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New product means new opportunity for Calumet
By Del Williams
Calumet Carton’s new envelope product turns an overlooked resource into a marketing too—and their customers aren’t the only ones taking notice.
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Figure 1. Calumet has designed the new
mailer to accept full color printing over 100% of its surface.
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The odds of survival are slim, the enemies numerous, and the battle rages
daily across America-inside every mailbox and mailroom. How does a company
improve the open rate of its mailings and ensure its message is delivered
to its audience? On average, less than one percent of direct mail pieces
draw a response, and this is usually considered a success.
Calumet Carton Company created its new "postal billboard" to
be an ally for PR, advertising, marketing, and marcom execs in the battle
for consumer or business-to-business attention. For the first time, claims
Calumet, a product has been developed to fully use the space of oversized
mailings to catch attention and strategically convey key benefits, incentives,
or messages.
Like artfully crafted roadside billboards or building murals, "postal
billboards" stand apart in crowded mailrooms and mailboxes, and can
significantly increase the mail response rate. New adopters of the concept
are taking advantage of an unused, overlooked resource-the oversized postal
envelope-and turning it into a strategic branding and marketing tool.
"When meeting prospects or clients, most execs would never dream
of presenting themselves in wrinkled attire," said Al Inwood, president
of Calumet Carton, the creator of gusset mailing envelope technology and
other innovative packaging products. "Yet many think nothing of mailing
key proposals, contracts, marketing collateral, annual reports, and other
crucial documents in thin, generic envelopes that convey a lackluster
image at best. Worse yet is the impression made when books, manuals, catalogs,
or other bulky materials are squeezed into two-dimensional paper envelopes
that tear, wrinkle, or bend the contents inside."
Calumet Carton’s new Expand-A-Mailer™ envelope for oversized items
is the industry’s first "postal billboard" to showcase key images,
logos, or messages directly on the envelope, while expanding up to one
inch to protect the contents from tears, wrinkles, and crumples. Marketers
are proving receptive to the "postal billboard" concept.
New product, new opportunities
Until recently, many oversized postal mailings have gone out in generic
paper envelopes. Mailers who wanted protection stuffed chipboard or cardboard
into the envelopes for rigidity. Other marketers have used corrugated
boxes or, for special delivery, overnight courier services, which prominently
display their own corporate brand on the packaging and therefore reap
any promotional benefit.
According to Calumet, the Expand-A-Mailer creates a new category of postal
mailer by allowing offset-quality printing in custom colors, sizes, and
images across 100 percent of the mailing surface, while ensuring adequate
space and protection for enclosed materials with a proprietary gusset
technology. This allows oversized mail items to arrive with full marketing
appeal, and eliminates the need for unattractive chipboard or corrugated
stiffeners.
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Figure 2. The mailers have gussets that
expand up to 1 inch, thanks to special folding and gluing processes.
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Calumet’s investment in modern CAD equipment and specially engineered
glue and folding processes enabled the creation of gussets that expand
to match the depth of package contents. Even unwieldy items such as audio
and videocassettes, voluminous records, documents, and Zip disks, are
now accommodated by Expand-A-Mailer’s unique gussets. Convenient side
loading and peel-and-seal closures speed the feeding of any item, and
are tamper-evident for added security. Calumet warehouses near San Jose,
California; Chicago, Illinois; and Boston, Massachusetts ensure rapid
dispatch of all stock orders within hours.
"For oversized mailings that can’t be ignored, the postal billboard
concept makes sense," says Inwood. "It looks and feels different,
and transforms typically unused envelope space into a cost-effective medium
to attract attention, sell, or communicate. New adopters have leveraged
the concept to turn a traditionally weak link in the marketing process
into a strength. Many match the envelope to the covers of reports, catalogs,
booklets, or other promotional material for a coordinated image. The concept
helps with customer retention, purchase frequency, and with cross-selling
products and services that customers might not be aware of."
About the author:
Del Williams is a technical writer based in Torrance, California.
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New product means new opportunity for calumet, Online Exclusives, May 2003
