Prospea - inspecting quality and optimalizing distribution of unaddressed mail

It is a great honour for us that Rossmann, a network of drugstores and perfumeries, has joined the ranks of our clients at the beginning of this year. It has thus become another company which pays attention to the rigorous inspection of distribution of its promotional leaflets and has chosen to employ regularly the service of our inspectors.

It is 5 years already since we have started to provide our services in both the Czech republic and Slovakia alike, in great part to clients who operate in both these regions of the former federation. As we are adressed with more and more clients operating solely in Slovakia, we decided to launch a Slovak language version of our web on www.prospea.sk. Following Czech and English it is thus the third mutation of our language support.

Since the beginning of the year continues the trend seen in recent years. More and more companies adress us with the desire to increase the effectiveness of their promotional campaigns based on non-adressed distribution. We are pleased, that one of such new client companies is BauMax, which has started to employ our services since the beginning of the year, throughout both the Czech republic and Slovakia.

What we value as best reference is not strictly a cooperation with some well known brand mark, but the konfidence that we evoke in all our clients. We gain it through professional approach and flexibility. We do not need to succumb to pandering, we know our worth and before we promise something, we must be a 100% sure that we can get the job done. Otherwise we have to regrettably refuse the offer, as we cannot risk losing the trust that our brand has. We see no sense in reacting to undervalued prices and unatainable promises, through which some upstart plagiary agencies try to break in to the market. An inspector must remain an inspector and not become a court jester who plays both sides. You choose what is best for you.

As the end of the year draws near and with it arrives the time of Christmas holidays, we would like to make use of this opportunity and thank all our clients for their trust and favour. We are very happy that you find our services useful and we are pleased by your satisfaction and interst. Along with Christmas let us celebrate together the achievements we have all gained and let us believe that with our new services based on the trend of improved efficiency of investements into promotional leaflets we will continue on throughout the next year. We wish you all the best. Your Prospea.

In order to draw attention to themselves and procure their interests some inspection agencies tend to send to their selected clients photos documenting faults commited during leaflet distribution. While often these photos are purpose-built frauds created by the sender, sometimes the faults portrayed are simply mistakes caused by the dilatoriness of distributors. Eventhough this is no excuse for the submitter, the matter is infact quite overblown. Similair problems can be witnessed every week and it concerns leaflets of every brand. If howerver the sender only pinpoints certain names, while at the same time overlooks this problem concerning other brands there certainly is something fishy about it...

With the growing number of long-term clients and orders, increasing number of inspectors and other co-workers throughout Czech Republic and Slovakia, there became a need for the strengthening of our internal structure. Therefore we eagerly took the chance of gaining a qualified reinforcement of our team, Ms. Alena Jiříkova, who worked in the TNT Post company for the last 4 years, and who is perfectly adept in the problematics of non-addressed distribution. We believe, that this reinforcement will be soon be apreciated by our clients as we gradually launch new types of services.

“To be most valued by those who most value brands” once said David Ogilvy. In this point we fulfill his wish, because we truly value our co-operation with this advertising agency, for which we inspect the non-adressed distribution of promotional leaflets of the RWE company. Naturally, it is more difficult to inspect this leaflet than others due to its size, periodicity of emission, content etc., but it is no problem for us. After more than 16 000 inspections we know how to get the job done. We have enough inspectors, experience and energy..

After due consideration we have decided to remove the list of our clients from our website. They will only be sent on request. Why? Our name is already well-known, there is no need to persuade anyone that we know how to do our work. Many have seen it for themselves, there are new ones who are coming, and the others know where wecan be found if we are needed. The reason is the fact that it is better to keep quiet about who and what is being inspected. He who is quiet in a jungle will learn about it much more. The animals behave naturally. And that is the point...

I have never really desired to become a VIP – a person who is somehow privileged. However, I have become one – as well as many representatives of eminent clients. I have been granted special care of the distributional agencies. While one distributor regularly walks a long, long way, another one drives his car specifically to deliver leaflets to our building. Our apartment building could be an example to many others. The leaflets are flawlessly delivered. What a pity that concerns only our building. The other blocks in our neighbourhood are not so lucky. The reason is simple – neither a representative of any client company, nor one of an inspection agency – who might report imperfections of delivery - lives in them.

We announce the launch of the SOSNAL system, which will help us to proceed the data. Therefore, all of our service-based processes will now be fully automatic. The application, which has been designed specifically to meet our needs in the interface of the web framework DJANGO, (written in PYTHON), is a new feature which will help us to continue to increase the productivity of our labour, as well as the quality of our services and data. These virtual “new hands” will be acknowledged not only by us as, but also by our clients.

Reading the presentations of some distributional agencies, one finds it obvious that despite having successfully negotiated the rigours of primary school, some experts still have weaknesses in basic arithmetic. How else could it be explained that the quality of 45% is presented as 95% or that only three inspectors have managed to cover the entire area of the Czech Republic performing 210 inspections a week? The calculations are so simple! However, those who think that one plus one is three will soon get their four minute warning and even the 200 000 CK which they have borrowed will not make it any easier for them.

Bald eagle is mainly used in logos by companies and individuals who want to establish themselves as very vigilant, dauntless guardians who do not know what fear and dispraise are. This may be why there are so many such “heroes“ in the world. While some do deserve to be compared to an eagle, others´ comparison seems to be an obvious mistake. If such a proud symbol is misappropriated by a company or individual with a very disputatious past, lacking any moral values, someone whose business is limited to nothing more than hateful rhetoric by the spirit of „CARTHAGO DELENDA EST“ , the eagle in their logo should be replaced with a fat greedy magpie with a visual handicap. This animal can do nothing else than croak and, moreover, it cannot see even the tip of its beak.

The IKEA catalogue undoubtedly belongs among the biggest publicity materials delivered by means of non-addressed distribution. Its production and distribution are extremely demanding. Perhaps, this is the reason, why the priority for this company is not the price of the services, but their quality. We are very pleased that Ikea, as well as other clients which we have, are not attracted by the underbidding offers of our competitors. What is really important for our clients is our successful cooperation which has lasted for a couple of years. This is the fourth year when Prospea has been controlling the distribution of the Ikea catalogue.

We have celebrated the fourth birthday of our company. We are again one year older, stronger, we are enjoying the satisfaction of a larger number of clients, but we are also one year wiser. We are aware of the fact that it is no use reacting to the same – long-running calumnies which are spread by the representatives of one specific distribution agency hoping that by doing so they can avoid revealing the truth concerning the quality of their services. Our priority, however, is focus on work. We leave it up to the clients themselves to see where the truth is. The smarter ones already know, that instead of believing the words of Saruman, Grima Wormtongue and the Ice Queen, it is better to check whether their leaflets have or have not been delivered.

Very detailed statistic analysis of our web attendence show not only repeated access of representatives of distribution agencies and of our competition, but also proves increasing interest of our potential clients. This fact inevitably implies increasing access from foreign countries. Therefore we have decided to launch an English mutation of our website. The switch can be found in our website heading.

Due to a change in strategy responding to higher demand from clients and as a reaction to the market situation, as of 1.6. 2011 we cease to provide internal audits of distribution quality for distribution agencies. Our portfolio of regular clients no longer includes Kolos, Mediaservis, Česká distribuční, Onyx distribution and Rozlet servis. From now on, we want to be an agency that specializes in services for distribution clients only.

The company Hervis, a well-know chain of stores selling sports equipment and clothes, has become another client that turned to us thanks to the positive references from our regular clients and started to use our services. The company does not want to remain one of those customers who blindly believe promises and numbers without any real evidence, and just keep paying for something that may not be as great as described.

It seems that all the screams against field inspections of distribution, which can be heard from some of the distribution agencies and their hired “specialists”, who only know distribution from their desks, tend to have quite the opposite effect. Other chains keep coming, feeling that this service is necessary. Regular inspection for the largest chain of sport equipment stores – Sportisimo - proves this trend .

Some things are just pointless. Don Quijote and his fight, Sisyfos and his work, disproving the gossip spread in the form of articles published only because the whole page is paid as an advertisement (see MaM from 18.4). The paying person can write anything and does not have to sign it. Nice, isn’t it? A paranoic person will not realize that instead of bias accusations, he should work to fulfil the promises given to his customers. He will just think about ways to avoid inspections, which tend to reveal really huge skeletons in the cupboards. Besides a paid advertisement disguised as a serious article, only billboards remain. We do not have to order advertisements, our work speaks for itself – as well as the growing portfolio of clients who have found out that it is a good idea to check constantly if the leaflets, which they pay considerable money for, really ended up in the mailboxes.