Brand your own postage stamp

Hoping to promote the use of snail mail missives over digital communications, The U.S. Postal Service has opened its customized postage product to commercial use:

Customized postage allows a customer to personalize postage with pictures or images using Customized PC Postage technology…to produce customized postage to be used on First-Class Mail, Priority Mail and Express Mail for personal and commercial use....Expanding the way customized postage can be used is a bonus for businesses who want to create awareness for their products or services, build their brand and develop strong customer relationships.

Hewlett-Packard is among the first commercial users of the customized postage product. According to AdAge, HP is branding postage with:

a photo of founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, an HP logo and a current print ad….HP executives and sales-force members are already using (the stamps) in mailings…HP employees who send the correspondence become brand ambassadors.

Individuals have been creating their own personalized postage since the USPS began its testing of the customized postage program in 2004; Stamps.com reports selling almost 17 million personalized postage units, according to AdAge.

Would you put your photo on a postage stamp? Join the conversation: “Talk Back” below to share your thoughts.