We recently shared information on the latest developments at Zumbox following its announcement about the establishment of a customer advisory panel. To ensure fair and balanced coverage of this developing market space, we contacted Pitney Bowes' John Schloff, vice president of marketing and strategic alliances for Volly, to find out the latest about the Pitney Bowes' entry into this dynamic market.

Although there has not be a lot on the news front from Pitney Bowes with respect to Volly, Schloff assured me that there was extensive work going on behind the scenes to ready the offering for launch.  As Schloff stated in an earlier interview with WhatTheyThink, the Volly team has been taking advantage of Pitney Bowes' production mail division (DMT) customer advisory board for a number of years as this product has unfolded. "Our customer advisory board has really helped shape the product," Schloff said. "They liked what they saw at the outset, but did not want brand disintermediation. We went back and reworked the user interface, and now they are really happy with it. We made sure that anytime a mail piece from a brand is made available to a consumer, the brand is able to take advantage of cross-selling and up-selling, as well as hot links to customer support, their web site or other customer interaction opportunities as the brand desires."

Schloff points out that for a consumer application like this to be effective, it must be very simple-simple to use, simple to access links to customer support or other brand assets.

With respect to third-party advertising on digital mail pieces, Schloff said, "The environment is ours, and we will be presenting mail pieces and different documents into the environment. We are seeking the proper balance between no advertising and too much advertising.  Depending on where in the site the ad is, it may or may not be managed or influenced by the brand.  However, if it is on a part of Volly that is presenting a brand's specific mail piece and that brand did not want to advertise, we would not be advertising in same category as that brand.  For example, if Verizon didn't want to advertise, we would not present AT&T in that space. We are also concerned about the quality of advertising. Because we have built in the ability to understand what consumers are doing in the Volly environment, and because we have so much in the way of market and consumer analytics from our Pitney Bowes Business Insight software, we will leverage all of that to ensure that what is presented to the consumer is relevant and valuable, tailored to that specific consumer."

When asked about a launch date, Schloff declined to respond, saying, "We understand that for this to be successful, we need a critical mass of mailers.  You don't want a consumer opening their Volly box and only finding one or two items.  Like a surprise party, we want to make sure the 'room is full.'" According to Schloff, although he declined to provide specific numbers or names, the number of organizations signing on is in the double digits, many of which are service providers, includes more than 1,500 brands and billions of mail pieces, and is growing at a good rate. "We feel we are well positioned to be the solution that can deliver in this space and to capture those mailers," he said, "since we touch three-quarters of the production transaction mail in the U.S. and have relationships at a senior level with virtually all of the big brands and service bureaus."

With Pitney Bowes equipment in many mailing centers around the country, and more than 1.2 million postage meters in the small- to mid-sized business arena (SMB), Schloff says, "We have ways to work with production to be really effective about advertising, whether it is on a statement, insert or envelope for physical mail, or on the digital piece when it is converted. We can work with them in a pretty straightforward fashion to establish messaging vehicles to promote Volly."

We wondered whether Schloff thought that large mailers would sign on with multiple services. "We think that some organizations are going to play it safe and bet on a couple of horses," he replied. "Others will recognize the unique characteristics we have around things like density and will end up with Pitney Bowes exclusively.  I think you will see a mix. But keep in mind we are dealing with the difference between a startup and a $5.4 billion company.  We think there will be a shakeout over time, and we are confident that we will win this game."

Although that remains to be seen, I did find it interesting that Pitney Bowes had disclosed the fact that it is investing between 5 and 10 cents of earnings per share in this venture, a sign the company views Volly as strategic to its future.  In addition, in March of this year, the company named Chuck Cordray as President of Volly. Cordray joined Pitney Bowes from Hearst Corporation, where he served as senior vice president and general manager of Hearst Magazines Digital Media. In this role, he was responsible for the strategic direction and operating management for Hearst's digital activities, including advertising, editorial, online consumer marketing, partnerships and project management for 24 different websites, including 12 tied to Hearst magazine properties and 12 purely digital sites.

According to Schloff, Cordray has brought insight into what it takes to be successful on a digital web site, adding, "Say we bring on a utility company you happen to use.  We are focused on the ease with which you can have that statement come into Volly, creative ways to make the process very simple.  Simple registration, simple to bring on incremental mail pieces."

In conclusion, Schloff said, "The four things we underscore around our confidence in winning is that we get what the consumers want, we get the density challenge and are uniquely able to deliver on that density, we understand mail and mailers because we have been doing this forever, and fourth, it is absolutely strategic to our business, we are in it for the long haul and we have the cash flow to support it."

Stay tuned to WhatTheyThink for more news on the digital mail revolution as this space continues to evolve.