Postwurfspezial - Questions and Answers

The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection has confirmed to Deutsche Post that Postwurfspezial shipments fully comply with data protection regulations, helping avoid coverage waste for the sender when targeting new customers and delivering what is considered to be an interesting promotional offer to targeted recipients. Data protection regulations in Germany do not permit information to be collated and stored on individuals. This means that, with partially addressed items sent using Postwurfspezial, instead of using the recipient's first name and surname a collective term is selected, such as "To all wine connoisseurs", "To the household's sun worshippers", "To all car enthusiasts" etc.. It is clear from this that Deutsche Post does not supply any personal data, but is in fact targeting one or several buildings in a target group.

In order to obtain consumer information for the purposes of advertising on groups in such a small target area, Deutsche Post uses a number of databases for Postwurfspezial. In the microdialog database, for example, a microcell consists of 6.6 households on average and the smallest unit is a building with at least five households or a cluster of several buildings. A microcell is generally assumed to be homogenous. With its Postwurfspezial service Deutsche Post itself enhances the number of mailboxes targeted per building, removing households that have opted out of receiving advertising. Only these two non-personal details are elicited by the mail carriers and regularly updated in order to be able to notify the customer sending the items of the correct number of advertising mailings per target group.

Target group selections are calculated and collated for Postwurfspezial at building level using statistical probabilities, data purchased from well-known companies and/or Deutsche Post's own databases. Owing to data protection regulations it is not possible to achieve 100% matches for target groups, but data is as closely matched as possible.

Data is taken from a variety of sources; here are a few examples:

• Deutsche Post (number of households suitable for targeting):
  For its Postwurfspezial service Deutsche Post supplies the number of households suitable for targeting per building by removing the mailboxes of households that have opted out of receiving advertising. By displaying a "No advertising material please" sticker on their mailbox those who have opted out of receiving advertising are excluded from Postwurfspezial.

• Deutsche Post Direkt (microdialog data):
  The microgeographical system microdialog run by Deutsche Post Direkt classifies target group characteristics at building level as non-personal data from databases of major German companies and Deutsche Post Direkt. Data protection regulations require that the smallest unit in this case is a microcell with an average of 6.6 households. Information such as sociodemographic data and consumer information is processed for each microcell. Examples:
  • Person's age: The age of those in the building is calculated based on an analysis of first names coupled with anonymized "actual age" mail order data and the resulting median value calculated.
  • High proportion of families/singles: This is based on 87 million items of personal data. Information such as age distribution and type of individuals per household acts as a means of ascertaining the proportion of families/singles in a microcell.
  • Purchasing power: Purchasing power is based on statistical information (microdialog data) for a delivery district as a whole rather than at building level. Data protection regulations restrict purchasing power classification to this high aggregation level of 'delivery district' with an average of some 600 households eligible to be targeted. It therefore makes sense to supplement the selection of purchasing power criteria with further selection criteria available at building level. For example, purchasing power can be combined with the selection criterion 'building type'.
  • Garden: distinction between buildings with and without a garden
  • Data updates for the Postwurfspezial target group selection are carried out each quarter. Business data is updated every half year.

By signing the order the customer acknowledges the Postwurfspezial General Terms and Conditions and agrees to the order quantity and cost. The customer also specifies clearly the other parties involved (agency, lettershop). The basis of contract at individual order level is also a legal requirement in the event that a customer cancels/terminates the order before the selection data is passed on or the delivery is made and must therefore cover any costs that have arisen.

Yes, shipments from agents should in principle be identical in terms of content (e.g. range of offers). Deviations are permissible regarding logo, contact person, address and directions.
POSTWURFSPEZIAL text formats may vary, if all items in an order are identical in terms of sender, address on the inside and outside of the item, envelope format, franking mark, price category (basic /additional service price) and day of posting.

Using Postwurfspezial Manager partial postings can be made via the lettershop. Conditions for partial postings are as follows:

• Total order quantity: at least 30,000 items
• Minimum quantity per partial posting: 4,000 items
• Maximum timeframes for partial postings: 30 days
• A maximum of 10 partial postings are permitted
• Partial postings must be delivered in discrete routing zone blocks in ascending or descending order (first digit in zip code); for regional-based orders it is also possible to deliver to routing regions where special authorization is obtained.

With quantities of 250,000 POSTWURFSPEZIAL items and above, bundle preparation may be used if the items are suitable for this purpose. However, in principle, POSTWURFSPEZIAL should be posted through lettershops in Deutsche Post trays I or II, which are provided by Deutsche Post. This simplifies processing for both the lettershop and Deutsche Post operations. If during peak traffic times insufficient trays are available, particularly where this involves large postings, bundle or lightweight tray preparation (cardboard boxes) is permissible.

The production costs are greater for POSTWURFSPEZIAL KREATIV, particularly for delivery. In contrast to POSTWURFSENDUNG unaddressed items, all mail items sent with POSTWURFSPEZIAL KREATIV are sorted into a sorting frame according to sequence of delivery. This is more costly to do where different formats are involved, and it also has to be ensured that POSTWURFSPEZIAL items and any remaining items are not damaged.

Deutsche Post's quality objective is to deliver mail items within a maximum of four working days of posting if the items are posted and collected within the usual posting deadlines, details of which are announced locally. Deutsche Post does not offer any lead time guarantees.