Responsible Mail (product from Royal Mail wholesale) provides customers with the opportunity to benefit from lower prices by posting environmentally friendly direct mail. It also enables an organisation to:
* Reduce waste
* Increase ROI
* Build a positive brand image
* Help maintain self-regulation of the DM industry
How a company uses direct mail makes a pronounced impact on how consumers perceive its environmental credentials.
Independent research commissioned by ONEPOST reveals that:
Just two in five consumers regard price as being more important than a product’s environmental qualities when deciding to make a purchase.
Just 16% of consumers research the environmental credentials of the companies they intent to purchase from – many base their judgement on immediately accessible information like marketing materials.
Environmentally friendly direct mail is determined by a number of criteria, including responsible sourcing & recyclability and data. Here is some additional evidence to support the requirements.
POLYWRAP: Half of all consumers stated that the use of polythene wrapping is the strongest influence on their decision about whether a piece of direct mail is environmentally friendly or not
RECYCLE LOGO: One third of consumers polled said that the presence of a recycle logo alone on an item of direct mail would lead them to perceive a company to be environmentally friendly.
Consumers are likely to regard envelopes with a recycle logo as being environmentally friendly
A recycle logo on the outside of a mail piece would not make them throw it away more quickly – in fact, consumers felt that it would make their attention last a little longer.
Consumers were surprised that any company would not consider putting the recycle logo on their direct mail.
Including a recycling logo doesn’t have any negative impact on consumers – at worst it’s neutral and at best it can change their perception of the organisation and the medium as a whole.
DATA: 30 per cent of consumers pointed to incorrectly addressed mail as counting against a company’s environmental image
* 11% of the UK population change address every year
* 18,000 people move every day – that’s over 6 million people a year
* Over 500,000 registered deaths in the UK each year – that’s 1,400 people a day
A survey from Mortascreen revealed that 87% of consumers would cease trading with an organisation if they received a piece of direct mail addressed to a deceased family member
