It's Monday, I'm one hour short of sleep thanks to daylight savings, and feeling cranky. Being in direct marketing, I know I'm tuned in to visual design and quality of mail pieces more than the average person, but really. Two pieces I got last week showed lack of basic follow-through.
I got a brochure in the mail on Friday. It was beautiful - full color, spot UV... but guess what spoiled the effect? The address was smeared. And I mean smeared. I had to give kudos to the postal carrier for figuring out it was intended for me.
This poor travel company had paid pretty good money to produce a gorgeously printed direct mailer, and didn't realize that not everyone can inkjet an address without smearing issues. It ended up looking..sloppy.
About a week ago I received an envelope for a solar panel installer. The envelope had my name and address in teeny tiny type and the postal sorting instructions was enormous! It looked kind of like this:
*******AUTO**5-DIGIT 92101
Chris Hartman
1000 Main Street
Anytown, CA 99999-9999
*******AUTO**5-DIGIT 92101
Chris Hartman
1000 Main Street
Anytown, CA 99999-9999
Do they really expect me to buy something from them? I didn't even open the envelope.
Then there's a "broker" we do work for occasionally who's trying to save money by printing white labels and sticking them on his clients' postcards. Labels? Really? The last time we affixed labels was in the 1990s. I wonder how long his clients will stay with him when they start getting returned cards with ugly white labels haphazardly stuck on?
Okay, I'm done with my rant. I know not everyone cares about how a direct mailer looks as much as I do but it's definitely frustrating seeing some of the work that's out there.
Care to share your pet peeve?
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