Monday, 16 May 2011

The devil is in the detail

The first major mailing I was involved in was to 2 million customers of the bank I worked for, offering personal loans.  It involved matching a personalised application to a letter and an offer specific flyer, one of 5 test offers, that had to therefore match to the letter as well. In those early days we didn’t have bar codes, so the items were hand matched!

I remember visiting the mailing house in South London to discover a building the size of an aircraft hangar with trestle tables stretching off into the distance.  There was paper everywhere. Tables full of trimmed paper, envelopes in boxes and even big rolls of paper.

And people. It seemed like the entire female population of the area was employed inserting the elements of the pack. And every 250^th inserted in a line would be left sticking up out of the box so that the mail house owner (and an elite crew of checkers) could ensure all of the elements matched. Get one wrong and it was a case of backtracking to the mismatch. Do the math, that’s 8,000 checkpoints.

‘I’m neurotic and obsessive’ the mail house owner declared ‘That’s why my business is a success’

In one simple lesson I learned a lot:

(1)  Near enough is not good enough – one file adrift equals disaster

(2)  Obsession with detail can be a good thing – check, double check and sleep peacefully

(3)  Beware short cuts – there’s usually a reason for all the steps in a process.

(4) What 500 tons of paper looks like – and the impact of getting print wrong!

Of course in today’s online, digitally controlled world we don’t have to worry about this sort of thing – or do we?

At DM Group we are as committed to getting the detail right today as we were when we opened our doors 20 years ago. And that’s not just about getting the data matched or the print delivered on time and in budget. Whether we’re working to define brand strategy, creating a new brand identity, or taking that brand to market we have the same dedication to detail. If you’d like to talk about how we might help you and your brand why not give us a call.

Malcolm Harvey

Client Services Director