In an effort to boost revenue and increase customer awareness, Canada Post is sending out letters to 900,000 Canadians, asking people to opt out of the Consumers’ Choice program.
Anick Losier, spokesperson for Canada Post, says “Unaddressed ad mail has changed over the years and if people wanted to hop back into the service, we wanted to offer an easy way of doing so.”
Delivering unaddressed mail makes up about seven per cent of total revenue for Canada Post. But there’s an upside for local businesses, too.
“I think it’s very important because that’s your communication to your customer once every two weeks,” said Reg Petrinchuk, manager of Peavey Mart on Victoria Avenue East. He added that many of them walk in, flyers in hand. “Anywhere from the whole flyer with circles on it to all the little items cut out, to a list that they’ve made from the flyer.”
And other businesses owners agree with that strategy.
“Word of mouth is probably where we get the bulk of our clients, but it does just raise brand awareness,” said Corwin Boecahler, owner of Gold Key Investments in Regina.
But flyers and coupons aren’t the only pieces of mail being sent out unaddressed – municipal notifications are sent that way too.
“With spring flooding we have to act very quickly. We have a targeted area that we need to communicate to and we’ll do an unaddressed ad mail drop right to those residents because it’s very timely information and if we were to send formal letters and addresses their house could be flooded.”
To get your name scratched off the Consumers’ Choice list you can send the pre-paid card that comes along with the letter back to Canada Post, as well as remove the notice from your mailbox.
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