After the Hike: Mailing Strategies

For us, it was successful. It saves us 2 to 5 percent annually.

[Catalogers] also should try to optimize production and printing. Scrutinize your contract. What does it cost for a dot [-whack], a fake dot, a card? We surf the markers around the shoals of high prices.

Q: What are you looking at differently in terms of postal products?
A: We’re buying more NCOA [National Change of Address] and third-party products. We’re looking at every postal discount available: mail strings, add-a-names, complete carrier backs. If you’re a little catalog, some of these things don’t work for you. We put out about 25 million, so everything we do we save a percentage here and there—and they add up.