We sell boxes.
We sell lots and lots of boxes.
I’m sure this is true for nearly everyone in our industry. Packing and shipping are staple profit centers and many of us make a big deal about our box selection and packaging expertise. It sets us apart.
In my Marketing with Marty(tm) presentations, I talk a lot about branding; I talk a lot about branding as it relates to our core products and services. When we do a big print job, we present the final product to the customer in a box or tote that has our business name on it, right? When we make a key, we present it to the customer in a little envelope with our brand on it, or on a key ring with our brand on it, right? When we scan a document to email to a customer, we make sure that email has our brand in the signature, right? So why are we so reluctant to brand one of our biggest core products: our boxes?
Think of boxes as billboards. We pack in them and ship them all over the world. We sell them to customers to take home and they carry them down the sidewalk, through our neighborhood, and into their own neighborhoods.
I had some wonderful guests at my shop recently from Express Business Center in Allentown, PA. They came up to share ideas on packaging techniques, and we got into a discussion on packing and marketing. After all, they’re very interconnected! How you package items represents your brand–not only in logos, but in neatness of the packing job and aesthetic of the outer carton. So take time and train your staff to package neatly, explaining that each shipment is an advertisement. EBC uses branded tape to seal their outgoing shipments, an idea that I just love!
Right now, for my branded boxes I print my logo on full sheet labels, four per page. They’re cut and applied to each box that we stock, sell, and ship in. This is good for now, but soon I hope to be able to order my boxes already imprinted with my brand.
As my co-worker and I were labeling our recent delivery of five pallets of boxes, I was commenting on how many more we had “to label.” She corrected me and said, “to brand.” She was absolutely right!
Boxes are a good place to start. Before you know it, you’ll be branding your tubes, bubble pack rolls, bags of peanuts, and retail reams of copy paper. Oh, the possibilities!
#MarketingwithMarty
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For more information on Marty, please visit unclemartysoffice.com.
Source: AMBC Blog