In an effort to make receiving mail "more interesting to consumers," the U.S. Postal Service has begun offering some companies personalized stamps with their own company logos or pictures. Hewlett-Packard was the first to bite.
Gary Elliott, vice president of brand marketing for HP, said stamps were a new "brand canvas." The cost starts at about 10 cents extra per stamp, with the extra money going to vendors who manufacture the stamps. Personalized stamps have been around for a while, but advertising was prohibited until earlier this year when Congress overturned a 19th-century law barring commercial images on stamps (the 1872 Mail Fraud Statute).
Only three companies, Endicia, Zazzle and Stamps.com, are approved to print corporate logos on stamps. They all use HP Indigo presses to create stamps with a unique bar code - a feature that is required and carefully mandated by the USPS. HP chose Zazzle to make their stamps.