In the face of competition, Royal Mail is reinforcing it's brand by having the slogan 'Delivered by Royal Mail' on all inland mail.
The main impact is on companies who use Postage Paid Impressions (PPIs) as the PPI specification has changed and users will be required to change the PPI within the next 6 months by adding the slogan alongside the existing details thus:
Whilst this is probably only of minor interest to most collectors, the Direct Marketing Association is not happy.
Moya Greene, chief executive of Royal Mail, said: “Delivering to 29 million addresses six days a week is a major task. The new mark ensures that postmen and women get recognition for the vital task they complete every working day.
“We are proud of the distinctive service we offer and we want customers to be aware of the difference. It is important we avoid customer confusion in the UK’s very competitive postal market.”
But the definition of 'customer' depends on your point of view. Royal Mail obviously see the end recipient as the customer, whilst others regard the person or company that pays for the service as the customer. Both viewpoints are valid.
However, Mike Lordan, chief of operation for the Direct Marketing Association, commented: “Royal Mail’s decision to start stamping the mail it delivers may well appeal to the postmen that deliver it, but the DMA members we’ve spoken to – Royal Mail’s customers – are not happy about the prospect.
“Royal Mail does not own the envelopes that it delivers, so it’s hard to understand what right it believes it has to stamp its own marketing message on a medium that is not its property. If Royal Mail wants to market itself to householders by telling them who delivered their mail, then it should find another means of doing so.”
This last sentence has to be the most crass ever seen in relation to postal services. Perhaps DMA members could come up with some suggestions as to how that could be acheived. Answers on a postcard to..... (oh no, that wouldn't work, would it?).
Apparently the slogan may soon be included in Royal Mail's ink-jet postmarks, judging by this illustration that we found (a mock-up, not an actual example):
We have also seen an illustration of the new slogan at the top left of an envelope with a franking machine impression. These are not normally postmarked, so applying that slogan would require an extra process in the mail-handling process.
Let us know when you first see the new slogan - on any type of mail.
UPDATE: I saw one posted from Nottingham before 30 June, and John P has sent this one from Bristol dated 28.06.12 - thanks John
Does this mean they might actually have more incentive to apply postmarks to stamped mail, the majority of which seems to pass through unmarked these days?
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice to think we might actually get more postmarked mail. And with new IMPs coming in - Mount Pleasant (for example) is now ink-jet instead of its underinked Universal type - there is every incentive to use the darned things!
DeleteI'd like to see the Welsh version as well.
The image is non-genuine I'm afraid - the "Delivered by" section is on a different alignment and ink to the rest of the impression.
ReplyDeleteAre the (now old) IMPs getting the inkjet upgrade too? ILSMs should be fitted nationwide by the end of the year I think.
Given the huge variety of quality of current impressions it does make you wonder how many of these marks will be anywhere close to readable.
None of the illustrations are of actual impressions as the system hasn't started yet - sorry if I didn't make that clear. The PPI example is from Royal Mail's website and is the template for license holders to send to their printers.
DeleteThe 'ink-jet postmark' is taken from another source, and is a mock-up as was the one referred to as being on franked/metered example.
I don't know which machines are getting the upgrade. The IMPs do not provide a clear impression but I haven't seen many poor ILSM postmarks.
All IMP Printers were upgraded circa 2008 with Postjet printers. Reason for the poor impression may be down to the high usage and low maintenance on the print head.
ReplyDeleteMarks have already appeared on mail as part of the Branding Project. These have included dots, #, o and the latest being vertical lines.