Product dispatch, the sister of inserts, are transaction inserts placed within packages, catalogues, or customer letters sent out by retail brands. If used in the right way, they can be more responsive than normal press inserts within a newspaper or magazine. According to our product dispatch media owners, there are a few reasons why this could be:
- Shoppers are in the “buying zone” when they open their parcel and endorphins are released when an item is delivered, increasing focus and attention. (Source: David A Sousa, How the Brain Learns)
- The product dispatch inserts are often placed on top of the parcel delivery, usually meaning they must be handled and not completely avoided, again a potential reason for the increased response.
- Brand association and targeting can be very efficient. By buying into online retail brands, we’re hitting online-savvy customers.
There’s a wide range of targeting options within product dispatch, with some retailers that can really align with brands, below are a few examples:
As with press inserts, there are a variety of sizes and specs to use. Most often a voucher form is used for product dispatch with an offer that the customer can utilise to further influence the decision.
All Response Media viewpoint
Product dispatch can be an effective way of targeting specific audiences and branching out of the press insert medium to a different ‘shopper environment’. Although cost per thousands (CPTs) can be up to 60% higher than press inserts, with some clients we have seen a significantly higher response for product dispatch vs. press inserts. In fact, up to 100% higher response), therefore a much lower cost per acquisition.
As you can see from the range of high-volume titles above for young women, product dispatch can be a very effective and efficient medium for reaching millennials, outside of TV. With retailers such as Boohoo.com, ASOS, Missguided and PrettyLittleThing accessible with +200,000 volumes per month, this can add incremental targeted reach outside of TV campaigns. There can also be effective ways of creative testing and tracking response. Creative testing from DL letter/voucher formats (DL envelope size 110mm x 220mm), from A5 to perforated and foil, although some of these may add to production costs which is a variant to consider for cost pers. There are also a variety of ways we can track response, including specific URLs and discount codes, in fact, utilising brands for discount codes, for example, “use discount code: MISSGUIDED” enables the offer to feel exclusive for those customers and increase response.
In summary, product dispatch is a growing medium, with more and more online retail brands taking advantage of additional income through inserts in their packages. The customer journey can also be extended to retailer emails and engage with brands at check out.
