Dan Minnick

Be sure to tell your service bureau before the merge/purge if you'd made changes to your circulation strategy. Recently a catalog client became upset because her company's merge/purge result had changed so dramatically from the history to the current job. After a long conversation, we found out the company had added a new list. She never had rented it before, and it was so dramatically different from the other lists in her plan that the merge/purge results startled both her and us. A single list can make a big difference in the final analysis. —Dan Minnick, director of postal operations, Abacus

Be sure to tell your service bureau before the merge/purge if you'd made changes to your circulation strategy. Recently a catalog client became upset because her company's merge/purge result had changed so dramatically from the history to the current job. After a long conversation, we found out the company had added a new list. She never had rented it before, and it was so dramatically different from the other lists in her plan that the merge/purge results startled both her and us. A single list can make a big difference in the final analysis. —Dan Minnick, director of postal operations, Abacus

"There's not a software vendor or data services provider out there that doesn't have sophisticated tools to eliminate bad addresses from your mailings or make better use of the good addresses. It's the cataloger's responsibility to work with its existing vendor and just flat-out ask, "What am I not using that might be valuable to me?" Your vendor is the party that knows what you're trying to do, what your lists represent and what actions should have incremental gain. And if they don't know, they should follow your lead and test those actions." —Dan Minnick, director of postal operations, Abacus