Modern family: Addition

Mail solutions

What better way to feel included than to be able to write a letter, get a reply, and feel that you've made a contribution?

Of course, the better answer that comes to mind would be signing up for a subscription service or having a membership to a certain established club or whatever.

However, in the context of Dunphy Comics, mail was the optimal option in terms of convenience and simplicity.

It isn't like they are a subscriber-based publishing after all. Also, the Dunphy Comics club doesn't even exist at all. Perhaps they would be viable in the future but not now.

I was also made do with what was available and decided to start with the departments that would have a lot to do with this inclusivity endeavor.

Fortunately and conveniently, they were still reeling at the fact that Dunphy Comics could even be hated and disliked.

Ms. Mail was the most attentive to the little boss's reaction given that the mail was their jurisdiction.

Noticing that he was done with mail reading, she once again asked what she had asked earlier. "What should we do with them now, Sir?"

"The ones who sent death threats and the ones with arsonistic tendencies could have their letters directly moved for processing."

I simply opted for resolving crimes through the police and the law.

"Anyone who was stupid enough to write their names and sender address should expect their local police to visit them or have to deal with our own letters that are courtesy of My legal team."

Hearing that, Ms. Mail could only hope the best for all the stupid ones that fall under the little boss's description. She happen to notice many of this apparent lack of anonymity in their extremist letters and that could only be their undoing.

I then went on. "As for the complaints, suggestions, and commendation letters, we are going to do a whole lot of refitting from all of them."

Ms. Mail and her mailer cohorts listened on while the rest of the first-floor office group also got drawn into their boss's new initiative.

The impromptu meeting's agenda was quite simple and that was the 'Inclusivity through Mail' initiative.

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Mail may be my inspiration but I'm also emulating from another Japanese practice. A practice that involves postcards.

Unlike American practices where market sales direct the continuation of each standalone issue, Shonen Jump is a collection of many issues with limited publishing slots.

The latest chapters from the hottest new manga titles appear in each Jump publication. The question then appears: What is the method used to determine which manga titles are featured as the hottest and newest?

The answer is through the aforementioned postcards that make up the Weekly Shonen Jump Rankings.

With each issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, a postcard is filled that contains a survey for the readers.

The postcards mainly contain popularity surveys, asking readers for their opinion on which three manga stories they thought were their favorite amongst the titles for that week.

The returned data is then used to determine which stories remain featured in the next Jump Issues.

Popular titles have it easy while those that rank near the bottom of the popularity poll for a length of time are eventually removed from future lineups.

The postcard survey also polls readers on how many titles they read, allowing further assumptions to be made about the popularity of titles.

For example, specific manga titles might sell issues of the magazine to readers who tend to ignore most of the other titles in the magazine and stick to one or two.

Demographics are included in the survey as well to determine the age and gender of the reader.

All data on these surveys is given a specific weight that is unknown to anyone except for the analytical team.

Correlations are likely drawn between specific titles, reading habits, and reader demographics to influence this weighting

This Japanese practice was something that bolstered mangaka and fan interaction since its establishment.

A mangaka could never reach their success if not for their fanbase and a fanbase could never get good content without their mangakas.

It was a back-and-forth relationship of mutualistic growth.

Since creator and fan interaction is what troubled me now, what is to stop me from employing it as my solution.

Dunphy Comics can't reach its success without interacting with fans and fans can't have their entertainment without Dunphy entertainment. A circulating and suggestively enforcing concept that I want to instill on the market.

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Thus, the postcard/mail/survey method will be used by Dunphy Comics from now on.

All that was needed was to find the perfect balance between market research, audience interaction, sense of contribution, mail deliverance, analytic tallying, and proper actualization.

In fact, I already had a some detailed perspective on what it could achieve.

It was essential to have survey questionnaires that would help Ms. Marker and her team get a much simpler means of gauging market reactions and quirks.

The sense of contribution that comes from answering popularity polls embedded on a checklist.

Dunphy characters could be advertised in advance as the readers are given the chance to maybe name said character.

There could also be complaint and suggestion boxes that should be enough to let the haters and supporters voice out their opinions.

There is even already a distribution channel and store owner relations that would no longer trouble the mailing team with unorganized sending and receiving.

Stores could just set up a Dunphy poll booth and have the ballot sent back whenever the new shipment of issues would arrive.

It was complex yet simple but it helps out Dunphy Comics by a huge margin in market acceptance and accessibility.

Even the impromptu-ed employees that are listening in were quite looking forward to the Dunphy exclusive rank and survey methodology.

There are magazine publishings that mostly gather up on that part but it didn't hurt for them to have their own to truly play with.

I simply conveyed my proposal to the team and their practiced professionalism eventually made them grasp the idea.

All that was needed was for them to work out the kinks and be ready to employ it unto the fledgling comic book industry.

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It was unfortunate that the workday had to end as the closing hours struck.

Everyone could only reluctantly go home and carry the assignment about how they could move forward with the 'Inclusivity through Mail' initiative.

Of course, I also have the some bring-home brainstorming to do.
Bolstering brand value and correcting the company's detachment is no easy job at all.
Hence, calculating the prospective pros and cons of the initiative became an incentive.

Whatever the result of my professional mental calculations are, all that I knew is that I have made tremendous progress on myself and the company.

RoboCop, Predator, Transformers, and audience inclusivity would be getting their respective starts after all. It was a succession of progress towards success.

Perhaps the greatest surprise out of the recent events may just have come from the unexpected trouble in the mailing system.

"I guess mail problems do come with mail solutions." I jokingly said to my team, assuming that future unexpected troubles may also need unexpected solutions that I'm out to discover