To help direct marketers in keeping track of the 4.5 million Canadians who move each year, Canada Post has launched a new line of business-to-business services under the brand name National Change of Address (ncoa.)

According to Claude Flight, market manager on ncoa, 80% of the people who move inform Canada Post of their change of address.

ncoa, which was introduced at the beginning of December, comprises three products: Preferred Relationship Program (prp), Mailing List Address Replacement Services (mars) and Locator.

Under prp, Canada Post sends all newly moved individuals a form containing the names of companies that wish to acquire their new addesses for marketing purposes.

Canada Post requests that people check off the names of the direct marketers they wish to receive correspondence from and return the form to the Post Office.

Canada Post then releases the information to the direct marketers at a cost based on the number of names checked off.

Flight says Canada Post research indicates 70% of movers would definitely or probably fill out and return the prp form.

He says information on newly moved households is valuable to direct marketers because households spend an estimated ‘$2,000 to $3,000’ on various items each time they move.

mars is a product that enables direct marketers to update their existing mailing lists using data from more current Canada Post files.

The computerized file match up and data replacement can be carried out either in Canada Post’s ncoa office or on site at the direct marketers’.

Locator is a targetted service in which Canada Post checks individual names from a direct marketer’s files against the ncoa database to verify whether the person has moved.

If the person has moved, Canada Post requests authorization to release the new address to the direct marketer.