I bet you don't! But that's the penalty you'll pay if your mailing doesn't comply with the USPS's Move Update Requirement. Postponed from November 2009, the requirements for standard mail took effect on January 4, 2010.

The rule requires that all mail must have been processed using an accepted move update method within 95 days of the mail entry date or lose the postage discount. The goal is to reduce the number of undeliverable and return-to-sender mail going through the system.

How can you make sure your mailing is compliant? There are four options:

• ACS (address change service) is an automated way for mailers to receive change of address (COA) information directly from the USPS.
• ASE (ancillary service endorsement) is wording added to the front of your mailer that tells the USPS what to do with the mail piece if it is undeliverable as addressed (UAA).
• FASTforward is another automated system of permanent COA records that relocating customers have filed with the USPS.
• NCOALink is a pre-mailing method for identifying COA information

So, while you may have saved a ton of money by producing your mailer on a high-speed inkjet printer like RISO's, you could lose your savings by adding seven cents to each piece. Don't let that happen to you!

RISO, Inc. announced today that it will fund four full college scholarships for Boston Public Schools students. The newly created “Peter Gammons – Foundation To Be Named Later Scholarship presented by RISO” was announced by Theo Epstein, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Boston Red Sox, at the Hot Stove Cool Music Baseball Roundtable on Saturday, January 9th at Fenway Park.

This academic scholarship is one of many non-profit programs supported by the Foundation To Be Named Later, a branch of the Red Sox Foundation, the mission of which is to raise funds and awareness for non-profit agencies serving disadvantaged youth in the Greater Boston area. The Foundation To Be Named Later was co-founded in early 2005 by Theo Epstein and his brother Paul, a social worker in the Brookline Public Schools system. To date, the Foundation has distributed more than $3 million in cash and experience grants to the non-profit organizations it supports.

"The Foundation is thrilled to have the privilege to create positive opportunities for BPS students and we could not have picked anyone better than Peter Gammons, a passionate advocate for young people and our biggest champion, to dedicate the scholarship to,” Paul Epstein said. “We are very grateful to RISO for their leadership and belief in our work in the community."

“The Peter Gammons – Foundation To Be Named Later Scholarship presented by RISO” was announced at the start of Saturday’s Roundtable where Peter Gammons was present along with Paul Epstein; Dr. Carol Johnson, superintendent of Boston Public Schools; Michael Ross, president of the Boston City Council; and Todd Deluca, president and chief operating officer for RISO, Inc.

“RISO has always believed in supporting education for our nation’s children,” said Todd Deluca. “The goal of this academic scholarship is to provide greater opportunities to students who might not otherwise have the ability to attend college.”

A Boston native and Hall of Fame baseball writer, Peter Gammons recently joined the MLB Network as an on-air and online analyst. He has long been an avid philanthropist and community activist.

“To have four scholarships dedicated in my honor means more to me than any professional accomplishment,” said Gammons. “Over the years, I have been proud to work with the Foundation and aid in its efforts to provide a better life for underprivileged children in the city of Boston. I am grateful that Todd Deluca and his staff at RISO have made this scholarship possible."

Dr. Carol Johnson also spoke at the event, saying “A college education is a life changing gift. With the help of this scholarship presented by RISO, these students will receive this remarkable gift and the opportunity it brings. We continue to be encouraged by the work our local partners are doing to help our students become scholars in their own right as we work to prepare every student in Boston for success in college and beyond."

Saturday marked the 10th anniversary of Hot Stove Cool Music, a benefit concert that Peter Gammons co-founded in January of 2000. Saturday’s concert at the House of Blues raised close to $300,000 for the Foundation To Be Named Later.



RISO, Inc., headquartered in Danvers, Massachusetts, is a wholly owned subsidiary of RISO Kagaku Corporation, Japan's leading manufacturer and distributor of high-speed inkjet printers and digital duplicators (previously called Risograph).

Take a look at companies like SunChips (Frito-Lay North America) and Starbucks. They have had huge success identifying themselves as green companies and involving their customers in their green initiatives, creating brand loyalty. These companies are a great example of how green marketing messages can work better than other messages.

So how can a company go about this?

The big six mediums for green marketing include print, direct mail, internet, TV/radio, mobile and outdoor. Some interesting results just released show that the internet is the number one medium for green marketing, followed by print and direct mail. However, the most effective medium for getting customers to pay more for green products is direct mail.

It is looking like 2010 will see many companies spending more and more on green marketing. Spend wisely because you already know that printed media is greener than you think.

Yesterday we challenged the idea that traditional advertising costs more and is less effective, noting how online advertising is becoming more competitive and doesn’t simply translate into profit.

Both the old and new methods of advertising are often done badly and end up as junk mail. It takes something extra for advertisers to get people’s attention beyond the basics of a compelling offer, a good call-to-action, or well targeted lists. So which is better? In fact, marketers may need to understand how to utilize both.

In fact there is an interesting interview with Mark Thomson, media director at Royal Mail, where he shares information about using both traditional and new advertising methods to get a high ROI. The major points from the article are quoted here:

- A digital campaign saw a 62% increase in return on investment when combined with direct mail.
- 63% of people surveyed refer to a catalogue as part of their buying decision even if they make the final purchase in-store or online.
- 45% look at a print catalogue before making an online purchase.

Here is another good example. A study found that direct mail and email had roughly equal influence (28% and 27% respectively) on a person’s decision to donate. Again that’s why yesterday’s post was interesting, simply getting rid of the old method of advertising is not the answer.

It seems to make sense that online advertising would be better for your company's bottom line than more traditional methods due to the lower cost. But does it really translate? A study done by MIT Sloan Assistant Professor Alessandro Bonatti doesn't think so.

"The same search and other technology that enabled advertisers to target particular audiences is also creating greater online competition for the same audience, thus reducing the profitability of advertising on any targeted website, " says Bonatti. He also writes that it doesn't follow that online advertisers will make more money than traditional ones.

I don't know about you, but I tend to gloss over the clutter of advertisements on the web sites that I visit, while a direct mail piece that catches my eye in the mailbox will almost certainly get a lookover. Direct mail can be printed and addressed quickly and in full color on equipment like RISO's full color inkjet printers. New media is great but sometimes the tested and true methods are still the best!

In 2009, one of the huge shifts from print to digital was in the publishing industry. As a result, e-book sales saw rapid growth. We in the printing industry should keep an eye on the steps that publishers take, and adapt to them quickly.

According to the Association of American Publishers (AAP), digital book sales in the second quarter of 2009 were three times that of 2008. No wonder the Kindle was the best selling product on Amazon.com. What’s not to love about e-books? You can buy books at nearly half the price of hard copies and do so in just a click. Other e-reading devices like the iPhone, and the Nook (from Barnes & Noble, which is on back order until February) have already been a positive influence on e-book sales this year.

However it is not a perfect world. The piracy issue has become a huge headache for publishers. For example, some books have been illegally shared on the web, free to download the day after their release, causing fear and concern for publishers and authors. Some famous authors like J. K. Rolling refuse to have digital version available because of the piracy factor. And it's not just novels, but textbooks are also being shared digitally for free and there seems to be no enforcement of copyright protections anymore. This battle is not going to end anytime soon. As we have seen in the music industry, it is going to go on for a long time.

As for the book printing industry, my guess is that more and more people will move to print on demand, and digital printing technology like RISO printers will play a big role. In regards to textbooks, I strongly agree with a recent post from Seth Godin that textbooks should be edited frequently in an open source environment. Again, those materials could be printed on demand at more local bases providing students with the most updated content. I will be following this topic of printed vs. digital material closely this year because it’s critical to our business, but also because I’m excited to see what happens.