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Standing Out From The Crowd

July 27, 2005

How does a small company or individual eBay seller who wants to get big one day do it? The answer is easy - they work hard to stand out from an already crowded field to have their product, service and name recognized before the others.

This can be acheived several ways:

First, is to simply have a better product than your competition does.

Next, is to do it better and faster than the other guy.

Yet another way to separate yourself from the crowd is to deliver your merchandise in a way that stands out and is remembered by the receiver.

An example of this might be who's box of widgets is more likely to be remembered first at re-order time, the one that arrives in a plain brown box with clear tape or the one that arrives in a white box sealed with red, blue, green or yellow tape? Obviously the white box will be remembered because it is different from the rest and provided the net cost to the customer is relatively close, chances are the better remembered package and company will come to mind first therefore getting the next order.

When it comes to gaining repeat customers, it's not always the best price that brings people back for more. You may charge a little more, but if your overall service is superior and you get name and/or product recognition, you will get quality customers coming back as oppossed to the ones only looking for the rock bottom price and who tend to complain the most as well.

If your selling over the web, the first "hands on" impression your customer gets is when the order is delivered. That's where the the first impression truly takes place. If the package arrives looking right, it extends an aire of quality, professionalism and attention to detail that leaves an indelible mental impression on the customer regardless how ordinary the product might be.

Once you have the customers attention when the package arrives, they can't help but open yours first to reveal its contents. The customer never expected such an eye catching package usually get fixated on it and just have to open it. In doing so not only is the packaging remembered, but so is your name. Chances are good that your name will come up in conversation as well and possibly generate more business.

Depending on your particular market, further lasting impressions can be made inside the package as well. Matching or contrasting color tissue paper can highlight the item as can packing peanuts. Instead of white, pink or green alone, you can mix pink and green together for a different look.

If your products are shipped in cardboard tubes such as posters, artwork, blueprints or fabric, a great impact can be made with colored tubes instead of plain kraft for little extra expense.

It goes without saying that no matter how colorful and impressive your packaging may be, it means nothing it is not packaged properly to arrive in one piece.

No matter who the carrier is, UPS, FexEx, USPS, etc., you can be sure that your packages will ride a myriad of conveyor belts, get tossed around some and will fall down at least one mail chute along the way. You can also rest assured that in all likelyhood, the "Handle With Care" label won't make a bit of difference to a package sorter if it is even noticed at all.

With said, you need to pay attention to what is in the inside of the package as well as the outside. Be sure to package things with the above paragraph in mind. Bubble Wrap, loose fill peanuts, tissue paper, foam, and the other various types of inner protection that are available make it easy to do a good job and get the customers order delivered in one piece.

A stand out splash of color will get you and your product remembered and proper packaging will get it there safely so everyone is happy at the end of the day.

# posted by Pac-n-Seal.com @ 11:34 AM

If the U.S. Postal Service has its way, "the check is in the mail" excuse will no longer be valid. The company that sent you the bill could verify whether you're bluffing through a bar code on the return envelope scanned by the Postal Service.

That tracking system, which starts this month, is one way the Postal Service is making first-class mail such as bills and personal correspondence more valuable, in a world full of e-mail and electronic documents. Meanwhile, the red, white and blue may just become a serious competitor to brown—United Parcel Service in small package delivery

The Postal Service says a financial institution will test the system in July by using the new bar code. The customer will track mail as it winds through the Postal Service's 283 processing and distribution centers across the country. Currently, mail is mostly scanned at the beginning and delivery points.

By year's end, all letter mail could be tracked at Postal Service facilities. The Postal Service will add commercial customers throughout 2006.

The Postal Service plans to win favor with large first-class mailers—groups such as financial institutions that send bills, customer correspondence and statements. Such customers send 50 billion pieces of mail a year. But the bar-coding tracking system is just one way the USPS is winning customers as it carries out a transformation plan launched in 2002. The Postal Service has: Revamped its Web site to become an e-commerce portal, now serving 2.2 million visitors a day. Introduced new services such as Click-N-Ship, an online postage printing service, to generate more than $200 million in revenue. Created better mail tracking through a service called Confirm, which allows business customers to follow mail through the Postal Service's automated systems.

"There's a lot of interest in making first-class mail more intelligent," says Charlie Bravo, senior vice president of intelligent mail and address quality at the Postal Service.

The core of that campaign is the bar-code tracking system. Here's how it would work.

A direct marketer, such as Williams-Sonoma, would know when you received a catalog with 99% accuracy, because each piece would be scanned before it hit a mail deliverer's bag. A utility company would reduce phone costs—and annoyed customers—if it could verify on a USPS-run Web site that your check was indeed in the mail. A credit card company, such as MBNA, could bring in additional clerks when it saw an unusual spike in payments on the way.

In many respects, the Postal Service is catching up to the techniques pioneered by Federal Express with packages. It's also a defense strategy. The Postal Service, which has a monopoly in mail, has to make first-class mail more relevant since it accounts for more than half of the organization's $69 billion in annual revenue.

Kate Siggerud, director of physical infrastructure issues at the Government Accountability Office, says first-class mail is one of the Postal Service's biggest challenges. In 2004, first-class mail volume fell 1.1%, the third consecutive annual decline.

So far, the Postal Service has weathered the declines by boosting efficiency. According to the GAO, the Postal Service's productivity increased 5.2% from fiscal 2001 to 2004 as it cut costs and work hours. The Postal Service, which has 707,000 employees, down 9.4% from 2001, cut debt to $1.8 billion for the year ended Sept. 30, 2004, down from $11.3 billion in 2001. Operating margin was 4.6% for fiscal 2004, up from 1.8% in 2002. The technology campaign also helped: Consolidating systems saves $100 million a year.

Still, the Postal Service has challenges. Its facilities, compiled over decades, often don't share common equipment, specifications and processes. That means the Postal Service can't replicate the productivity of a company like Wal-Mart, which builds nearly identical distribution centers. It doesn't own its transportation network and is saddled with excess capacity. The cumulative effect is that the service can become more efficient, but may hit a productivity wall given its infrastructure and high pension costs, Siggerud says.

"[The Postal Service has] been making some noticeable improvements four years in a row," she says. "They're on the right track, but still have more to do."

Small steps

Nevertheless, the Postal Service has come far enough that it can't be dismissed. In a June 9 report, Morgan Stanley analyst James Valentine says the Postal Service is a viable threat to United Parcel Service for shipping small packages from businesses to consumers.

"The U.S. Postal Service is often overlooked as a competitive threat to UPS, but we believe it's a force to be watched," Valentine says. "Its improved service is putting pressure on UPS' pricing where they compete."

The Postal Service competes with UPS on two fronts: overnight mail and delivering lightweight parcels such as books and music. Improved service along with steady prices since 2002 has made the Postal Service "all that more attractive to shippers," Valentine says.

However, getting to the point where it could compete meant the Postal Service had to update and consolidate its technology infrastructure, says USPS chief technology officer Bob Otto.

The Postal Service's first move was to standardize its personal computers and software for its 245,000 users to make maintenance easier. The organization also consolidated 15,000 Unix servers to about 1,200 to 1,500, saving $50 million a year. Application and network maintenance was consolidated in two computing centers in Eagan, Minn., and San Mateo, Calif., to save another $50 million annually.

The Postal Service also shared technology services across departments such as finance, human resources and help desk. Otto whittled 119 technology help desks to three. By centralizing finance operations, the Postal Service saved $60 million a year and cut 750 positions.

"We just accumulated a lot over the years," Otto explains. "In the last five years, we modernized everything."

Defending Its Turf

As Otto was cutting technology costs, Bravo in 2003 formed the engineering, marketing and technology groups that would make first-class mail more valuable to large mailers. Their mission: to create a bar-code system to accommodate all services, including Confirm, delivery confirmation and certified mail. Previously, the Postal Service created a new bar code every time a service was launched. The end result was as many as 30 types of bar codes.

Bravo needed to pack more information on bar codes so one system could account for multiple services and mail types like "flat" mail, which consists of items like magazines and newspapers. The group settled on a 31-digit bar code, up from the 9-digit code then in use, that could be easily printed on ink-jet and laser printers. The new code would require few software changes for most of the Postal Service's customers, which range from small businesses to credit card giants to non-profit organizations.

If the implementation is successful, customers will be able to get tracking information on any piece of mail.

Next up: Another transformation plan due in September to take the Postal Service to 2010. That plan will cover potential changes such as further automation of processing centers and retooling older facilities.

# posted by Pac-n-Seal.com @ 8:22 AM