It seems to me as though the folks leading the US Postal Service have been living in a cave for the last 10 years. Is it possible that John Potter, the Postmaster General of the United States, has not seen the rise of the Internet as a potential threat to the US postal system? Can he really head up to Capitol Hill with hat in hand… asking for the US Government to save this “venerable institution that is older than our country” with any credibility? Can Potter really claim that he hasn’t witnessed a significant drop in first class mail as “bill presentment and payment” occurs online? Can he really believe with the skyrocketing costs of paper, printing and postage over the past 10 years that printed communications—whether they be personal or commercial—would not be impacted? Dramatically?
I have checked my writings from nearly 5 years ago and find numerous columns and tomes when I was passionate about the need for direct mail, catalogs, magazines and newspapers to adopt the digital publishing model. All of this ranting by me and a small group of other zealots were seen as foolhardy. Surely the print world would always remain. No doubt that “print is not going away.” Today… John Potter believes that he can avoid or prevent the reality of communications in our world from impacting his venerable institution. I used to play records on my stereo system a bunch of years ago too.
What everyone is missing is that we have been living in the middle of the most significant paradigm shift in the history of human communications. There is no going backwards. The Internet and electronic communications is the new delivery channel for all types of communications. Those legacy institutions that have not adopted new strategies and business models… are dead companies walking. Each day we hear reports of yet another magazine or newspaper closing; the casualty count grows. The days of feeling compassionate for folks like John Potter and the rest of his team are long gone. The US Postal Service should have known better. There is no excuse. When he comes up the hill draped with the American flag… congressional committees should chastise him for dereliction of duty. Incompetence.
Whether the Congress steps in and provides $6 billion in emergency aid today… and more down the road… the future is not bright for the US Postal Service. With each passing year, the Internet generation grows in its share of the overall consumer market. The psychographic, behavioral, preferential, educational, commercial and media consumption profile of this mainstream American citizen has changed dramatically since the days of the Pony Express. There is absolutely no excuse other than self denial and arrogance in explaining why the US Postal Service and other mainstream media types “missed” this trend. These are intelligent people and the signs were too obvious to miss.
There may not be time for the US Postal to change its business model. There is still time for you and your company. If you haven’t taken a look at ALL of the ways in which you communicate via printed matter and established a team to morph that printed matter into the digital delivery channel… what in God’s name are you waiting for? If you haven’t built that email database… do it today. If you haven’t pivoted all of your customer acquisition, retention, win-back, customer relations efforts off of an Internet-central strategy…
The clock is ticking…
Learn from John Potter and his team. For you… there is no bailout or emergency fund coming.
For your company… there is just a dark and cold result.
Potter’s Field.
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