By Nathesh , TMCnet Contributor
Mintel Comperemedia, a provider of competitive intelligence for businesses, has stated that they have noticed a significant increase in the direct mail pieces received by U.S. consumers and insurance and credit card companies are the strongest drivers of this growth.Story continues below ↓ Mintel Comperemedia is a searchable competitive database tracking direct mail and print advertising in the United States and Canada, as well as email in the US. Mintel Comperemedia tracks information to analyze eight vertical markets such as Banking, Credit Card, Investments, Insurance, Mortgage and Loan, Telecom, Travel and Leisure and Automotive. Andrew Davidson, senior vice president of Mintel Comperemedia, has commented that a periodical push for the life and auto insurance and on the credit card industry is the main reason for this increase in the mails. With comparison to last year, the offers for new credit cards have significantly increased making the economy get better and reducing the number of customers defaulting on their cards. When compared to the last year’s count of 951 million mail pieces, there has been a considerable increase of up to 1.2 billion mail pieces this year. On the other hand the insurance mail also showed a drastic increase of 8 percent from Q1 2009 to Q1 2010. This 8 percent increase showed an amazing count of 2.6 billion mail pieces. Direct mails decreased rapidly in few sectors including the credit card and mortgage industry due to recession. Even during the time of recession, insurance and telecommunications were the only two sectors to operate as usual without being affected. Credit cards, insurance, and mortgage & loans were the three sectors that where on the top of the list before recession could hit the market. In the present situation, it is the insurance mailings that are leading the pack by a large margin of 43 percent of all direct mail efforts tracked by Mintel Comperemedia and outrunning credit cards’ mailing by 2 to 1 in Q1 2010. Telecommunications offered campaigns that promoted bundled services for TV, Internet and phone. As a result of which the mortgage and loans has been replaced by the telecommunications in the top three lists. Davidson added that while it is unlikely that we will get back to the mailing levels during the boom years, there is a good deal to be optimistic about. The insurance and credit card industries still have room for growth as they expand their marketing efforts and, as the recovery gains momentum, they can once again anticipate growth in the mortgage and loans sector.
Nathesh is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Nathesh’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Erin Harrison
View the Original article