US Post Office & Direct Mail Deathwatch
Not just tech triumphs, the
PO is a self-fulfilling sinking
You think it’s not coming? You must be a fantasizer, or you work for the post office! Direct mail, thanks to the US Post Office (AKA US Postal Service) as we know it, is dying a slow, painful suffocating death.
How can that be? Because direct mail–like commercials being the mainstay of broadcast media–is the mainstay of the US Post Office (AKA US Postal Service), and the US Post Office is on the way to gasping its last few breaths.
I noted here a few days ago that the US Postal Service is reported to have processed 203 billion pieces of mail during 2008. (That’s 7.700 pieces per second!) Now does that sound like an entity that’s going out of business?
Well, consider that during the same time period, CTIA reported over one TRILLION text messages were sent. And are you ready for this one? Radicali Group reports –for 2008– that 210 BILLION EMAILS were sent PER DAY. Do the math!
Now take a hard look at US Postal Service management. It’s a sea of incompetency, which should actually not be any surprise considering the totality of federal government incompetency when it comes to anything involving business.
And no need to look any further than the banks, automakers, lack of job creation due to 100% lack of small business savvy and support [except for tokenism from the equally incompetent SBA (Small Business Administration) run, of course, by big business]… or the ridiculous “forced healthcare” proposals on the table. Maybe we should be forced to buy stamps!
Here. Try a quick review of these two gem blog posts from this past March: the first was mine, criticizing the US Postal Service and the second was from a postmaster who politely tried to defend and then subscribed to the bulk of criticism. (I reproduced his reply in full.)
They speak for themselves http://halalpiar.com/2009/03/23-lifelines-tossed-to-the-post-office/ and http://halalpiar.com/2009/03/hawaii-postmaster-responds-to-postal-service-critique/
It’s beginning to look like it’s going to take more suffering before government gets a wake-up call that the only answer to our economic woes is going to come from small business job creation and the privatization of government agencies.
Unless agencies like US Postal Services can be run like real businesses by being market competitive and operated for profit, they will cease to exist. The Post Office is on its way out. And like a sinking ship’s treasures, it’s taking the direct mail industry along with it.
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Input aways welcome:
Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US or comment below.
Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you!
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