This response shows a fairly sloppy logic. Let me point out just a few places where the Mr. Lancaster is missing the target:

>>· Direct Mail . . . is incredibly efficient, and helps enable the USPS to subsidize postage for citizens

Okay, this MAY be the case (though, all costs included, I'm not buying it), BUT 1) this assumes the cost to the citizen of handling direct mail is less than the postal subsidy to his/her first class mail, and 2) it assumes that we even need cheap first class mail, something that is rapidly going the way of the dinosaur. Put another way, if you subsidize something I increasingly don't need by providing me with an annoying and costly byproduct (tens of pounds of scrap paper every year) you're not having a positive effect on my life.

>>· Direct Mail is so efficient because the USPS requires the industry to provide mail pieces in “walk sequence” – literally in the very sequence the postal carrier will use when she drives or walks the mail route

Alright, so direct mail is highly efficient in producing an annoying and costly waste product. Ummm, congratulations?

>>· Many local small businesses use Direct Mail to attract customers within their neighborhood to their store. A pizza parlor will mail every neighbor within 2 miles with a coupon for a pepperoni pizza. Take away Direct Mail from this local store owner and you will hand that pizza order to the multi-national chain who can afford TV advertising

Ooooo, glad you mentioned pizza parlors! A local pizza parlor happens to be owned by a friend of mine. He regularly rejects direct mail because he has more business than he can handle by word of mouth. In fact, he does more business on both a dollar and a pie basis than the local Pizza Hut, which regularly spams my mailbox with flyer after flyer to supplement their TV spots. The local dry cleaner we use functions similarly as does the local Chinese restaurant. Come to think of it, as does our bank, as does our mechanic, as does . . .

My wife and I couldn't think of a single business relationship we have, from gasoline to groceries to dining and entertainment to banking, that we were drawn to by direct mail. Period. None, nada, zilch!

The direct mail flyers for local businesses advertise outfits that are low-flyers in the community, providing very low-value-add services at subsistence pricing and with low customer satisfaction. This equates to subsistence living for the owner/operators which means very few employees hired and short business life span. Direct mail isn't helping this community build strong, vital, growing client bases or large payrolls. It's helping them pick up the bottom-feeder bargain hunters who invariably end up dissatisfied with their service and force the business to keep prices so low they can't provide quality. And further, more of these local businesses advertise with fliers delivered by door to door delivery or by local "shopper" newspapers than by the Postal Service.

>>· Should your initiative be successful and across the US the Direct Mail industry is dealt a mortal blow, what do you intend to happen to the people directly affected by the collapse of this industry? It is estimated to be approximately 40,000 people in Washington alone?

This is a perfect example of rigid thinking along the lines of the railroads in the early 50s. They didn't consider themselves providers of transportation, they only thought of themselves as "the railroads." Consequently airlines basically put personal rail travel out of business in a couple of short decades. In the 60s a lot of guys who used to shovel coal for residential furnaces were put out of work. A lot of guys who used to pump gas were put out of work in the 70s when self serve became popular. Grow and evolve or die! 40,000 jobs doing something that provides little value add but transfers costs to other industries or to the tax base are not valuable jobs in the economy! Get these people out there learning skills that produce things of value in the economy! As a marketer you must know about product life cycles. The life cycle of Direct Mail is coming to a close. It's on life support provided by the postal service and the (as yet) refusal to accept the induced costs of this "cheap" way of advertising.

>>Finally, there are over 3 billion Christmas cards sent by citizens around Christmas. . . . Do you intend to sponsor a bill to eradicate the Christmas card too?

Okay, at the risk of pointing out the blindingly obvious, Christmas cards are WANTED by at least 80 percent of the population. Direct mail ISN'T wanted by 80% of the population. And, in fact, Christmas card volumes are being reduced by postcard photo greetings, emailed greetings, gifts sent by parcel services, and just the declining practice of sending greetings at all these days. Also there are about a dozen other obvious differences including that Christmas cards aren't sent all year every year, sometimes several times a week to the same person with the same repetitive greeting. Christmas cards are usually stopped immediately when there is no response or when a recipient asks. Christmas cards contain personal sentiments of intangible value whereas direct mail more often than not is trying to drum up demand for something the consumer "wasn't aware he needed." Christmas cards rarely use deceptive practices to induce a financial loss to the recipient and a gain to the sender. Christmas cards represent the discretionary use of the Postal Service that you in direct mail claim to support (so why would you want to kill it?). And on and on.

Bottom line, direct mail is increasingly indefensible (if it ever COULD have been defended!).

Jeri