Filed under: Marketing Theory | Tags: direct mail, marketing, new market order
The death of direct mail has been greatly exaggerated. It’s not dead, but like most every other marketing medium, it has been redefined in the digital world as a much smaller yet still integral part of our complex multi-channel 
delivery and communications infrastructure.
Currently, however, it is the delivery utility and not communications that is keeping the USPS alive (though just barely with a reported loss of $3.8 billion this year). Like most organizations the USPS will have to continue to downsize and further reduce its cost structure while redefining service levels in order to survive in the new market order. The core focus going forward will be parcels and packages, competing with Fed Ex — all that stuff sold at Amazon has to get shipped. That could be an opportunity for direct marketers to break through the mailbox clutter, when there isn’t as much clutter.
