The Proof is in the Packaging

The Proof is in the Packaging by Tina Rinaudo

You have combed the promotional items web sites and found the perfect giveaways for your promotion. You have worked out your budget, talked to marketing to get colors and logos, you have got your camera ready artwork all set… any day now, you are going to have an office full of promotional items ready to ship. Are you finished? Not quite. One of the most important factors in the perception of promotional items is in the packaging and delivery method.

Most marketing gurus will tell you that you should use novel and eye-catching packaging for your direct mail promotional items to make them stand out from the rest. That is a good reason, but there is an even more compelling reason to consider how you deliver the items that you have spent such a very long time choosing and designing to your market.

There is an old Bill Cosby show in which Cliff Huxtable addresses the young man his daughter has brought home to meet the family. “Imagine,” he tells the boy, “your favorite meal. A steak, right? Can you smell it? Is it good? Let us add mashed potatoes, a nice big mound of potatoes. And butter and gravy. Does not that sound wonderful? I am going to dish you up your favorite meal and I take that juicy steak, and those creamy mashed potatoes and all that gravy and butter and all… and then I take a GARBAGE CAN LID off the trash and put all that delicious food on it. Do you see what I am saying here?”

Do you see what I am saying here? The most perfect promotional items in the world can fall flat if you neglect to consider how you are going to serve them up to their intended audience. Cliff Huxtable was comparing the meal on the garbage can lid to the way that his daughter introduced her intended to her family. “If you care about something,” he said, “you dress it up and show it off at its best. When I give you food on a garbage can lid, what am I saying about its value to you? What are you saying about how much you value me?”

Keep that in mind when you consider how you package and deliver the promotional items that you have chosen. If you go to the trouble of packaging them as the special gift that they are, your recipients will automatically perceive them as having higher value than if you just drop them in an envelope and ship them out. Most companies that sell promotional items offer a choice of different kinds of packaging. Those choices may include presentation boxes, printed boxes, bubble wrap, shrink wrapping and carding. Having your promotional items pre-packaged may add a bit to the expense, but the extra expense will pay off in added value when they are delivered to your target market.

For more information on promotional items why not search the YesGifts catalogue to check out some of the best promotional products today. Ensure that your next marketing campaign is well targeted and sets off on the right footing by requesting an online quote and find out how easily and inexpensively you can advertise your business today.

Tina Rinaudo is one of the leading lights in the UK promotional products industry. Tina is a key member of YesGifts, the UK's fastest growing online promotional items resource specialising in promotional pens, mugs, mouse mats, umbrellas, conference items and much more. For more information please visit www.yesgifts.co.uk.

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