Eaten by the Mail House

Charles Darwin purportedly said, “In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment.” We see Darwinian adaptation in the business world all around us: drug stores selling groceries and grocery stores with pharmacies, car washes doing oil changes and oil change shops washing cars and on and on. It’s move and counter-move with competitors, rather than nature, defining the environment.

Mail Houses Turn Print Shop

With more mail houses going into the retail printing business, what will we see the print shops do…start mailing themselves, stop selling any mailing jobs or offering breakfast burritos with every print job? We know many print shop owners with strategies to avoid becoming a much smaller version of Kodak. The bankruptcy of Kodak (who developed the first digital camera in 1975) points out the consequences of not adapting - of ignoring competitors’ moves - of being oblivious to a changing environment.

One print shop owner recently sent us a very succinct email explaining his version of adapting: “You guys have been very helpful with getting us up to speed on mailing, a totally new activity for us. Prior to now, we have been outsourcing the mailing function. Since the mailing houses are becoming printers, though, we have to become mailers.” That’s simple enough. If the mail shops are going to compete for printing work, he is not going to help them by identifying his customers to them or sending them mailing business.

Good or Bad?

The revelation that the mail house has turned competitor may actually be a blessing rather than a harsh reality. We know numerous print shops that keep paying outrageous prices to mail houses for even the simplest postcard mailing jobs. Other print shops pay more reasonable prices but find it takes three, four or more days for their jobs to be mailed (without paying a premium for expedited service). High costs and/or slow service put the print shops in a less-than-competitive position by over which they have no control. How do maintain or grow business in this type of situation?

So, the mail houses are acting in a predatory fashion by going into the printing business, right? Absolutely...from the print shops' perspective! The mail houses' are acting for their survival just as a leopard that chases down and devours a baby gazelle. Leopards have to eat. Mail houses have to adapt to a slow market and a decreasing number of print shop customers. What does the print shop gazelles do?

One thing you never see on the nature programs is a gazelle standing still while the leopard bears down on it. Nope. Gazelles run like hell to keep from being eaten. Are print shop owners placidly waiting to be eaten by the mail houses or running like hell? We see a growing number of print shop owners who recognize the threat and how they can use VDP to do their mailings in-house. Unfortunately, however, there are also many waiting for the leopard to strike.

Even if you're not in danger of being eaten, you could benefit from doing your own addressing and mailing. That's what our new EZ-VDP Addressing service enables you to do.

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