The Mighty Mailbox

All hail The Mighty Mailbox! Have you ever given much thought as to the importance of the mailbox?

Think about it…it is the only channel that exists today that can reach every household and/or business in America. The recent reform of the postal employee pensions system (fixing the USPS biggest cause of financial losses to date) only helps to ensure the postal system will be around for a long time. But there’s more to consider…

The 1977 movie, "The Mailbox" conveys how important the mailbox was in our daily relations. It tells
the story of an 83 year old widow named Leethe who loved her children, all of whom lived some distance from her. Leethe longed to receive letters from her family. She expectantly walks to the mailbox looking for cards and letters from them, but is repeatedly disappointed.

On rare occasions one of Leethe's children would call her. But Leethe was hard of hearing and preferred letters. She pleaded with her children and grandchildren to write to her because she couldn't "read phone conversations over and over." Still, the letters didn't come.

Finally one day a letter was waiting when Leethe made her daily trek to check the mailbox. She was so excited, she rushed back to the house to get her glasses so she could read it. She had barely opened the envelope when she suffered a fatal heart attack. As it turned out, the letter was from her daughter and said only that she wanted Leethe's consent to be placed in a nursing home.

There have been more movies that tell a good story using a more modern form of “mail” delivery. Take the 1998 blockbuster hit, “You’ve Got Mail. It’s about two rival business owners who can’t stand each other in person, but fall in love as they anonymously correspond via email over the internet.

But here we are in 2011. Many would argue that email, and other forms of online transactions will
make the mailbox obsolete. I disagree. First of all, we all have a little bit of “Leethe”(the widow in The Mailbox movie) in us. Who among us doesn’t enjoy finding a nice card or letter from a loved one in our mailbox? We just can’t help but anticipate that there might just be a nice surprise waiting for us there. With so many neighborhoods changing to “community mailboxes” these days, there is the added bonus of an opportunity to take just a moment out of a busy day to greet a neighbor also visiting the box.

Now, I realize that more and more people are going online for paying bills but they are also going online
for shopping. Your items have to be delivered somewhere, right?!? For example, if you want to rent a
movie (like “You’ve Got Mail), the movie can be delivered to your mailbox 2-3 days after you order it.
When you are finished watching it (and drying all those romantic comedy tears you shed), you simply put the movie back in your mailbox. And you are ready for more great movies. The same is true for many things we order online. Again, we anxiously visit our mailbox daily-hoping each day to find our treasure.

My friends, the mailbox is not only here to stay, but here to stay for a long. I wish you many happy
mailbox moments!

-CR

The Heat Dome

     As the summer reaches it's scalding peak, people are staying inside or close to home as if they're waiting out the next mile-high haboob. A peculiar "heat dome" has found itself above the U.S. and it seems to like it here. There's just one thing: We don't like it. It's making it nearly impossible to endure a simple 5 minute car ride to the grocery store, hence local business are struggling. Then, once in a blue moon, when the mercury drops, consumers bum rush local businesses to beat the next heat wave to engulf the valley.
     The opportunity here are huge for these business that are trying to draw people in. This is where advertising and initiative hold the most value. Just because consumers are blindly speeding around town to get their supplies and services, they still want discounts and above all else... they want value. To all you business owners, take advantage of the small bursts and offer up some cool savings to a hot consumer!

The Importance of Technology In Business

Traditionally, the key to success was hard work, grit, and distinctiveness. Nowadays, you have to be efficient, possess a broad skill set and most of all, be technologically savvy. No aspiring small business can expect any pinch of results without having some sort of web presence and especially not if they don’t advertise (but that’s an entirely different subject).

The business of today is a social fiend. Status updates on Facebook daily, tweeting on the hour, checking PageRank, requesting recommendations on LinkedIn, etc.-the tasks are never-ending. You simply cannot attempt to build your business without expanding your social presence NOW. Even though I’ve grown up in these times, it amazes me how different the strategies are now compared to before the social boom. The importance of technology now reigns supreme as baby boomer business owners learn how to utilize it. The business world is filled with talented people struggling to understand this new concept and it is a “space race” to gain expertise as soon as possible.

To add to the business technology frenzy, there are even programs that can help you analyze all of your social media programs. While I am an uber technology proponent (some might even call me a techno geek, and I’m ok with that), I am realistic enough to realize that it too has its limits. I truly believe that it is the combination the intuition, instinct and technology that has given the early pioneers in social media the right recipe for success. The value of human instinct is immeasurable and I think that even social media “helper apps” have limits. When it all comes down to it, ingenuity will take you further than HTML code. If you’d like some human ingenuity to help you with your business, call us today at 602-995-5600!

             Ryan Rash is the Social Media Specialist for Valpak of Metro Phoenix.  He founded the Texas Longhorns Football Facebook page with over 22,000 friends and co-writes his own blog, “Paine’s Apprentices”.  Ryan lives in Mesa, AZ, and is an independent contractor of several Social Media platforms for businesses throughout the area.

The Origin of Coupons

cou·pon [koo-pon, kyoo-] –noun

          a portion of a certificate , ticket, label, advertisement or the like, set off from the main body by dotted lines or the like to emphasize its separability, entitling the holder to something, as a gift or discount, or for use as an order blank, a contest entry, form, etc.

            The definition of a coupon is not difficult- it is easy to find in the dictionary.   But, what happens when you look deeper? In 1888, Asa Chandler of Coca-Cola had the idea to use paper credits for free glasses of coke to market his product. What a concept, huh? The idea of losing money to gain money at that time had to be so completely terrifying and foreign that only true genius could see the effectiveness of it. As the years went on, business owners slowly opened up their minds to this repulsive idea-until October 29^th, 1929. Black Tuesday.

            At this point, a “slow and gradual introduction” of the coupon was not possible. It became a fact of life.  Saving money in the Great Depression was a necessity. The increase in coupon usage in this time is comparable to the technology boom of our era. They were everywhere.  It actually made the situation worse because markets were unable to stock their stores to keep up with the amount of deals they were putting out. (Groupon knows what I mean… cough, cough.) The idea survived through the depression and continued to grow consistently. Years later, Terry Loebel would realize the power.

1968 marked the creation of Valpak direct mail marketing. Like any small business creator, Loebel, had to create a distinguishable difference from other coupon companies. The difference for Terry Loebel in the 60’s would be hometown connections and friendliness. It didn't take long for the blue envelope to become one of the most recognized and widely used direct mail, coupon-filled envelopes available to the savings hungry public. 

The next dimension for a coupon boom would only be known by his last name. They called him….  “.com”.  The explosion of the internet in the 1990’s gave this once magic piece of paper limitless potential. With easy access to targeting a variety of demographics, businesses ramped up the savings once again.  One last explosion (ouch-the recession hurts) created the aftermath that is today’s dependence on savings.  Coupon users across the U.S., perhaps including Alaska and Hawaii, although I don’t think it really matters, saved almost $4 billion. That means on average, each person saved a whopping….. $20! Oh. Maybe the averages are off considering I didn’t take into account children, non-coupon users, and outlying individuals who maybe only used once or twice.

Anywho, the simple fact still remains that people seem to enjoy money-saving paper, clicks  or taps on their phone.  We here at Valpak are attempting to give the magic paper, websites and apps more and more uses that apply to you. Au revoir!