I started my direct mail career as a package insert broker. Names Unlimited, a very large firm, picked me because I was the low account executive on the total pole at the company. I loved inserts; I’ve never seen so many unsavory characters crowded into one marketing vehicle in my life.
The time frame here is near the very beginning of package insert use in our industry, and you couldn’t make a living without encountering at least one rip-off attempt per week by an ethically challenged inserter who had found out before anyone else that this medium could make a lot of money for him. It was like the Wild, Wild West. After five years, I discovered that Clint Eastwood films were an adequate emotional substitute and decided to specialize in the mailing-list end of the business.
Now the field has changed. Uptight corporate types abound; that’s what happens when a really good marketing idea matures. But the dynamics, the processes of the field, are the same. So I would like to consider package inserts from two standpoints: the marketing elements of the medium, and the most outstanding difficulties to be encountered if one wishes to insert into carriers’ packages.
High-Impulse Response
If you are marketing to high-impulse response, inserts are for you.
Consider the environment for package insert response. The prospect receives the desired merchandise in a container (box, carton, etc.) of some sort; he opens the container with anticipation and curiosity. He wants to get to the merchandise, but between the buyer and the goal are, in no particular sequence: popcorn, tissue paper, a bill of lading, and
Network
