Recent months have seen one unavoidable topic encroach into everyone’s minds. The cost of just about everything has been the subject of widespread public anguish, and as a result, we understand that the introduction of PSE’s price rises requires discussion.
Aside from the political and economic rationale that we’re all aware of – and are frankly tired of hearing – multiple factors can lead an agency like PSE to the need for occasional price increases. As our clients will know, PSE pride itself on transparency and open communication with everybody involved with the agency. That’s why this week’s article is dedicated to explaining why your next bill may be a little more than your last and what can be done about it. Read on to find out.
Keeping costs down
The relationship between the prices faced by our customers and the costs assimilated by PSE is very much a cause-and-effect one. As a result, it’s important to note that before any price increases are implemented, every measure to control our own costs is considered and executed where possible.
There are few instances in life or business where ‘winging it’ results in the most cost-effective solution. Operations within an offline marketing agency are no exception. Forward planning is a fundamental building block for every internal process constructed here at PSE, with our calculated solutions enabling quality service provision that doesn’t compromise our competitive pricing. Planning means investigating every nook and cranny of our processes to ensure that our efficiency and waste standards are being met, more specifically, utilising the most up-to-date machinery, reducing material waste through quality data usage, analysing the long-term cost-efficiency of each supplier, and more.
Price rises
So, despite critically assessing and strategically implementing cost-saving measures, why are our prices still rising? Long story short, what is currently being faced throughout the rest of the country is, unfortunately, being felt here at PSE, too. Prices are rising across every commodity, and those within the offline marketing world are no different. Beginning with something that just about all businesses can relate to, transport and material costs are among the most imposing within the PSE supply chain.
Many of us have found ourselves relieved or even excited at the move towards more reasonable cost in fuel prices in recent weeks. While we hate to burst the petroleum-based bubble of optimism, we must. Even with a relatively drastic drop in recent weeks, the fuel prices that we’re seeing today are still around 12.5% higher than those at the start of the year. As you can imagine, costs like these can become substantial when your business model revolves around delivering physical mail in mass across the country.
While fuel and transport costs make up substantial contributions to our price rises, acquiring material has – like in many industries – presented unexpected obstacles in recent months. Shortages have become something that many industries have become accustomed to in recent years, and unfortunately, supply issues in the print industry mean PSE is also facing the same struggle. Paper is a commodity that has faced increased scarcity, which of course, has a knock-on effect on the costs for an offline marketing specialist like us.
Investment in our processes
While we’ve highlighted the financial impact derived from the sheer volume of our deliveries, we – as tremendous champions of sustainability – are consistently aiming to reduce the environmental impact created by such a carbon-heavy process. However, trying to reduce the mark left on the planet tends to increase the effect left on the balance sheet as a result of these more expensive, sustainable processes. With that said, sustainable strategy is a proudly-held key value here at PSE and one that we feel a responsibility to pursue. As a result, investment in our sustainable development is a cost that must be considered in our pricing. However, there is value to be reaped by customers that include themselves in sustainable processes, namely the enhancement of your brand perception as it becomes associated with such positive actions.
What can you do in light of price rises?
Now that we’ve had a chance to explain our price rises, we’re sure you’d rather hear less about the problems faced by both us and our customers and more about the solutions all parties can find.
As previously mentioned, maximising profitability – and, in turn, sustaining an increased ROI despite heightening prices – future planning is essential. This means aiding our customers to dissect every facet of an upcoming campaign to ensure that every unnecessary cost is stripped out. This looks like optimised mailing lists as a result of in-depth data profiling, waste reduction, and campaign strategy development based on the learning of our previous runs. Taking these measures will help to ensure that ROI continues to be on an upward trajectory from campaign to campaign, even when costs need to climb a little too.
If you’d like more detail on the processes addressed in this week’s blog and the actions we take to manage them, why not read about PSE’s involvement in environmental sustainability, or find out what data profiling can do for your campaign?
