Credit card and other statements offer many chances to reach credit-worthy prospects who must open their envelopes, said Karen Capalbo, vice president, sales at Specialized Marketing Inc.
Another benefit is that products advertising in statement stuffers have at least an implied endorsement from the credit cards issuer, she said during a panel Thursday at the second annual Direct Marketing Association Insert Day Conference In Rye, NY.
Plus, added Capalbo, the more credit prospects have, the more likely they are to be educated and upscale.
Banks issuing credit cards have the additional advantage of knowing a good deal of demographic information about their customers and can tailor offers to them accordingly, said panelist Joe Mason, senior manager of Capital One Financial. Inserts are segmented to the profile of the customer receiving the bill.
“We have customers ranging from super prime to sub prime,” he said.
Capital One, which sends out as many as 35 million statements per month, stuffs its own inserts in its bills but allows other marketers to insert as well, he said. Despite offering inserters the opportunity to market to their names, Capital One keeps ownership of them.
This is not the case with cable television statement inserts, said Michael F. Guyer, vice president, director of marketing at International Direct Response Inc., noting that more than 40 million cable TV bills go out to credit-worthy customers each month.
Other types of statements like utility bills have less demographic information but can offer broad reach, said Inez Del Gaudio, president of Independent Media Services.
Capalbo also spoke of how retail credit cards — of which about 15 million mail out per month — have been losing market share to banks issuing Visa and Master Cards.
Although there are exceptions, the standard size for a statement stuffer is 3.1/2-by-six inches.
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