All consumers, but particularly younger adults, continue to value the financial documents they receive in the post, a new study concludes.

Personalised marketing on paper documents are especially welcome, reveals the research by Forrester Consulting on behalf of InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh. This indicates an overlooked opportunity for marketers to increase brand and customer loyalty with promotions on documents such as banking, utility and mobile statements – TransPromos – the researcher says.

In particular, it found that younger consumers do not seem to be moving away from paper, as might be expected – 70 per cent of those aged 25-34 read paper bank statements compared to 63 per cent of consumers aged 50-64. Moreover, across all ages, most printed documents are read more than once and often for an average of three minutes.

Even with the shift to electronic communications, more than 60 per cent of consumers in France, Germany, Italy, the UK and US, read the bank statements they receive in the post even if they are heavy Internet users.

While 67 per cent of consumers read their bank/building society documents in paper form, nearly 30 per cent also view their statements online. By contrast, just 26 per cent of consumers only read their statements online. Consumer desire to have both online access and printed statements underscores the importance of multi-channel communications, the research shows.

The Forrester study found that around three-quarters of consumers value their transaction documents highly and believe personalised, relevant messages are useful, implying that statements present a significant opportunity to enhance a consumer’s perception and loyalty through promotions using TransPromo.

And according to the Forrester study, consumers prefer to receive these relevant messages on their paper statements rather than by email, web or direct mail, with almost a third choosing paper as their preferred channel. Allen Thrasher, marketing principal at InfoPrint Solutions EMEA, said: “Forrester’s study reflects our belief that consumers are very receptive to using transactional data and documents to bring them more value – regardless of age, income or country.

“Bringing relevant, personalised promotions onto these highly-valued financial documents can make a positive impact on the brand, retention and loyalty as well as ROI. TransPromo truly can be the next wave of customer communications.”

The study adds: “Overall, Forrester’s survey shows that European and US consumers are open to receiving TransPromo across multiple channels, and many would see truly personalised marketing as adding value to their transactional documents.”

Benoit Chatelard, senior vice-president and general manager, InfoPrint Solutions EMEA, added: “This study reflects the significant opportunity TransPromo offers our customers by using transactional documents as a marketing channel – both online and offline. We are committed to empowering our customers with the data analytics, consulting and technology to realise the customer value TransPromo represents.”