How research helped develop the USPS’s Sample Showcase program

By Emily Goon | December 1, 2011

Reading time: 9 minutes

Abstract

In an era when the e-mail in-box is seemingly king, the USPS used qualitative research to help bring some excitement back to postal mail with a new product sampling program.

Research Topics:: Concept Development | Concept Optimization | Concept Research | Concept Testing | Focus Groups | Name Research | Package Development Research | Packaging Testing | Qualitative Research | Recruiting-Qualitative
Industry/Market Focus:: Consumers | Government | Household Products/Services | Internet/Web | Packaged Goods
Content Type: Case Study

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Raising the value of the mailbox

What began in the late-1700s with a man, a horse and a satchel full of letters has evolved into a mainstay of American communication and something that touches the lives of each and every individual. However, the enthusiasm and necessity surrounding the United States Postal Service (USPS) that persisted for over two centuries has been threatened by the dawn of the digital age. The thrill that once came from opening the mailbox every day to find thank-you notes, invitations, coupons and (perhaps less-thrilling) bills is becoming increasingly replaced with – or, at the very least, supplemented by – clicking on one’s in-box to find e-mails, Evites, Groupons and online bill-pay statements.

Amid rising postage and shipping rates, American consumers have embraced free online alternatives to traditional mail. This decade-long decline in the use of mail has forced the USPS to develop ways to enhance the value of the mailbox. The USPS may not be able to compete with the no-cost immediacy of e-mail but it does have capabilities that digital formats cannot offer: delivering mail items that have a physical presence. More specifically, samples.

A special treat

Samples are often unsolicited and consumers love them. The USPS learned through its own research that samples were a surefire way to improve the consumer experience. “We always had the recognition that samples were important for consumers – that samples being delivered into the mailbox to the consumers lifted the total value of mail,” says Greg Whiteman, manager of market research, USPS.

Armed with this knowledge, the USPS knew that it needed to focus on excelling at what only it can do. After all, you can’t send a tube of toothpaste as an e-mail attachment. Historically, sample delivery via the Postal Service has been a key distribution channel for consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies and retailers, with the USPS controlling 10-15 percent of the total share of samples distributed, compared to alternate channels of delivery, such as in-store handouts or along with a local newspaper, Whiteman says.

Over time, however, CPG companies and manufacturers wanting to distribute samples have had to battle the same problems as consumers: increasing costs of postage and freight. “The overall value proposition that we were providing consumer packaged goods manufacturers began to erode, especially as we began to adjust our pricing to reflect the cost of sample distribution. We went through a series of adjustments in the way we priced all our products and one of the consequences was that the price for samples went up significantly,” says Whiteman.

Having lost a chunk of its sampling business due to the high cost of distribution, the USPS’s mission was to try to find ways to improve – or reinvent – its sample-delivery offering to CPG manufacturers in hopes of putting more samples in more mailboxes.

Lighten the financial burden

One of the major financial limitations of the existing sample process was that samples had to be delivered individually. This meant that one company would be responsible for absorbing the entire cost of delivering, say, one small box of Cheerios to X number of households. To lighten the financial burden, the USPS began exploring the possibility of bundling samples together, allowing manufacturers to share costs. From a monetary standpoint the idea made sense but the USPS predicted that its benefits would go beyond balance sheets and invoices.

By combining six-to-12 different samples in one package, the USPS hoped that the whole would be greater than the sum of its parts. The USPS’s strategy was to offer a great value to samplers by bringing down the cost per unit for the manufacturers and also by providing an opportunity for manufacturers to take advantage of the brand value of the other companies in the box, says Whiteman.

Exploring new concepts

To understand how to use samples more effectively, the USPS turned to a powerful tool in its arsenal: qualitative research. “As a company, we are firm believers in the value of qualitative research when you’re exploring new concepts and when you want to test changes and really want to understand how this is going to affect the customers,” says Whiteman.

The USPS sent out requests for proposals to its six go-to research companies and Great Lakes Marketing (GLM), Toledo, Ohio, was selected. The research project included six focus groups in three cities across the U.S.: two in Bethesda, Md.; two in Nashville, Tenn.; and two in Seattle, all moderated by Lori Dixon, principal at GLM. Because the USPS is so far-reaching, it selects markets in different regions across the country because, although qualitative research is not designed to provide representative data, it does believe there is a benefit to geographical separation.

The purpose of the focus groups was twofold. First, the USPS needed to confirm that consumers would perceive the basic concept of creating a co-op sample box as something of value. The USPS needed to be able to demonstrate, through credible research, that the new offering would provide sample distributors with a unique benefit in the marketplace. Second, the USPS wanted to address certain aspects of the product itself (e.g., product design, packaging design, etc.).

Focus groups were conducted before any sampling initiative was implemented. “I always credit the post office because they don’t make assumptions ahead of time. They really start at the baseline: Are we solving a consumer need? The Postal Service looked at the project as a very empty slate of how this concept fits into how people get their mail, how they shop and how they get an opinion of products,” says Dixon.

Managing the mail

Approximately 10-12 respondents who self-identified as the CEO of mail and primary shopper in the household were recruited for each group. “CEO of mail” is a USPS-born moniker for the adult in the household who is responsible for managing the mail. “In 95 percent of the homes – if there are two or more adults in the home – one person has assumed responsibility for managing the mail,” says Whiteman.

Through its own research the USPS has found that there are fundamental, consistent behaviors shared among all Americans and similarities in how we interact with the mail. These include:

The CEO of mail retrieves the mail every day and brings the mail into the home. Mail is typically not left in the mailbox.
The CEO of mail will sort the mail. The three major categories are financial transactions, customer communications and advertising mail.
The CEO of mail will make a value judgment for each piece: Do I keep the mail or do I discard it? What’s the purpose of this mail piece? The CEO of mail can tell through a variety of cues what type of content is inside the envelope.
The mail will be placed in piles: financial transaction mail and customer communications are usually kept in the home office, where the computer is, and advertising mail is usually kept in the kitchen.
The mail is sorted and stored each day but not always opened. The mail is opened a few times a week when triggers bring the CEO back to the various piles. Triggers can be bills coming due or a weekly shopping trip to the grocery store.

“Eighty percent of the time the person who gets the mail is the person who uses the mail to do the basic jobs in the home. That person is also the same person who manages the shopping for the family. This would be the person who would take full advantage of samples as part of the shopping requirements for the family. This is the reason why we always screen for the CEO of mail,” says Whiteman.

Three different issues

Once the focus groups were underway, three different issues surrounding sampling were addressed. First, do consumers like receiving product samples?

Second, do samples influence consumers to buy products? How, if at all, do samples cause changes in consumer behavior?

And third, how do consumers prefer to receive samples? “Do you want samples to come as a mix of everything or should there be a theme? We even went a step further to find out, would you, as a consumer, opt in to getting samples and share a little information about yourself so that you don’t end up getting a sample for a baby when you don’t have a baby at home or for a dog when you don’t have pets?” says Dixon.

Branding and packaging options

The focus groups also spent a large amount of time discussing in depth the branding and packaging options for the proposed sampling program. There were six different names that the USPS wanted to test for the sampling program, including the Try-Me Kit, Goodie Box and Sample Showcase. While cost-savings and shipping guidelines dictated the shape and size of the box that would be delivered, the design on the box (logos, graphics and color schemes, etc.) was yet to be determined.

The USPS produced several different prototypes of what the box would look like in various naming and visual combinations to give respondents tangible examples. Whiteman says one of the main obstacles in conducting the six focus groups was prototype preservation and production. The boxes needed to be designed and assembled before each group and in excellent condition.

Along with design-related questions, a host of other variables needed clarification, so several USPS internal clients (i.e., the design team, brand manager, sales representatives, etc.) also attended each focus group. “You can’t get the full, in-depth sense if you just read a transcript or listen to tapes. Being there, being part of the context and seeing how things play out is really critical,” says Whiteman.

The unanimous favorite

Much to the delight of the Postal Service, the findings of the focus groups were conclusive both in terms of choosing a clear winner and in sampling behavior. The name Sample Showcase was the unanimous favorite, with respondents liking that the word “sample” made it clear what the box contained. Respondents in all three cities also agreed that they liked a design that was simple but colorful.

However, design preference wasn’t the only thing that was comparable from East Coast to West: A love of samples unites us all. This alone may not have come as a surprise to the USPS but the research revealed that consumers share the love. “This is where all the new insights came for us. Samples are very seldom thrown away. Consumers either use the samples themselves – immediately or they store them – or, and this was surprising, if they don’t use samples they’ll give them to other people,” says Whiteman.

This pass-along behavior gives sample distributors confidence, knowing that their sample investment will eventually be used either by the first recipient or by the person to whom the sample is passed along.

Additionally, respondents agreed that having samples delivered to the home is the easiest and most convenient, as opposed to in-store handouts that require them to carry the sample along with their other belongings and purchases.

Prompted the launch

The overwhelmingly-positive attitude toward sampling in all six focus groups was a delight to bring back to USPS decision makers and prompted the launch of Sample Showcase: Great Samples from Great Brands (mysampleshowcase.com), an opt-in bundled sample offering that has been active in various U.S. markets for over a year. Samples from up to 12 companies can be included in each Showcase.

To institute Sample Showcase, the postal service enlisted the help of an established sampling company to help regain its footing in the manufacturer sampling space. The USPS works with Start Sampling, a Carol Stream, Ill., online sample management company, to manage manufacturer relations, negotiations and demographic matching for targeted samples.

Relevant and useful

The ultimate goal of the Sample Showcase is to allow manufacturers to package their products together to elevate the brand worth of all involved and also to improve the lives of consumers by making sure that the box contains relevant and useful products.

“Anything we can do to increase the perception on the part of the consumer that the mailbox is something that is very valuable and important to them, the more engaged they will be with mail coming into the mailbox,” says Whiteman.

In the end, six straightforward focus groups were enough to confirm the Postal Service’s hypothesis that a mailed, bundled sample offering would be embraced by recipients, provide both brand and monetary value to CPG manufacturers and help the USPS reestablish itself as the go-to provider of sample-delivery services.