U.S. Postal Service Incents Consumer Packaged Goods Industry

Mail Promotion to Help Marketers Turn 'Triers' Into Buyers

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May 09, 2013, 10:49 ET

WASHINGTON , May 9, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- If they try it, they'll buy it. That's the message the U.S. Postal Service is sending to consumer packaged goods companies and other marketers with its Product Samples mail promotion.

Designed to re-invigorate product sampling through the mail, the Product Samples promotion — running Aug.1 – Sept. 30, 2013 — gives marketers a 5-percent upfront postage discount on qualified mailings of product samples. Qualified samples must be trial-sized.

Registration for the Product Samples mail promotion is now open.

"Product sampling has a long, successful track record of building brand awareness and product demand, especially if the consumer receives the sample where the product will be used," said Gary Reblin, vice president, New Products and Innovation. "Oftentimes, this is the home, and the best way to get product samples into the home is through the U.S. Mail."

Product sampling is ideal for marketers of consumable goods such as snack foods, toiletries, laundry products — anything that is consumed and needs regular replacement.

The Product Samples promotion also is designed to raise awareness of the Postal Service's new Simple Samples pricing in Standard Mail. Simple Samples offers flat-rate pricing, volume discounts, less stringent mail-preparation requirements and eliminates the need for outer packaging. Customers can use a mailing list or send samples to every house on a route.

"Simple Samples offers value to consumer packaged goods companies targeting prospective customers with trial-sized product samples," said Reblin. "Just like the consumers who try their products, consumer packaged goods companies will love Simples Samples once they've tried it."

For more information about the Product Samples promotion and other current mail promotions, visit https://www.usps.com/business/promotions-and-incentives.htm.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation: 152 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With more than 31,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world's mail. If it were a private-sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 42nd in the 2012 Fortune 500. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for seven years and the fourth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

Follow the Postal Service on twitter.com/USPS and at facebook.com/USPS.

SOURCE U.S. Postal Service