TORONTO–Cox Target Media Inc., St. Petersburg, FL, has formed a new sampling division that will enable it to execute larger roll-outs of direct mail pieces containing products, executives from the company said in an interview at the Direct Marketing Association’s Annual Convention in Toronto this week.
The new division, Cox Consumer Sampling, has consolidated its assembly operations into a single, 120,000-square-foot plant in Washington, NC, that it acquired from another mailer in 1996.
John Hamerlinck, vice president and general manager of the sampling division, said the company first considered entering a joint venture before deciding to purchase the equipment itself.
“With a plant solely focused on sampling, it gives us the opportunity to do full roll-outs,” he said. “That’s hard to do if you’re sharing a facility with someone else.”
The Carol Wright co-op mail program, one of several Cox Target Media offerings, is expected to account for about 20 percent of the sampling division’s business.
Carol Wright, which targets affluent household neighborhoods, includes samples in about 50 percent to 70 percent of the 200 million co-op envelopes it mails each year.
