Former Texas Radio Exec Runs Local Valpak Franchise

MADISON, WI (Thursday, December 27, 2007) - The retiree's typical path is to head south from Wisconsin.
John Hiatt took the opposite course. Then again, his retirement was not typical. In fact, it wasn't really a retirement.
Hiatt concluded a long career in radio about 18 months ago when CBS Radio sold the four stations he was running as a senior vice president in Austin, Texas.
"I was 57 and had about 16 years with CBS so I was able to take early retirement and still hang on to all my options and those kinds of things," Hiatt said.
But while he was ready to retire from radio -- "What I got into radio for had kind of disappeared ... it became more and more corporate and my whole day became dealing with numbers and contracts," he said -- he wasn't ready to retire.
"I'm still just a kid," he said with a laugh. "My dad was a doctor and retired at 48 and got old quick."
Hiatt's wife Gail previously was an interior decorator and owned an antique resale business, "and we actually looked at opening an antique mall," John said.
But his advertising experience soon had him focusing on Valpak, the business that mails out packets of coupons in light blue envelopes.
"I had actually been using Valpak to promote the (Austin) stations because it's a relatively inexpensive way to reach a lot of people," he said.
However, the only Valpak franchises available at the time in Texas were the small markets of Tyler and Waco, which he wasn't interested in. Valpak then suggested Madison.
"I had never been there so I started looking at the market and it's very similar to Austin," Hiatt said.
His first visit here was last January and he and his wife moved here a couple of days before a huge snowstorm late last February.
"So I got broken in nicely -- got my car towed," he recalled with a hearty laugh.
Actually, Hiatt said he's found Madison's overall weather agreeable.
"The spring, summer and fall are just fabulous," he said. "Austin has two seasons: hot and not so hot. And the hot there lasts a lot longer than the cold does here. And it's really interesting -- today I noticed it felt warm outside."
In addition to acclimating to winter weather, Hiatt has found himself acclimating to the Valpak business.
"It's fun to do the creative process again," he said. "We find out what clients' needs are and help them create slogans and headlines to help sell the products."
Valpak sends out envelopes of coupons each month to more than 45 million households across the country, including about 170,000 in Dane and Rock counties. The average envelope contains about 36 coupon offers -- 25 from local advertisers and 11 from national advertisers -- although the number has reached as high as 120 in large markets.
Nearly 90 percent open the envelope and check through the coupons, and more than half keep their Valpak offers at least one month or until expiration, the company said.
Valpak was formed in 1968 by entrepreneur Terry Loebel, who used a $500 investment to mail a local cooperative envelope containing 14 coupons to 20,000 households in Clearwater, Fla.
Hiatt's franchise territory includes Dane, Rock, Columbia, Sauk and Iowa counties.
"The interesting thing about Valpak is that if the (ad) buying entity is located in the counties you own you can place (an ad) for the entire country," Hiatt said. "So when I call on the Dells, if they want to buy Chicago we do that for them."
Valpak had taken the local franchise back from the previous franchisees about 18 months ago, Hiatt said.
"I think people understand we're trying to change the image and do things right," he said. "This month we've actually taken some clients out of the envelope because we didn't feel like we wanted to recommend them to our customers. A lot of people probably think that's nuts, but I want people when they open it to know that anybody that we send them anything on is going to be reputable and they can trust the quality of the products and service. And that wasn't done before."
The typical Valpak user is a woman between the ages of 25 and 54 with solid income, Hiatt said.
"Contrary to what people think, the people who tend to use a coupon tend to have more money -- maybe that's why they have more money," he said with a laugh. "We don't even mail to households with incomes under $50,000."
Hiatt, who has six employees compared to about 150 in Austin, said he also is enjoying being his own boss again.
"It's kind of fun to do something without a corporate structure around you," he said.
The Hiatts, who have two sons, also have started The Hiatt Group, a direct mail business that sends advertising postcards in the mail, and are planning to start CityFYI.com, a Web site tied to direct mail.
Eventually, they'd like to grow things here to the point where they can have the typical real retirement -- or something close to it.
"We're Texans and we'll probably end up going back," he said. "We have hired some very good people up here and would probably put them in charge of Madison and then we could come up here in the summer and spend our winters in Austin."

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