Digital printing helped Polaris Industries cut costs in half for a recent lead generation mailing to promote the 2004 Sportsman all-terrain vehicle.
The Medina, MN company expects to beat the industry average response of 2% for the 400,000-piece mailing. Polaris spent more than 50 cents per piece on this effort, mailed in April to a combination of existing customers and prospects, said Steve Penn, CEO of Penn-Garritano, Polaris’ Minneapolis-based agency.
The leads were collected through telemarketing, online inquiries, trade shows and other sources. This was the company’s first mailing that made use of a new digital approach to production it undertook with the help of Penn-Garritano and printer Vertis Direct Marketing. The technique avoided the need to shop for multiple vendors for lettershop, creative and other services, said Penn.
“We could turn this work over in a day and we wouldn’t print more envelopes than we needed,” said Don Schoenleber, Vertis’ vice president of creative services. With more conventional printing technology, he said, such work could easily have taken a week.
The mailing used a 5-1/2-inch-by- 10-inch envelope showing the company’s new 2004 Polaris ATV on a desert background with the cover line “It’s Gotta Be Bad to Look This Good” and a separate box enticing recipients to look inside to find out how to get $100 in cash. On the back was the headline “Out Here, Looks Don’t Really Matter. Right?” The $100 offer was glued to the envelope’s inner flap.
Recipients were urged to call a toll-free number, 1-800-Polaris, or visit a Web site (www.polarisindustries.com) to find the nearest dealer. The Web site also had locations where users could request one or more of Polaris’ product catalogs.
The nationwide mailing was tailored somewhat regionally, said Penn. For example, in states like Oklahoma and Texas, the copy was written to appeal to ranchers who might want to use the Sportsman ATV to round up cattle. More recreational uses were played up elsewhere.
In all, Polaris ran 12 different test cells on cost, offer and other variables, noted Penn.
Polaris vehicles are sold at about 800 independent dealers nationwide, which also sell other companies’ vehicles. “So we have to work harder to get noticed,” said Penn.
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