Rose Calendars – Latest news

The timing of yesterday’s announcement that Royal Mail workers have voted in favour of strike action over job security and working conditions could hardly have been more ironic.  Today’s World Post Day suddenly doesn’t have the same ring to it anymore.

Royal Mail says a 10% drop in letters and parcels each year is losing it £170m per annum, so more job cuts are likely and more machines are to be introduced.  The union accepts the need for job cuts but resists them being imposed.  Dragging the postal service into the 21st Century has already meant cutting more than 50,000 jobs since 2002, with more frontline postal workers expected to be culled.

Postal deliveries are already seriously disrupted by the continuing local strikes across the country, with a mail backlog of millions of items.  Back in October 2007, the two 48-hour UK-wide walkouts brought most deliveries to a standstill.

The strike dates are set to be announced on Monday.  In addition to the annoyance and inconvenience to customers, any new national strike would again have a major impact on businesses, especially those that deliver their products to consumers through the standard post and those that communicate with their clients and prospects via mail, very important in the run up to Christmas. 

We would therefore like to urge all of our regular customers to order their promotional calendars soon in order to allow plenty of time for alternative methods of distribution.  You could use the opportunity to hand deliver your business calendars to your customers and prospects for that personal touch, task your own sales and delivery staff with it or include the calendars with your customers’ orders.

Please take a look at the complete range of 2010 calendars available for your business promotion and contact us with any questions you may have or if you require advice on posting your calendars.  Those on a tight budget might like to take a closer look at our postage saver range, a selection of postage friendly calendars that qualify for Royal Mail’s large letter format.

Whether you are still planning on relying on Royal Mail for your calendar distribution or have come up with alternatives to ensure your business gift reaches its recipient, please do ensure you allow sufficient time for delivery and place your order soon.

In a recession, any business will be taking a long hard look at their budgets to maximise the benefits of any expenditure. Royal Mail’s recent announcement of yet another price increase, effective from Monday 6th April 2009, has no doubt led many businesses to re-think their Marketing strategies. Especially in the current economic climate, often any saving is perceived as a good saving. Does it pay, though, to reduce – or, as done by many companies, even stop communicating with your customers?

You should take a moment to determine how much getting the attention of your customers and prospects is worth. More importantly, look at the cost of not making that communication. Many organisations are questioning the way they operate and which companies they do business with at the moment. Actively engaging with these businesses strengthens existing relationships and encourages new ones, especially if your competitors reduce their communications.

Once you have made the decision that now is the right time to gain more exposure for your business, the next question must be which type of advertising is most suitable. Any advertising needs to be targeted, should engage the recipient and get the best exposure possible. So, how about that promotional pen? Inexpensive, yes, but also a mass produced item, which is most likely to end up in a drawer and, above all, doesn’t offer much advertising space.

A promotional calendar, however, is an ideal canvas for your communication: it is functional, attractive and offers plenty of advertising space. A unique advantage of any wall or desk calendar is the long exposure: it gets referred to every working day, for a total period of 12 months. This equates to an advertisement cost of as little as one penny a day. Giving a carefully chosen calendar to your clients and prospects also makes them feel valued and simply proves that you care. It offers a great opportunity for a face-to-face meet, with no postage costs incurred at all. And why not think about other cost effective, yet personal ways of distributing a calendar, for example sending it together with ordered goods or asking your drivers or reps to drop off a copy at every delivery or appointment.

However, if you prefer or need to send out your calendar by mail, it is worth knowing that there are special ranges available, which can be sent as a large letter instead of a packet, thus saving on postage. Under the new pricing scheme, sending a calendar weighing 200g by first class mail will cost only £0.90 using the large letter option, compared to £1.62 when using the packet option. Several of the Rose Calendars are worth mentioning here, especially the postage saver range and desk top calendars, as all calendars in those categories qualify to be sent using a large letter stamp only.

As a guide, the Royal Mail large letter format includes items up to 25mm thick, with maximum dimensions of 353mm by 250mm, as long as the item doesn’t weigh more than 750g. If one of the dimensions is larger, or the weight exceeds 750, the item is classed as a packet.

For more information on the whole Rose calendar range, you can browse through more than 100 titles on this site. Alternatively, contact Rose to get one of their representatives to demonstrate how your business can use calendars as a highly effective form of promotion. There is also a very attractive spring offer available for new customers.