First Such Global Sale Into Direct Mail Market; Color Inkjet Printer Creates Customized Messages Outside the Envelope to Drive Response at a Lower Cost
 
STAMFORD, Conn., – Pitney Bowes Inc. announced today that Wilen Direct has acquired and deployed the Pitney Bowes Print+ Messenger Color Inkjet System to create individually-customized four-color envelopes for Wilen's clients to use in their marketing and customer communications campaigns.

Wilen Direct is an operating affiliate of the Wilen Group, a full service direct marketing services provider located in Deerfield Beach, Florida. The company is a leader and innovator in digital and variable data imaging, personalized direct marketing, advanced mail strategies and technologies, logistics, and fulfillment. The Wilen Group has built its business over the past 35 years and has a wide array of Fortune 100 clients.
 
Using the Print+ Messenger Color Inkjet System, Wilen can print all necessary information, including personalized marketing messages, four-color graphics, company logos, mailing and return addresses, and postal barcodes directly on to many variations of envelopes during high-speed mail finishing, while eliminating the need for envelope conversions or inserting materials. The system is the result of collaboration between Pitney Bowes and inkjet printing technology leader HP and provides high quality, 100% variable data printing on envelopes in full color.  As a result, Wilen is able to produce more effective direct and transactional mailpieces for its clients, with personalized messaging, as well all relevant postal information on the outside of the envelope that can drive response rates.

"Many of our clients have gone through the necessary expense of developing databases that allow for the most relevant messaging to their prospects and their customers.  Manufacturing inefficiencies have prohibited the ability to fully leverage data by speaking to consumers through four-color imagery and messaging due to cost and speed.  Pitney Bowes's technologies and systems answer both of those issues and will be key in grabbing attention in the direct mail space," said Darrin Wilen, president of Wilen Media. "Our forward-leaning customers are excited to embrace these new capabilities."

"Wilen's management understands that data-driven companies have a competitive advantage over those that are still using guesswork to determine what their customers and prospects want," said Ramesh Ratan, president, Pitney Bowes Document Messaging Technologies.  "Harnessing the power of data to create individually-customized messages outside the envelope is a fantastic approach that I predict smart marketers will embrace. Wilen is on the leading edge with this technology."

Through customized printing of individual envelopes, Wilen can dramatically simplify the inventory it carries for corporate clients even as it increases the envelope marketing options that are available to those same clients.