Mail.
If you want to enter this discussion and add weight to the cancelation of what certainly is not a mark of distinction – let us know.
Sent 5th August 2011
Dear Jim
I have been keeping up to date with the above proposed Mark Design Specification to be printed directly by Royal Mail onto posted items to delivered by Royal Mail both through ‘End to End’ and as part of the ‘Final Mail’ Downstream Access service.
When I first received the notification via e-mail of the imminent introduction without any prior knowledge or consultation to my knowledge, I was flabbergasted!
Although I appreciate the importance of branding and recognition to Royal Mail in a de-monopolised market, to introduce this mark without discussion is absurd.
Our clients use the outer envelope, packaging and print space on mailers to create brand awareness and their own product, not Royal Mail’s. Use of DM as a media is increasingly difficult to sell, despite its clear advantages, so to alienate key users of the medium by not consulting with them or, to my knowledge, doing any market research is incredulous. Just because regulation says you can do it, doesn’t imply you should do it!
Having discussed this with many clients, and with my account managers dealing with over 500 client users of Direct Mail, I must stress our deep concern over this proposal, which simply adds additional complications to work and will drive clients further away from post as a marketing medium should it be introduced.
Does Royal Mail actually believe, that the 60 Million recipients of mail across the UK don’t know that Royal Mail delivers the vast majority of their mail? Has any research been done into this?
I hold Royal Mail in great respect and often defend it against undeserved bad press, but on this occasion, the bad press is deserved.
I look forward to hearing positive news over the withdrawal of this intended MDS.
Yours sincerely,
Robin Sumner
Managing Director
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