More Waisted Tax Money 2010 Census

[mredskins]

Originally Posted by saden1

It's a way to funnel some much needed cash to the post office. Or it could be that there is real benefit to sending these letters:

I did some work with a direct mail company once and they have some strange methods but they get results.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by saden1

It's a way to funnel some much needed cash to the post office. Or it could be that there is real benefit to sending these letters:

Ok, I knew someone would point out that when you send more then one letter you get a better response. Then why the he!! don't they just mail the census out twice which makes more sense.

[saden1]

Originally Posted by firstdown

Ok, I knew someone would point out that when you send more then one letter you get a better response. Then why the he!! don't they just mail the census out twice which makes more sense.

Why waste more paper than you have to?

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by saden1

Why waste more paper than you have to?

Your not. You send a reminder copy to the people who do not respond to the first mailing. So if 50% respond then your mailing 50% less on the second try.

[ArtMonkDrillz]

Originally Posted by firstdown

Your not. You send a reminder copy to the people who do not respond to the first mailing. So if 50% respond then your mailing 50% less on the second try.

What about the idiots who fill out both forms? Then you need someone to go through every form to make sure you don't have duplicates.

[CRedskinsRule]

The SB commercial is what got me. Are you serious that the government needs to take out a 30 second commercial of the most expensive tv airtime?

[saden1]

Originally Posted by CRedskinsRule

The SB commercial is what got me. Are you serious that the government needs to take out a 30 second commercial of the most expensive tv airtime?

It was a brilliant move. If the objective is to inform every American about the Census the SB is the perfect venue for the government to advertise on. I would even wager that the government got the most bang for its buck among all SB advertisers.

[CRedskinsRule]

Originally Posted by saden1

It was a brilliant move. If the objective is to inform every American about the Census the SB is the perfect venue for the government to advertise on. I would even wager that the government got the most bang for its buck among all SB advertisers.

BS and if Bush had done it you would have hated it. The census gets free advert through the schools, and public health organizations. Glad you support the initiatives, but I wouldn't have expected otherwise.

[saden1]

Originally Posted by CRedskinsRule

BS and if Bush had done it you would have hated it. The census gets free advert through the schools, and public health organizations. Glad you support the initiatives, but I wouldn't have expected otherwise.

1. I don't believe you know me well enough to know that I would have hated it if Bush had done it.
2. There is no such thing as free advertising. I'm confidant you're aware of this.
3. You don't address the issue of cost effectiveness of the ad. You look at the 2.4 million price tag like a Neanderthal would and pound your chess while screaming "oga-buga" with glee and ignorance.

Check this out, yeah, according Nielson the SB had 105.97 million viewers. At 2.5 million price tag the cost of the ad per viewer is ~0.024 cents. Bang!

[CRedskinsRule]

Originally Posted by saden1

1. I don't believe you know me well enough to know that I would have hated it if Bush had done it.
2. There is no such thing as free advertising. I'm confidant you're aware of this.
3. You don't address the issue of cost effectiveness of the ad. You look at the 2.4 million price tag like a Neanderthal would and pound your chess while screaming "oga-buga" with glee and ignorance.

Check this out, yeah, according Nielson the SB had 105.97 million viewers. At 2.5 million price tag the cost of the ad per viewer is ~0.024 cents. Bang!

I actually don't have a problem with the double mailing, I understood the practicality of a notification letter before the census. I spoke of the SB commercial, because regardless of your statistics above, the government is already reaching out to houses via the mailing, the schools, and the market that is watching the SB will generally get counted. Maybe I am falling into a stereotyping trap, but if you are going to spend money for the census, you should focus the efforts on the areas and people who are likely to be uncounted, and those watching the SB don't fit into that. I could be 100% off base on this one, and I certainly feel that I have seen enough of your posts to have a basic understanding of how you quantify things, so I stand by my statement about Bush, you just would have blasted it on a different basis, maybe not doing enough to reach other areas, or some other equally statistically valid argument.


oohhooohh ahhhahhh eeeeheeeh

[Schneed10]

Yes this certainly seems like something to get bent out of shape about.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

Yes this certainly seems like something to get bent out of shape about.

Well they are spending 14,000,000,000 at over $45.00 per person to do the census. I guess a few billion wasted here and there is no real big deal any more. I'll also bet that they have cost over run driving the cost to more like 19 billion because the goverment usually is off by 33% on most everything they do.

[Monkeydad]

Sure, attacking the messenger, not message.


That's how we got in this current mess.

[tryfuhl]

prelim mailings are done to increase sendback rate, it works

it's also to open your eyes up to potential scams.. so if someone in a month comes by.. or you've already done something, etc

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by tryfuhl

prelim mailings are done to increase sendback rate, it works

it's also to open your eyes up to potential scams.. so if someone in a month comes by.. or you've already done something, etc

Not so sure about stopping scams but I guess next time I do a mailing I'll send a mailing prior telling the customer I will be doing a mailing. Then I will send the mailing refering to the prior mailing and if I do not get a response I will send a reminder mailing about the other two mailings. Before any of the mailings go out I will send an employee to get their GPS location and confirm their location. Then if none of this works I will send another employee out to get the survey done in person which could have been done by the guy who went to get their GPS location before any mailing went out. Boy just wait until we get federal health care. I guess I'll have to mail them a claim notice prior to myself getting injured or sick.