Ceepackaging

Technology

The Future in Mailing Production is Selective

The direct marketing service provider LS Dialogmarketing GmbH & Co. KG in
Dettingen/Teck, which is part of a group of companies with the GHP Group, Bamberg is
European market leader. According to their own data, the company employs about 2,200
employees worldwide and specialises in integrated solutions, such as customer cards,
bonus programs, mailings, coupons and respective services in intelligent combination.
The basis for this is an extensive spectrum of services consisting of consultancy, project
management, system solutions as well as multi-channel offers. “Our objective is to make
the message of our customers heard and to ensure that the dialogue bears fruit”
according to Ilona Sautter, Head of Marketing, putting the philosophy of the company
into a nutshell. “For this we are developing technically mature concepts with measurable
success.”
Dynamic market development demands modern solutions. This requirement now
hits upon a continually changing market situation. If even just a few years ago high
shipping volumes with uniform content were the case in direct marketing, the number of
pieces – as is generally so in the area of print - is declining, are becoming less wide
spread and instead increasingly more elaborate and designed closer to the target group.
“The requirement – to select according to customer interests – has grown even more in
the last one to two years”, explained Ilona Sautter, “and we are of the opinion that this
trend will continue to catch on in the market even more strongly.”
In light of this, it is easier to understand why investments were made right now in the
qualification of catalogue shipping. And thus the mailing plant of Hugo Beck, which was
recently installed at LS Dialogmarketing, variably assembles individual catalogue
shipments and then immediately film-packs ready for shipment, is continuously
generating lots of interest in the catalogue shipping scene. Sloppy film bags shipped
indiscriminately to all possible addresses and even then often packed in “special shifts”
with all hands on deck – all that was yesterday. Today, direct marketing utilises more
and more state-of the-art solutions which are close to the target group and economical.
In addition to talent, careful planning and intelligent technology play a prominent role.
The data matrix code is decisive. Things all start in project planning, in which 30
employees at LS Dialogmarketing in Dettingen are employed. They make sure that preproduced
printing materials, target group specific finishing and the Europe-wide
organisation for postal shipping agree with the respective address data and that the
required different sort combinations and are available just-in-time.
This also applies to the well-known catalogue company Peter Hahn, one of the prominent
catalogue shippers. The pivotal point here is the data matrix code. This is
the visible part of category management, which is becoming more important in the
commercial trade. The concept strives to control differentiable, independent final
customer groups, with the objective of becoming better from the perspective of the final
customer in both products and services by increasing customer utility. And that already
begins with the despatch of the catalogue. Depending on ordering behaviour, selective
consignments are undertaken. If more men’s fashion articles are asked for, this would
justify the addition of a flyer with special men’s accessories, or in case of demand for
large sizes a stuffer sheet could appear the next time with special offers in these sizes.
Consumer orientation helps to save costs. This leads to mailing production which is
oriented towards individual customer subjects. With the help of the data matrix code,
which is additionally printed on the address carrier, there are 5 to 10 differently
composed variations within one set of addresses, which are continuously changing on the
belt during production. The magnitude can be print runs from 10 -20,000 up to one
hundred thousand, which is processed at Peter Hahn by country Europe-wide. “Due to
the variable, selective control we can already achieve considerable postage savings for
our customers”, describes Thomas Heinicke, team leader of customer services, the
success of the investment. “The same is true for printing costs. Previously, all
components were included in one catalogue mailing, also for target groups which were of
less interest.”
And the development continues. In addition to different supplements to individual
catalogue brochures, different printed addresses – one with additions, another one
without – are processed using the new Hugo-Beck plant. A typical mark of catalogue
companies: part of the recipients receives a T-Shirt, another part a 10 EURO voucher
within the same shipment. “Also the highly transparent, exact fitting film used for
sealing, makes it easier for the recipient to recognize what is in the letter box, to react,
to open the shipment and look excitedly whether there is something additional inside
again”, explains a customer advisor from the Peter-Hahn team the experience from
response analyses which have previously been made. “The interest is then simply there.”
Intelligent technology secures production locations. Without affordable concepts,
however, selective dialogue marketing campaigns in a high-wage country such as ours
are not feasible. “After we knew that we needed a new film plant with many feeders, we
also needed at the same time target-selective control and enveloping facilities too. Kill
two birds with one stone,” is how Thomas Heinicke explained the expectations which
were placed in the new plant.
And this is where the strengths of Hugo Beck packaging machines comes in. The mailing
machines of the medium-sized company in Swabian Dettingen/Erms near Stuttgart pull
several, previously separately running processes together into one operation and still
remain surprisingly flexible. This is achieved by a modular construction philosophy based
on servo drives combined with highly variable data control. Regardless of whether a
small order of under 5,000 items or large orders of several million, whether just a few
different printed products or far more than one dozen feeder stations, the packaging
machines from Hugo Beck deliver in the end highly transparent shipments in a side-seam
sealing envelope, which can be filled with continuously changing contents depending on
the addressee.
High noon on the conveyor belt. It begins with a camera eye. It recognises in a
fraction of a second on the data matrix code - which was previously printed on the
personalised address carrier – which printed or multimedia materials should be activated
for this address and through which feeder they should be dispensed. This addressee then
receives on the transport belt “his” individual stuffer, response, bonus and prospectus
media. The packaging height is variable according to the form shoulder through which
the shipment then slides into the film length. The plant can work in continuous operation
or also phase-wise. Both for the feeders as well as for the films, signals are given in time
to replenish the media. More recently, there is now even a film roll exchange automat for
the films, which automatically carries out the exchange of one film roll for the next.