Gotcha Gang Cut off at Poly Pass

Waterloo ON Tuesday, August 28, 2007

It was mid afternoon on Tuesday, August 28 when Inspector Hamish McMoney received an unexpected phone call. He had been pouring over several unpromising leads about where the Gotcha Gang might strike next, and it was something of a relief to answer the phone. On the other end of the line was the Director of Marketing and Communications for Far-Star Hotels. She was calling to ask for the Inspector’s help.

It seems she had read our recent article about the Gotcha Gang’s Shrinking Fund Annuities, and decided to bring in the Inspector to see if there was anywhere that the gang was gobbling up money from her company.

“They were doing a lot of things right,” the Inspector said regarding his investigation, “but they did have the opportunity to save in one particular area. Every year they were ordering about 100,000 clear plastic envelopes, which they would use to mail out their quarterly newsletter. By the time I added everything together – including the cost of the envelopes, and the assembly costs to manually insert the newsletter and manually seal the envelopes – the total price came out to about $0.21 per piece, and $5,250 every quarter. I figured there was a way to cut their costs almost in half.”

The inspector’s suggestion was simple: switch from the clear envelopes to 9” x 12” seamless polybags. With the Far-Star newsletter, which normally weighs in just under 50 grams, the inspector calculated that the total cost per piece would be a mere $0.11. Again, that included the price of the polybag and the cost of insertion and sealing. At a cost of $2,750 per quarterly mailing, this would yield a savings of $2,500 or 48%! Over the course of the full year, that’s $10,000!

“Far-Star’s marketing department had the right idea,” McMoney said. “They wanted to use clear packaging so that their pieces would be like traveling billboards. It was just a matter of doing a bit more research and finding a more cost-effective packaging solution.”

When asked for clarification, the inspector explained that, by using clear packaging, you can turn any piece into a so-called “traveling billboard”. With the best side of your literature facing out, everyone can see it while it’s en route to its recipient. Better yet, since your literature shows right through the packaging, the eventual recipient doesn’t even have to open the piece to get your message! And, as seasoned marketers will tell you, getting the piece opened is always half the battle.

As for the Gotcha Gang, they were “clearly” caught off guard in this case. Their aggravation was most apparent when they refused to comment on the situation, turning on their heels and heading out of town as evening set in. However, even as they went, they could be heard discussing plans for their next coup and muttering that there were still plenty of other areas where they could find easy cash from unsuspecting mailers.

Please note that the Gotcha Gang is not Canada Post. The Gotcha Gang represents the effect of decisions that result in paying excess postage, labour costs or minimizing opportunity. Most of these releases are based on actual events, though dates and locations may be fictitious.