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concessions |
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1:
junk mail is for idiots |
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2:
junk mail is a cost effective way for companies to gain
subscribers |
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3:
there is currently no shortage on idiots |
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with that total
understanding of the industry in mind, i started to formulate a
plan. realizing that one of the primary goals of every magazine
company is to make money, i decided to hit them where it hurts the
most - the pocketbook. if i could come up with a way to make junk
mail a less cost effective path for them to gain more subscribers,
my quest would have a chance @ being successful. |
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the
plan |
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1:
start saving all those cards |
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2:
tabulate the total # of pieces per issue |
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3:
find out how much postage is on postcards |
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4:
send back all the cards... BLANK!* |
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so that's my
plan... lets see how it works out in the field. |
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*
if confused please refer to concession #1 listed
above |
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| EXHIBIT
3: Reader's
Digest |
| kc and i have
no idea as to when we became subscribers to this magazine... it
just comes to our house every month with our name and address on
it. seriously, we never signed up for it and have yet to pay for
it. anyway, it's not bad magazine (a sure sign of getting older)
and since it does show up @ our house we will use it in our study.
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| the
04/03 issue has 200 pages and 5 "business reply mail"
pieces. that breaks down to 1 piece every 40 pages... not
bad. however, when you take into account that reader's digest
pages are about 1/4th the size of a regular magazine page
the adjusted ratio rises to 1 piece for every 10 pages.
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| as for the
cost aspect... a reader's digest newsstand price is $2.99. we cant
tell you what the subscription rate is because, as mentioned above,
we're not subscribers... the thing just shows up. anyway, subtract
the mail in cost and the ole RD is left with just a buck 84 to make
a profit on. perhaps they should make a human interest story out
of that! |
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| EXHIBIT
4: Memphis
Magazine |
| memphis
magazine has been a staple coffee table piece @ my house for
years. it is a great publication that really does a fine job
showing off the finer points of our city without being jammed
full of reply by mail cards. however, for the sake of providing
some scale to this entire junk mail issue and in an effort
show just how "non-biased" the staff @ richardvining.com
truly is, we are going to use it in our study. (the only bias
comes in when we selected the harold ford jr. cover for the
sake of our argument) |
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| for a years
subscription to memphis magazine you have to put down $15 bones.
that breaks down to just $1.25 an issue. the most recent copy
(not the harold ford jr. issue pictured) contained only 4 business
reply cards while having over 140 pages - a study high "content-to-junk"
ratio of 35. thank you memphis magazine! |
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| however, before
you people break out with some junk mail coronation parade for memphis
magazine, take into account that when you subtract the $0.92 cents
for postage that i'm about to hit them with they are only left with
a quarter, a nickel, and 3 pennies per issue. that won't even buy
a first class stamp and certainly can't cover the cost to get the
issue to my mailbox each month... <begin rant> that is unless
harold ford jr. really does become president and we become a socialist
nation where the post office becomes totally subsidized for a period
of time just long enough to run fredEx out of business so that you
instantly have over 25,000 people in memphis without a job and in
need of some form of government assistance in exchange for their
future vote... ahhhhh! <end rant> |
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| CALL
TO ACTION: 3rd
grade accounting fights back |
| ok, lets run
some totals here. of the 3 magazines i subscribe to and the one
that just shows up, i receive a total of over 40 cards. that adds
up to $9.34 in "potential postage" each month. |
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subscription
cost |
"potential
postage" cost |
net
/ loss |
| W
I R E D |
$1
month |
$2.90
month |
($1.90) |
| ESPN
Magazine |
$1.12
month |
$4.37
month |
($3.18) |
| Readers
Digest |
unknown |
$1.15
month |
??? |
| Memphis
Magazine |
$1.25
month |
$0.92
month |
$0.33 |
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now
to help these little cards validate their existence (and
my point), i made a trip to the post office. by mailing
these back i have completely made myself a "not-for-profit"
customer.
as an
added bonus to the magazine companies, i put some random
pizza and lawn care coupons into the envelope variety of
the business reply by mail cards. my thinking here is that
by sharing with them some of the other valuable offers i
receive by mail, they will see that i am not a malicious
person. |
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CONCLUSION:
i am just one person and my actions on this alone will be
futile, so please... join me in my quest by starting to
mail back your business reply mail cards and help render
this form of advertising cost prohibitive. i'm sure some
rain forest in south america will thank you for it. after
all, we don't need to be wasting that natural resources
on junk mail... we need it for grocery bags! if we can reduce
the world's appetite for business reply mail, we can create
a world wide paper glut that will in turn make paper grocery
bags a more competitive alternative to those annoying plastic
ones that tear without making any warning sounds.
together
we all can all fool ourselves into feeling like we make
a difference in this... |
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