Fasprint - In The News

Author: unknown

Local Fasprint Co. Honored

Plattsburgh - Fasprint of Malone was recently honored at a reception dinner at the Holiday Inn at Plattsburgh by The American Marketing Assoc. with its 1400 plus members nationwide.
Fasprint was recognized with an Excellence in Creation of Direct Mail Award
Guest speaker at the award banquet was Robert Diehl, V.P. of Sales and Marketing for Saranac Federal Savings and Loan, who spoke on the trends of advertising.
Curtis Winters, Customer Service Manager for Fasprint, and Royal Forgues, Proprietor of Fasprint were present to accept the award.
Winters quotes "Our main objective in Direct Mail is to minimize our clients expenses and maximize their revenues with this advertising vehicle."

Author: Raoul Dooke

Forgues Knows Value of Maple Leaves & Palm Trees

Royal Forgues, a prominent marketing professional sees maple leaves and palm trees when thinking about new markets. "When I think of untapped potential for U.S.-based companies, the very first place I think about is Canada." comments Forgues, "And when I think about Canada as a market, palm trees come to mind."
Canada and palm trees? To illustrate the point Forgues draws comparisons between Canada and California. "This is really amazing. And some people may not see it like this immediately but Canada is a market that's not all that different from California in many ways - and one that can't be ignored. Almost as many people - over 30 million - live in Canada as in California. And no marketer worth their salt would knowingly avoid a Market like California."
Forgues makes a compelling case for why forward-thinking U.S. companies may find gold beneath Canada's maple leaves. "tapping new markets is essential to the growth and success of any business. Finding markets that are accessible and which can be understood quickly is crucial. That's why Canada deserves a look."
A scan of key data may support Forgues' contention. When it comes to comparing the two lucrative markets, the similarities are striking. Rates of homeownership are nearly identical with 55.7% of Californians owning a home compared to 60.4% of Canadians.
Per capita personal disposable income between Canada and California is neck-and-neck as well, sitting at $25,295 for California and $27,914 for Canada (all figures in US dollars). And both regions are almost equally "wired" with 48% of California homes and 42% of Canadian households having access to the internet.
"No one's ever going to confuse California with Canada literally of course", comments Forgues. "The point is that Canada's a large, lucrative amrket that's right next door. In fact, 75% of all Canadians live within an hour's drive of the U.S./Canadian border. And the country is our largest trading partner. Why wouldn't any company at least take a closer look at cracking the Canadian marketplace?"
Forgues has discovered that finding the necessary market intelligence aobut Canada is easier than most people think. "Canada Post Corporation is a reliable source of data and other vital information."Forgues comments are good news to Becky Quinlan, a Direct Marketing Specialist with International sales at Canada Post.
"I'm delighted to hear those kinds of comments", said Quinlan. "We offer free orientation seminars to direct marketers throughout the US and people always come up to me afterwards to tell me they're excited about the kind of potential that Canada offers as a marketplace."

Author: Grif

Grif's Picks of the Month

This hand-addressed envelope caught Grif's eye and of ocurse the item was immediately opened. Inside was a small but effective black-and-white insert headlined "Why Did You Open This Direct Mailer?" It makes a case for the value of the firm's unique service: hand-addressed direct mail.

Author: Doug Buchanan

Local businessman to speak at conference with Tom Brokaw

A Malone businessman who has developed a unique marketing tool based on his philosophy that the pen is mightier than the barcode will describe his unique concept to industry leaders at the MAILCOM '98 Global Conference and Exhibition in Atlantic City, N.J. on April 28.
Royal Forgues, the president and chief executive officer of Fasprint, will share the lectern with NBC Nightly News Anchor and Managing Editor Tom Brokaw at the Atlantic Convention Center. The 20th annual global conference is expected to draw more than 9,000 visitors of the direct mail marketing industry.
Forgue's technique involves the use of handwritten labels and envelopes as opposed to those generated by computers. he developed his mass mailing concept following three years of research in which Fasprint mailed out 1,000 hand addressed direct mailers and 1,000 direct mailers with printed labels in 1994, 1995, and 1996. Both test mailers offered 500 printed envelopes for $39.95 with a bonus of 500 free envelopes.
"The results of the test mailings over the three year period were somewhat suprising and astounding," Forgues said.
The hand written test samples resulted in a 28 percent inquiry rate and sales of 14.6 percent, while the inquiry rate for the printed label samples returned a 3.2 percent inquiry rate, with accompanying sales of 1.4 percent.
"This translates into average annual sales over the three-year period of $5,248.70, while the mailers with printed labels yielded sales of $503.30," Forgues explained.
Forgues said that a followup telephone analysis revealed that 100 percnet of the hand-addressed envelopes were opened by recipients compared to 14 percent of the labeled mailers.
"Potential customers were more receptive to the personal touch provided by the hand written mailers, while 860 of the 1,000 potential customers who received mailers with printed labels viewed the mailers as junk mail, and didn't even open the envelopes," he explained.
Forgues got the idea for his technique while he was opening his own mail in 1994 and he realized that the first thing a person looks for are checks.
"After that comes the bills, which go to the bottom of the pile, and then the mailers with printed labels, or computer-generated envelopes go in the trash. I found that I opened all the hand-addressed mail," he continued.
Forgues turned the results of his three-year survey into a practical mail marketing technique that initially had a capacity of 75,000 units per day using home workers in Malone area. Since then Fasprint has increased its capacity to more than 200,000 units per day.
"We use upwards of 70 home workers to address the envelopes, but there have been times when we've used 147 homeworkers to keep up with the demand," Forgues said.
William Stalls, president of Saranac Lake direct marketing firm of William Stalls Group and a customer of Fasprint said that with automated addressing he received a .5 to 2 percent response, but with handwritten addressing he has garnered a 10 percent response.
Another beneficiary of Fasprint's growth in the direct marketing industry is the U.S. Postal Service and, in particular, the Malone post office.
"It's increased our revenue at the post office," said Malone Postmaster John Pellerin.
He said that Fasprint's postage is unique because it is bulk and uses pre-cancelled bulk stamps instead of metered mail.
"We have had to coordinate extra runs from Plattsburgh in order to accomodate Fasprint's mail while maintaining the post office's regular flow of mail,"Pellerin said.
"The sky's the limit on the potential for mass mail marketing using had addressing because the recipient knows that there's a person behind that pen," Forgues said.