Anatomy of a Control: Don't Mess With the Message

Everyone likes a premium. But as it turns out, if it doesn’t tie into an organization’s mission, donors won’t respond as well as if it did.

At least that’s how it turned out for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which works to preserve the legacy of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., and educate the public about the impact of the Vietnam War.

As of 2003, the organization had been mailing the same holiday package — an oversized envelope whose bulk hinted at some type of premium inside — to active donors each November since at least 1998, according to Tim Youngbar, account executive for Crofton, Md.-based, full-service direct-marketing agency Creative Direct Response.

The 51⁄4-inch-by-73⁄4-inch package contains a 41⁄4-inch-by-6-inch holiday bounce-back card for donors to sign and return to VVMF along with a gift; five 41⁄2-inch-by-6-inch holiday note cards with an image of a wreath in front of the memorial, with envelopes; a 7-inch-by-14-inch combined letter and reply slip; and a reply envelope.

According to Youngbar, response to the mailing had fallen off and, two years ago, VVMF decided to test a new idea against the control — a mailing with an ornament premium rather than note cards.

“Most premiums can get stale, so we want to keep things fresh in the mail,” Youngbar says.

The ornament test was mailed in a slightly larger, 6-inch-by-81⁄4-inch outer envelope and included a 51⁄2-inch-by-7-inch reply; a BRE; a 7-inch-by-11-inch double-sided letter; and a 5-inch-by-8-inch bounce back with a tipped-on, silver ornament showing the image of three soldiers. The ornament was visible from the outer via a round poly window.

According to Marie Robinson, copy chief with Creative Direct Response, the 10,000-piece memorial-statue ornament test cost the same to produce as the note-card control package but pulled a higher response (6.9 percent to the control’s 5.71 percent), a higher dollar average ($14.32 to the control’s $13.81) and a higher net income ($5,838.19 to the control’s $3,909.71).

Fueled by the results and thinking he could do better still, Youngbar developed another test a year later. He increased the mail quantities and mailed the note-card control package, the memorial-statue ornament package and a new ornament package with Christmas tree art on a gold ornament.

The memorial-statue ornament package outpulled the other two mailings, making it the new control for VVMF. In the test it garnered a 7.34 percent response rate to the tree ornament’s 6.4 percent and the note-card control’s 7.28 percent; a $13.66 average donation to the tree ornament’s $13.32 and the note card’s $12.41; and a net per thousand of $524.37 to the tree ornament’s $370.04 and the note card’s $467.76.

Premium vs. premium
The main difference between the original note-card control and the two tests VVMF put up against it was, of course, in the premiums — both in type and theme. The first step was a move away from the note cards to the ornament.

“There are a lot of card packages out there that other nonprofits are mailing, but you don’t tend to see a lot of ornament packages,” Youngbar says.

While the ornament package lacked the bulk of the note-card control, Creative Direct Response drew attention to the test mailings’ flatter premiums by adding a round poly window on the back of the outer that displays the ornament.

“I felt the best way to get the donor into the envelope was to use the strategy of showing the ornament through the window,” Youngbar says. “It makes the donor want to open it, get it and see it, and while they’re at it, they’ll see the bounce-back card; they’ll see the bookmark and want to donate.”

The next step was to test the Christmas-tree mailing against the memorial-statue ornament. The test was an effort to see if it was the ornament that was drawing a better response rate or if it had more to do with the use of the memorial image.

The memorial-statue package won again, underscoring the importance of the memorial theme to this audience. According to Youngbar, the majority of the donors to the organization are either Vietnam veterans or have family members that are veterans.

“The veterans feel it’s their memorial, and that’s something unique about this organization,” he says.

Robinson adds, “The memorial-themed art for the ornament, along with the imprinted year on it as well, turns the item into a collectible and increases perceived value. Other charities may mail Christmas cards, but from VVMF the donor is gifted with something they can use every year, that stands for something they respect — service to their country.”

A bouncier bounce back
The new control includes the value-adding bounce-back remembrance card, which serves as an involvement device that donors write a note on, sign and mail back to VVMF. The cards VVMF receives are placed on the holiday tree erected at the memorial wall at Christmas time.

“It’s hopefully an incentive, because if someone wants to participate and have a voice and really do something meaningful, they can put their personal message on the back and stick that in the envelope,” Robinson says. “And since they’re already mailing something in, it might make it a little easier for them to also send in a donation at the same time.”

The ornament-mailing bounce back has a few more things going for it than the bounce back for the note-card package: It’s on a heavier card stock and includes the ornament and a perforated 11⁄4-inch-wide strip at the top meant to serve as a bookmark.

While Robinson comments that the lighter stock of the bounce-back card in the note-card package feels like a piece of personal correspondence, the choice to go with a heavier card stock was logical from a production standpoint.

“It was easier for the ornament to be tipped on a heavier stock,” Youngbar says. “And as well as the bookmark. What it does is it increases the value of the bookmark.”

The bookmark was added in an effort to make use of vacant space. According to Youngbar, the bounce-back card was sized to allow the ornament to show through the poly window on the outer.

“We had to have that insert sized so it doesn’t cause the ornament to fall out of the window. So we thought, ‘Well, let’s take advantage of that space and add a bookmark at the top,’” he explains.

“I think if you had it on a lighter- weight paper it might seem a little flimsy,” Robinson adds. “I think for the ornament package it’s important to have that slightly heavier stock to make this piece — that actually is three pieces — feel that much more important and have a little bit higher perceived value.”

Future tweaks
VVMF will be rolling out with the memorial-themed ornament package in November of this year. As for the future, Youngbar says the art and premium are the two main elements he plans on tweaking.

“I think we have to continue to keep the art fresh,” he says. “But we can have a bronze ornament; we can also take certain segments of the file — the higher-dollar segments — and mail them possibly a three-dimensional ornament. We could package it differently; we could test packaging the ornament in a box.”

While testing more general patriotic art is a possibility, Youngbar feels the memorial-themed art is clearly a winner for this group.

“I think nonprofits have to look at their donor base and ask why are they a donor,” he says. “In this case, VVMF donors feel a connection to the wall, and I think that’s a unique part of the fundraising for this organization.”