Catalogers struggling with climbing postal rates can take heart from cataloger Potpourri Group's groundbreaking rebate deal with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). As explained by Direct Marketing News Senior Editor Al Urbanski, the five-year Negotiated Service Agreement (NSA) awards Potpourri -- a publisher of more than a dozen catalogs selling gifts, apparel, pet products and hobby accessories -- tiered rebates based on increased carrier route volume over a negotiated quarterly baseline. The negotiated baseline is a key breakthrough because it does not penalize prior-year increases, and the five-year term is also a step forward since most NSAs last only three years, according to Potpourri SVP of Marketing Robert Webb. Best of all, the NSA is good news for other catalog mailers since USPS regulations require extending a similar deal to "similarly situated" companies, Webb told Urbanski. In Potpourri's case, eligible volume up to 10% above the quarterly baseline receives a 10% rebate from published rates, while incremental volume of 10%-18% gets a 15% rebate and volume over 18% above threshold gets a 20% rebate. "The real opportunity for us -- for any cataloger -- is increasing our prospect mailings," Webb explained. "We only earn the rebates if we mail incrementally more catalogs, and most of those will be devoted to prospecting." Potpourri plans to mail "tens of millions of more books," per Webb. Thanks to Potpourri's trailblazing effort of nearly three years, Webb said he has been told a "similarly situated" cataloger may be able to land its own NSA in a matter of months. For more, see the Direct Marketing News story: http://www.dmnews.com/cataloger-scores-an-nsa-from-the-postal-service/article/356868/
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