Microsoft Backs New Postal Technology

Microsoft shed light today on its partnership with Seattle-based Earth Class Mail, a company that specializes in making physical paper mail available to customers when and where they want it.

The service scans both sides of the envelope and, if the recipient desires, the document inside, to be viewed via an assigned electronic mailbox similar to a PO box (that was their comparison, not mine – you might also compare it to, I don’t know, email).

The technology is based on Microsoft’s .NET platform and its proprietors have three aims: to reduce cost while increasing profitability for national postal services; to make physical mail faster and more convenient; and to build a new direct mail advertising system, complete with behaviorally targeted video advertising.

"Postal mail is one of the last forms of analog communications, where you have to be in a certain place to receive it," says Ron Wiener, CEO of Earth Class Mail. "Our Earth Class Mail service is doing for mail what the mobile phone did for telephone calls."

Mail is imaged in full color and, if the recipient asks, scanned for reading. The recipient can also order it recycled, shredded, transferred, archived, forwarded, et cetera.

Wiener says the service appeals to customers either without permanent addresses or who travel frequently. They’re also pitching to post offices everywhere.

"They’re seeing that if they make our solution available nationwide to anyone with an Internet connection, they can deliver mail at much less cost," says Wiener.

Earth Class Mail says costs for physical mail is getting higher for post offices while profits diminish, especially in an era of high fuel costs and increased digital communications. Postal services would also be able to sell related services such as document scanning, storage, destruction, and forward shipping to create new revenue streams.

Microsoft also plans to make available an Outlook plug-in that adds a postal service logo to the interface for guaranteed secure sending of documents. "Post offices are excited about the prospect of an Outlook plug-in and integration with the major Web mail vendors," says Wiener.

Wiener also spoke of creating "a hybridized model that combines the best of search engine advertising models, which provide marketers with a lot of customer information, with the best of direct mail advertising models."

The model he mentions takes note of direct mail that is deleted and mail that is read in order to develop advertising tailored to the recipient’s specific interests.

"Assuming we have permission to observe their actions, we might see, for example, that a certain customer is in the market for a luxury car and allows in ads for Lexus and BMW and Mercedes," said Wiener.

The study found that 73 percent prefer receiving mail about new products and offers from companies rather than email, which pulled in just 18 percent of respondent preferences. This was also true for unsolicited mail, as 70 percent preferred mail over other communicative approaches.

The numbers spike when speaking of confidential communications such as bills, bank statements and financial reports as 86 percent preferred receiving that information via mail, compared to just 10 percent for email. Also, that number is unchanged since 2004.

“The research clearly shows that consumers still prefer mail over e-mail,” said Stacy DeWalt, vice president, Vertical Market Development and Marketing, Pitney Bowes Management Services (PBMS). "In working with our customers, we continue to find that mail is the most effective marketing tool businesses can use when communicating with their customers."

Yes, that is convenient.

Thirty-one percent were less likely to discard unopened mail like new product brochures, catalogs or other advertising materials than they are unsolicited email about new products. Over 53 percent said they were more likely to delete unopened emails about new products.

When framing the rest of the findings, PB spins a bit though, reversing the numbers to appear more positive toward mail it seems, and placing them at the end of the press release. Note also the difficulty of finding this survey at ICR’s site.

Other findings:

45.3 percent (that’s it?) think mail is less intrusive than unsolicited email or telephone calls (The only thing I hate worse than spam is a phone call).

40.2 percent think mail is more convenient, allowing them to browse at leisure. (Does that mean almost 60 percent don’t think it’s more convenient?)

30.2 percent think mail is less high-pressured.

22.7 percent think mail is more descriptive.

12 percent think mail is more persuasive.

That last one’s especially interesting, indicating that a vast 88 percent find other forms of communication more persuasive. I’m old school, so I definitely prefer snail mail for unsolicited messages – but that usually means I just toss it in the garbage or put it into the basket with all the rest and forget about it.