Consumer tests: Pumped-Up offers, self-mailers galore

Circulation Management, Feb, 2002 by Karlene Lukovitz, Marybeth Luczak

THE RECESSION, TIGHT PROMOTION BUDGETS, THE NEW AUDITING RULES AND THE ANTHRAX SCARE ARE DRIVING EXPERIMENTATION WITH STRONGER OFFERS AND CHEAPER, NON-THREATENING PACKAGES.

Fall and year-end new business consumer magazine mailings produced a bumper crop of notable direct mail tests, for reasons that aren't hard to grasp. The unknowns associated with 9/11, the anthrax attacks and an unpredictable economy...the new auditing rules...ongoing direct mail response declines...downsized promotion budgets. This is the unprecedented constellation of factors driving consumer marketers, who must somehow come up with direct mail that compels prospects' attention without using stealth tactics, convinces people to spend scarce discretionary dollars on a magazine, and reduces promotion costs in the bargain.

A tall order, but one that marketers are clearly taking on with all of the experience and creativity at their disposal. True, brand-new formats remain exotic birds. But more magazines are pushing to shift to packages that are significantly different from their current controls. Circulators are straining to find variations that can rejuvenate double postcards and other fatigued formats; testing a plethora of self-mailers in the hope of dethroning more expensive, traditional controls for some titles; and feeling out the parameters on the new-offer front.

Most consumer marketers report that they'll be mailing at least the same volumes in 2002 as last year. (A typical comment: "We're not cutting back on direct mail volumes or direct mail as a source, but we're trying to save money on creative.") But a few say that they've either been forced to reduce mail volumes overall, or on titles that are having a particularly hard time with direct mail.

Budgets are also driving changes in testing approaches. "People are planning what they will test more carefully," says Caroline Zimmermann, president and chief creative officer of direct marketing agency The Zimmermann Agency Inc. (Brookville, NY). "They may only be able to do six test variations per mailing instead of 10 now, so they're not testing a pink border versus a blue border. They're going for real breakthroughs. Plus, there are some tests that seem to be naturally dictated, like blind envelopes versus identifiers. A lot of magazines felt that they had to add identifiers quickly, without testing. Now, they're trying to get a better handle on this factor."

"There are a lot of identifier tests," concurs John Ruggiero, creative director of Rye, NY-based direct mail agency Provoke! Inc. "Actually, identifiers are being added to both test and control packages. Of course, adding them to controls without testing is risky. You're talking about large-volume mailings."

The immediate impacts of 9/11 and anthrax were erratic, and the longer-term impacts, if any, will also need to be measured and dealt with on a title-by-title basis. "You can't generalize," says Zimmermann. "For some magazines, response was way off after September 11 and anthrax; for others, response has been up, with or without blind envelopes. We did one test with a blind envelope that mailed right before the anthrax hit. That mailing actually did better than projected. As I always say, direct marketing is an art and a science--but you never know when it's going to be an art, and when it's going to be a science.

STRONGER OFFERS, COMBO SALES

The much-heralded redefinition of paid circulation and related new audit bureau rules will no doubt spawn a raft of offer tests in the months ahead, and recent mailings have certainly included some ventures in this direction.

A few magazines are discreetly testing significantly discounted intro price offers, while limiting the volumes that would need to be broken out as less than 35 percent of average price on ABC statements. "We're testing lower prices, but it's too confidential to discuss details," says one direct mail manager. "Suffice it to say that, for us, price offers usually work better than premiums. Still, on some magazines, we're finding that the lowest price isn't always the winner."

BPA-audited Golfweek is working on several new types of efforts that should actually enable the title to reduce 2002 circulation expenses, even though it upped rate base from 105,000 to 135,000 as of January 1. (BPA's new rules require that all pricepoints representing 5 percent or more of total subs must be broken out on the statement.)

Golfweek originally planned a 300,000-piece prospecting test with a $19.95 offer as part of its 1 million-plus December mailing. That offer would be more than 70 percent off its basic price of $69.95 (raised to $79.95 as of January 1) for 50 issues. The idea is to mail to lists from retailers, email addresses appended with postal addresses, and perhaps general sports lists--files that are less targeted than the magazine's core lists of avid, low-handicap golfers and have not responded very strongly to a half-basic, $35 offer in past tests, according to VP consumer marketing Richard Hauptner.