Royal Mail defends value of door drops
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Consumers are most receptive to unaddressed door drops from the retail sector than any other business, according to a Royal Mail study.
The study into attitudes to door drops, by Freshminds Research, found 90% of the poll are happy to receive unaddressed mail from retailers with 81% saying that the preferred frequency is twice a month.
FMCG brands are the next most popular sector to use the channel with 74% of respondents happy with a twice a month mailing.
The research also highlights that unaddressed mail achieves cut-through with 89% of consumers remembering receiving a door drop in the previous two weeks.
Unaddressed mail came under fire last month in a Panorama programme taking the direct mail industry to task.
Royal Mail head of strategy, marketing and sales for door to door Philip Ricketts said that the research backed up the appeal of door drops as "a physical and tactile media".
He adds: "Certain kinds of door drops, particularly those advertising discounts at local supermarkets, are regularly anticipated, retained and used by consumers."
The online survey questioned 2,008 nationally representative adults from across the UK and was underpinned with a qualitative telephone interview with 27 respondents.
Royal Mail Door to Door recently introduced digital watermarking technology. A digital watermark can be embedded into pictures on leaflets and mailings, enabling marketers to integrate their print and online material without the need for barcodes or QR codes.
The initiative allows people to link from their post to a company's online content, such as a website, video or Facebook page. People receiving the digitally-enhanced post scan the mail with their 3G phone to interact.
Readers' comments (2)
Paul Markland | Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:42 pm
Who are these 81% of people who like receiving doordrops from retailers - I've never met even one!
89% of respondees remembered receiving a doordrop in the previous two weeks - but I wonder if they were happy they had?
Targeted direct mail - in which I'm great believer, especially as I run a group of mailing houses - unfairly came in for environmental criticism on the Panorama programme.
Royal Mail's own figures show that 90% of the print matter waste is unaddressed items such as newspapers and doordrops, not the inappropriately named addressed 'junk mail', which is mostly sent to people who have expressed an interest in the topic already.
And don't get me started on cheap untargeted (intrusive and irritating) e-mails. They certainly deserve the monika 'junk'; I can't hit the 'block sender' button quick enough.
Rant over - I feel better now!
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Steve Abbott | Tue, 23 Aug 2011 4:22 pm
The British Marketing Survey monitors both receipt and acceptability of marketing channels every month. In terms of recalled receipt Door Drops top the table at 89% of people recalling having recently received them followed by unaddressed mail at 63%, Warm mail at 44% and cold mail at 43%.
In terms of acceptability 37% of those who recall warm mail find it acceptable compared to 27% for door drops, 12% for unaddressed mail and 11% for cold mail. Interesting that unnadressed mail is more acceptable than cold mail. One explanation may be that it can go directly into the bin without having to shred the name and address for fear of identity theft!
Maybe of more relevance to marketers is the fact that of these four channels the top one in terms of the number of people who are willing to respond in the future id Door Drops. In terms of email, take heart mail fans, cold email is less likely to provoke a response than any channel apart from telephone and SMS.
These figures are based on the July 2011 edition of The British Marketing Survey, n = 11,958 face to face, in home interviews, population representative sampe.
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