The German Commissioner for Data Protection has confirmed to Deutsche Post that POSTWURFSPEZIAL is fully compliant with data protection rules:

• For acquiring new customers for the sender while minimizing advertising waste.
• By communicating an advertising offer that recipients within the target groups are likely to find interesting.

In Germany, data protection rules prohibit the collection and storage of information about an individual.

Partial addressing with POSTWURFSPEZIAL means that instead of the first and last name of the recipient, a generic addressee is chosen, for example "To the sun-seekers". This in itself makes clear that Deutsche Post does not provide any personal data, but instead assigns one or more buildings to a target group.

Deutsche Post uses a variety of databases for POSTWURFSPEZIAL in order to obtain the consumer information of a target group. In the microdialog database, for example, the micro-cell consists of an average 6.6 households. A micro-cell is assumed to have a certain homogeneity. Deutsche Post itself supplements the POSTWURFSPEZIAL offer with the number of letterboxes in each building, minus the no-advertising households. Only these two items of non-personal data are identified and regularly updated by the deliverers in order to inform the sending customer about the correct number of advertising items per target group.

In POSTWURFSPEZIAL, target group selections are generated/collected at the building level on the basis of

• statistical probabilities,
• data purchased from renowned companies and/or
• Deutsche Post databases developed in-house.

For data protection reasons, therefore, there can be no such thing as 100% pure target groups, only approximate target group precision.

The data originate from different data sources; here are some examples:

• Deutsche Post (the number of reachable households):
  With the POSTWURFSPEZIAL offer, Deutsche Post itself provides the number of reachable households per building, after subtracting the number of no-advertising households from the number of letterboxes. No-advertising households stick the label "Bitte keine Werbung" (no advertising, please) on their letterboxes so they do not receive POSTWURFSPEZIAL.
• Deutsche Post Direkt (microdialog data):
  microdialog, Deutsche Post Direkt's micro-geographic system, classifies target group attributes at the building level as non-personal data from datasets of large German companies and from Deutsche Post Direkt. For data protection reasons, the smallest unit here is the micro-cell with an average 6.6 households. Information such as the following is processed for each micro-cell:
  
     - Socio-demographic data (e.g., age at the building level, purchasing power, families/singles),
     - Structural data (e.g., building type, year of construction, garden size)
     - Consumption information
  
  The data for POSTWURFSPEZIAL target group selection are updated monthly for consumer data and half-yearly for business data.

Deutschen Post Direkt's self-service tool for target group selection – available at postdirekt.de/online-services – will help with planning. You can use this tool to identify potential customers in a targeted way and calculate the cost of a mailing campaign. You can also retrieve previously selected criteria (but the selection results are always based on the current count). After counting, you can order the mailing campaign in just a few clicks.

The first time you use the self-service tool you will need to register with your name, address, e-mail address and customer number (EKP). All basic attributes for target group selection are included in the price of POSTWURFSPEZIAL. Additional attributes are available for an extra charge.

Moving information around quickly is taken for granted in our modern society. Deutsche Post therefore relies on automatic processing for POSTWURFSPEZIAL items. If the items are not suitable for automation in all machine passes, additional costs are incurred for manual intervention.

Customer account managers are happy to answer questions about suitability for automatic processing. They can help you plan your item and answer questions about layout, paper and partial addresses.

If you are posting more than 50,000 items, notice of seven calendar days must be given before collection/posting via the electronic order management system (data format AM.exchange). The following information must be provided:

• Posting/collection date (tolerance ± 1 day)
• Place of posting/collection
• Mail volume (tolerance ± 5%)
• Basic product
• Item weight
• Payer

At least 48 hours before posting, a full and binding order notification is required in the electronic order management system.

DIALOGPOST MANAGER helps you prepare for posting and run a POSTWURFSPEZIAL mailing campaign.

• The partial addresses received from the data provider by internet download are very easy to import.
• Item and production settings can be changed using predefined menus.
• If necessary, the partial addresses can be assigned to the items via the integrated mail merge module.
• DIALOGPOST MANAGER also provides all the documents required for production and posting. Modules can be added to extend its function and behavior, and adapt it to meet the user's individual requirements.
  

You can post the items from Mondays to Fridays – please note the cut-off times of the bulk mail acceptance offices. Items are generally delivered by Deutsche Post no later than four working days from the date of posting, from Tuesdays to Saturdays. This is a quality target and not a transit time commitment.