After research using neuroscience methods showed direct mail can be an important brand-building tool, Royal Mail teamed up with a leading financial services firm in the U.K. to test the hypotheses in a real-world setting.

The first step was to determine what metrics would be used to measure the impact of direct mail.

“Part of the challenge in building case studies around this research has been in getting marketers to measure the right things,” says Mike West, head of data products at Royal Mail. This is because metrics with which direct mailers are familiar— such as response rate and return on investment — don’t provide much help when it comes to measuring the impact of direct mail on the brand.

For the test, it was decided to use both brand consideration and key brand image-related questions to gauge the impact of a credit card mailing that was sent to 1,000 customers. There was also a control group of 164 customers who didn’t receive the mailing but were similar to recipients in age, gender, the products they had purchased and how long they had been customers of Royal Mail.

The results showed that direct mail was effective at driving both brand consideration and brand image dimensions, even if people didn’t respond. Of the direct mail recipients, 60 percent said the brand was either the first or one of the first they’d consider using. Only 52 percent of the control group answered that way.

Brand consideration was highest among those who explored the mailing, although there was some brand impact even if subjects only skimmed through it. In terms of brand image, 38 percent of recipients said the brand was “there when you need them,” compared with 23 percent from the control group, while 39 percent of recipients said the brand was “clear and straightforward,” compared with 27 percent from the control group.

The research also showed that brand consideration remained consistently high, even for customers who received a lot of direct mail.

“When you analyze not only the response rate but also the impact on the brand and see it has a positive impact, marketers can see the value beyond just response,” says West. As a result, he adds, this can give marketing managers the ammunition they need to position mail within the mix.