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April 2009
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Vol 2, Issue
4
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Welcome to the April
issue
of the PS
Insider! |
Pricing
Limbo-How Low Can It Go... ?
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Over the past few months, printing and mailing
costs for direct mail can be best described as a limbo
stick, while printing and mailing suppliers would be
described as the limbo contestants, having to bend and
lean lower, and lower, and lower in order to stay
competitive within the market. Anyone who has ever
had the pleasure of watching or participating in a limbo
contest can attest that the dropping bar means falling
participants, and eventually, there are only one or two
remaining that have the strength, the flexibility, and
the talent to endure. Let's be honest here-a real
limbo champ is someone who can literally bend over
backwards and not break while doing
so!
This "pricing limbo" or "pricing
game" has greatly impacted the supplier network during
the past few months-and more importantly, the forecast
calls for continued negative impacts over the next six
to twelve months. The dropping limbo bar has
caused more than a dozen mail shops and half a dozen
printers to either suddenly close their doors, or
cut significant capacity; those still alive are bending
as low as possible, in dire need of more business.
There is simply much less demand, and after monitoring
the unprecedented price fluctuations during the first
quarter of this year, printing and mailing costs for
direct marketers and fundraisers are being driven to an
industry wide low.
Click here to
read more...
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Important Postal Updates
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Standard
Mail Move Update - POSTPONED
The USPS
officially announced that they will not be enforcing the
penalty phase of Move Update non compliance until
January 4, 2010 for all Standard class mail; there is no
word yet on any delays for First class. Production
Solutions will keep you posted on this information as it
becomes available.  Don't Forget...
Address Placement for
Flats...
Effective March
29, 2009, if you are mailing a flat at standard or
non-profit rates, you must have the address in the top
half of the carrier (see diagram to the left). The
top is defined as the right or left edge as viewed in
this horizontal orientation. The outgoing address
can be parallel or perpendicular to the short edge, as
long as it is entirely on either the right or left side.
The penalty for non-compliance is quite
severe - being charged 1st class rates for standard
mail, upwards
to 100% increase in postage!!
New Postal
Rates - Effective May 12, 2009
New Production
Solutions postal rate charts coming soon - ask your PS
account manager for
details! |
How
Many? The PS April Trivia Question
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How many resources are
you saving by using 30% Post-Consumer Waste recycled
paper?
A) 2 trees and 650 gallons of water per
ton
B) 4 to 8 trees and 2,625 gallons of water
per ton
C) 9 to 13 trees and 22,800 gallons of
water per ton
D) 14 to 20 trees and over 50,000
gallons of water per ton
The first person to
e-mail the correct answer to Mandy Centracchio at
mandyc@psmail.com will win a restaurant gift
card. | |
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PS to host
a suite at
2009 Bridge
Conference
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 PS
attended the 2009 Innovative Formats & Inventive
Techniques
Did you miss this DMAW
session on March 30th due to time or monetary
restrictions?
Contact the
Client Services
department to set up a personalized review of these
packages, as well as other ideas that PS is working
on!
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| Get
to know the PS Staff |
Benjamin Harris
VP of
Operations
Tenure
at PS-10 years, and 7
months
Education-B.A.
Business Management from Washington
College,
Chestertown MD
Favorite
Restaurants-Guapos, Rio Grande, Sweet
Water, Wendy's, Central, Faccia Luna
Favorite
Movies-Groundhog
Day, Ring of Fire, Any horror movie or science fiction
movie, Forrest Gump
Must Tivo
TV-Any show my lovely wife is currently watching
(Gossip Girl, American
Idol, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives,
The City, So You Think You Can Dance)
Favorite
Music-I am very music-centric, and appreciate all
types of music. I especially like live concerts,
and outdoor concerts in the summer time - although I am
not a big country music fan
Leisure
Interests-Hanging at the beach, staying active
outdoors, shopping, and watching football
Most Memorable
Direct Mail Adventure-Once we produced a
personalized coffee mug, and the raw materials that were
used to produce the mugs in China, varied in weight -
and the per piece weight on the package varied from
piece to piece, making the count total reconciliation an
absolute nightmare. There were only 10,000 pieces total,
however the weight variance created issues that took
weeks to reconcile with the USPS and we eventually got
an exception and did not have to pay the additional
$10,000 in excess postage for mugs that were technically
not even
there!
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Thank you again for
choosing Production Solutions as a partner for your
direct marketing needs!
Sincerely,
Patrick McVean, Mandy
Centracchio & Marie Kosanovich
Production
Solutions Client Services
Team | |
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