Drowning in Junk Mail
For a second week, there’s not really much going on in the secured loans world, so I thought I’d post about an article that caught my eye over the weekend.
The Financial Mail reports that Capital One has bombarded households with an amazing 240m letters over the last 5 years and apparently has an annual mailing budget of a whopping £70m. I suppose one of the things to mention here is that I don’t think Capital One use the other forms of media to advertise much - so I suppose the “carpet bombing” strategy is their chosen route to market.
Some people report receiving up to a dozen mailings from Capital each year many of them containing fake plastic cards or mock cheques. US head quartered Capital One primarily deals in credit cards and has been vigorously attacking the UK secured loans market.
Total junk mail spending has surged from £1.4 billion to £2.4 billion in the last decade. The Royal Mail says that financial companies account for around 32% of all junk mail.
According to Nielsen Media Research Capital One spends more on Junk Mail than any other financial company, followed by MBNA and the Halifax.Thomson Intermedia, which also tracks junk mail trends, says Capital One has sent more than 24m mailings this year compared with a total last year of almost 34m. Its record year for junk was 2003, when it mailed more than 67m items - 260,000 each working day.
It appears companies like Nielsen and Thomson collect their data by getting several thousands of households to send in the junk mail they receive to a central collection point. Total revenue spends are then estimated based on what they receive.
