Consumer Direct Mail List Prices – 2Q 2010 Update

Following the trend seen in 2009 and early 2010, our latest list price studies show minimal changes over the past 12 months for the three key consumer categories of goods, magazines and nonprofits. For 2Q 2010, all three categories saw price increases, but for each the change was less than 1% year over year.

Note that while there are a few list price studies available, Paradysz works only with pricing for list segments that are consistently comparable and impactful.  We assess all 2,700+ key lists in our studies individually each time out to make sure they still warrant inclusion.  For marketers, that means CPMs for either 12-month or active names, including 12-month select charges to avoid artificial price fluctuations.  We also focus exclusively on direct response lists with verifiable sourcing, avoiding enhanced, compiled and mixed source files.

Consumer Goods

The consumer goods category (merchandise and apparel) has seen the most change over the two-year study period. In 2Q 2010, the average list cost per thousand for the consumer merchandising market was $107.36/M, up $1.82 (1.7%) from 2Q 2008.  The increase over this past year was $.25 or .2%.

Consumer Magazines

The largest year-over-year variance in average list costs came from the consumer magazine sector, which was up .8% (+ $.84) to $106.10/M in 2Q 2010 from $105.26 in 2Q 2009 (a slight dip from the previous year).  The increase over the past two years was .5% or +$.53.

Nonprofits

The Nonprofit sector’s average base list cost remains steady in 2Q 2010, up $.51 in the past year to $92.91 per thousand.  The costs for this set increased only $.77 (.83%) since 2Q 2008. It should also be noted that many nonprofit lists are available on exchange only; however, exchange only mailing lists are excluded from this trending.

As we regularly note, most marketers should have negotiated rates even lower than the ones trended above, but Paradysz data provides an accurate, objective portrait for industry benchmarking.