Special Report: Paper

Wade suggests that catalogers seek mills that actually profit from the basis weight papers they provide. If the paper grade you purchase serves as a loss leader for a mill, the paper’s quality might be questionable.

Non-Paper Savings Options
Not all paper-related savings should come directly from paper purchases. Improved list hygiene, tighter prospecting, versioning, changing book size, co-mailing, co-binding and other cost-saving techniques are equally important according to Wilson. And Wade notes that many of his clients had their greatest successes through list cleansing and target marketing: “A lot of our clients have already reduced their basis weight to the point where they feel they're going to affect their branding image.”