WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA — The U.S. Postal Service today recognized Guitar Center with its Mail Innovation Award for the company’s commitment to a successful business partnership with the Postal Service. A select group of postal customers is acknowledged and recognized for their contributions to the continued success of the mailing industry each year at the annual National Postal Forum.
The Mail Innovation Award, one of three “best in class” awards presented annually at the Forum, recognizes customers who have demonstrated creativity by finding new ways to use the mail to drive significant business results and mail growth. They have taken calculated risks by using the mail in new and innovative ways to help achieve their business objectives with successful, quantifiable results. They are committed to producing winning results for their customers and the mailing industry.
Guitar Center, with headquarters in Westlake Village, CA, began as a small storefront back in 1959 in Hollywood, CA. Today, Guitar Center is the largest music instrument retail chain in the nation. Working with the Guitar Center, the U.S. Postal Service assisted in developing market strategies for seasonal promotions, including a First-Class Mail gift card promotion, and a unique new catalog - “Musical Dreams Come True”.
Another new marketing initiative was the Mobile Barcode (or QR Code) promotion, which was introduced in the summer of 2011. Guitar Center’s mobile barcode connects tech savvy customers to Guitar Center’s web pages directing them to new offers and events. The mobile barcode is now a standard on Guitar Center’s buyers guide and other promotional mail pieces. Through ongoing dialogue, the Postal Service also assisted Guitar Center in better understanding First-Class Mail, and as a result, they now use this product in a big way.
“We are pleased to recognize and honor Guitar Center for its innovation, creativity and leadership,” said Sierra Coastal District Manager Kerry Wolny. “With the forward-moving momentum of the previous decade and a vision of vast expansion, Guitar Center has plunged into the new millennium and produced winning business results.”
The National Postal Forum is the mailing industry’s largest trade show and networking event for industry professionals. Since 1968, it has provided business mailers with ongoing training and education, and helped them keep pace with the mailing industry’s rapid progress. Held once a year in the spring, the Forum is a combination educational conference/trade show offering a wide range of opportunities for attendees. For more information, visit www.npf.org.
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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 151 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $65 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 35th in the 2011 Fortune 500. In 2011, the U.S. Postal Service was ranked number one in overall service performance, out of the top 20 wealthiest nations in the world, by Oxford Strategic Consulting. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.
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