Mailing Industry News

We wrapped up another exciting Graph Expo last week, and we are proud to have again been a contributor and exhibitor at this annual event. While some companies chose not to participate or reduced their size, Bell and Howell continued to show support for the industry by attending this important event. In fact we had so many solutions, services and exciting technology to share that we needed three booths! I spent the majority of my time at our Software IQ booth. This was where we showcased our BCC solutions alongside our Automated Document Factory technology and JETVision technology.

The buzz at this year’s Graph Expo was centered around response – focusing on how to best leverage and use mail to generate business.  In these tough economic times, companies are continuing to use the tried and true methods of direct mail, but are enhancing these methods with today’s technology.  QR barcodes were everywhere at this show, and have been showing up on mailpieces in some exciting and innovative ways. QR barcodes are an integral part of tomorrow’s direct mailpieces. A QR barcode combined with the visibility and predictability of the Intelligent Mail^® barcode truly yields unprecedented control and timing for carefully crafted, customized messages and personalized offers to customers.

Attendees at Graph Expo who stopped by our Software IQ booth heard about our formula for tomorrow’s success: 3C + IMb = ROI.  Complete, Correct, and Current addresses, combined with the visibility and predictability of the Intelligent Mail barcode along with using QR codes to complete the loop and accurately measure the response rates, is where the return on investment is for tomorrow’s mail. It truly is a realization of the merging of the high touch aspect of direct mail with the high-tech world.

We understand address quality and at this year’s Graph Expo, we had the opportunity to discuss various practices and solutions that can help printers and mailers make the most of address quality. We talked about our latest address quality initiative, Accurant, a 3C approach that can be used anywhere data is touched, stored, or moved across an enterprise. We also discussed the new availability of our Track N Trace mailpiece tracking solution for sorting equipment.

And QR barcodes – we definitely discussed that hot topic with booth visitors.  We supported the QR initiative along with the Postal Service™ during the mobile barcode incentive program. Our customers who took advantage of that program yielded significant postage discounts. The Postal Service has already stated they’re looking at bringing that back again.  We’ll be ready for it.  We’re excited about it.  We’re going to continue to expand opportunities to leverage QR barcodes with carefully crafted direct mailpieces. QR barcodes represent plenty of opportunity, and we are focused on taking full advantage of that.

To those who visited our booth this year, thank you for stopping by.  The best thing about these events is the opportunity to talk one on one with industry professionals. It’s the best way to make sure we’re doing everything we can to help our peers succeed. To everyone, I hope to see you at Graph Expo 2012!