Date: November 17, 2005

Presenter: Rich Howdle

Affiliation: Mail Solutions

The guest speaker for this meeting was Rich Howdle, President of Mail Solutions - www.yourmailsolutions.com. Mail Solutions is a direct mail processing firm providing design, print, mail, list, database and related services. Rich started the company in March, 2000 - just when the economy started to slide, but they have grown and expanded every year to include more services. Rich will discuss the impact of technology and how even a small company can compete with high end services that previously required millions in capital investment.

The rapid changes in list services, database administration, print and fulfillment technologies has brought down the cost of operating a direct mail business. These capabilities once were only possible with substantial investment in equipment and labor, which meant that only the largest firms could offer specialized services such as, one-to-one marketing. One-to-one marketing is a highly personalized service where the customer receives a solicitaion customized to their specific interests. For example, a travel agency sends a client a printed brochure with images from the location of their last business trip and a customized travel offering for a similar location. The printed material has fields in which the customer address, image and offer are all matched in a database, then sent to the printer for processing. Conceivably, each customer could have a unique offer. Major airlines are using this technology for retention programs with their high-end customers. These same services are now available from smaller companies that specialize in the development and fulfillment of the direct mail campaign.