It's not just a pen, it's also a MAZE!!
This post over at Green Wombat resonates with something I've been thinking about lately: does anyone that does not suck actually appreciate garden-variety corporate schwag gimmickry?
Answer: No.
That was of course a comletely rhetorical question, because if you've ever gleefully filled a logo-ed bag with pens, rainbow-colored paper clips, and the occasional mug (the, ahem, grail of promotional tchochkes) then you, at some level, suck.
Last year for a customer survey, my organization gave out clear plastic pens with a vertical, 3D maze running the length of the pen. The kicker was, when I went to use the damn thing in a pinch, the pointy end literally fell out in between words. It was crap, and it's intended to be by all parties except the end user who thinks, 'I need a pen right now - oh, there's one,' only to find out they're not holding a pen, they're holding a pink maze attached at one end to something that looks like a pen that couldn't cost more than x per person so that the group that gave it out could avoid all perception of impropriety with expensive or even adequate gifts. And it's certainly intended to be a piece of crap by the guy in China who makes them, because to make more than a piece of crap with a price point of only fifteen cents apiece seriously cuts into the profit margin.
So what we have is a system of PR that impresses no one and is responsible for vast expenditures of money and natural resources. Should you think the effect is negligible, consider that this is a $15B a year industry spread across (they say) 750,000 products. Add to that the fuel burned in shipping (in Wombat's post his item traveled 40 miles to make it the 300 feet between him and the office that sent it to him - if I was a FedEx exec reading that post, I'd hire a new logistics chief) and the additional resources used in packaging, and I can't help but think this is an industry with vast space to improve the experience. Any number of things that require little or no shipping, little or no packaging, and include way more satisfaction could be substituted for the usual.
Note: None of the above should be misconstrued to mean that I never want more lovely post-it cubes with the Hassett Title logo on the sides, the only promotional item (well, those and the Hassett Title baseball caps) I've ever loved.
Answer: No.
That was of course a comletely rhetorical question, because if you've ever gleefully filled a logo-ed bag with pens, rainbow-colored paper clips, and the occasional mug (the, ahem, grail of promotional tchochkes) then you, at some level, suck.
Last year for a customer survey, my organization gave out clear plastic pens with a vertical, 3D maze running the length of the pen. The kicker was, when I went to use the damn thing in a pinch, the pointy end literally fell out in between words. It was crap, and it's intended to be by all parties except the end user who thinks, 'I need a pen right now - oh, there's one,' only to find out they're not holding a pen, they're holding a pink maze attached at one end to something that looks like a pen that couldn't cost more than x per person so that the group that gave it out could avoid all perception of impropriety with expensive or even adequate gifts. And it's certainly intended to be a piece of crap by the guy in China who makes them, because to make more than a piece of crap with a price point of only fifteen cents apiece seriously cuts into the profit margin.
So what we have is a system of PR that impresses no one and is responsible for vast expenditures of money and natural resources. Should you think the effect is negligible, consider that this is a $15B a year industry spread across (they say) 750,000 products. Add to that the fuel burned in shipping (in Wombat's post his item traveled 40 miles to make it the 300 feet between him and the office that sent it to him - if I was a FedEx exec reading that post, I'd hire a new logistics chief) and the additional resources used in packaging, and I can't help but think this is an industry with vast space to improve the experience. Any number of things that require little or no shipping, little or no packaging, and include way more satisfaction could be substituted for the usual.
Note: None of the above should be misconstrued to mean that I never want more lovely post-it cubes with the Hassett Title logo on the sides, the only promotional item (well, those and the Hassett Title baseball caps) I've ever loved.
posted by jim at 1/29/2007 12:30:00 PM
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