As mentioned in my last post, ParadyszMatera’s Research & Analysis group recently released its MarketTrends reports for consumer marketers. Having highlighted some notable list universe shifts last time out, I thought it would be useful to take a look at trends in list rental cpms (cost per thousand) over the past two years.
There have been other industry reports recently showing falling cpms for direct mail lists, but our tracking shows an overall trend steadily drifting upwards. Note that ParadyszMatera works only with pricing for list segments that are consistently comparable and impactful. For marketers, that means cpms for either 12-month or active names. This sometimes requires adding in a 12 month select so that trending does not fluctuate due to base list price sales strategies. We also focus almost exclusively on direct response files with verifiable sourcing.
Below are a few charts to provide more perspective for three sectors: Consumer Magazines, Consumer Apparel and Nonprofits. Naturally most marketers will have negotiated rates lower than the ones trended here.
Consumer Magazines
In 2Q 2009, the average list cpm for Consumer Magazines (excluding newsletters) was $105.04/M, up $.63 (.6%) from $104.41/M the previous year. The category has seen a $2.38/M increase since 2Q 2007, up 2.3%.
Consumer Apparel
In 2Q 2009, the average list cost per thousand for the Apparel catalog market was $116.19/M, on par with $116.17 in 2Q 2009, and up $.96 (.84%) from 2Q 2007.
Nonprofits
The Nonprofit sector’s average base cost per thousand in 2Q 2009 was $92.54/M, up $1.22 (1.3%) from $91.32/M in 2Q 2008.
The charts above are based on the following: 1,000+ active consumer magazine subscriber files, 150+ 12 month apparel buyer counts and 800+ active donor files. All of the above are tracked back to unique verifiable marketers, i.e. not compiled, enhanced etc.
