Care Packages CarePackages.com has a concept that fills both business-to-business and business-to-consumer needs.
The packages – developed around several hundred themes – are the 8-month-old Fairfield, CT, company’s innovation. CarePackages.com partners with universities, corporations and other dot-coms to mail thousands of parcels a day.
Partners use their own brands to create and deploy DM campaigns promoting the products. “We defer the single largest cost associated with being a Web retailer [advertising] out to our partners,” says co-founder Mike Moran. In return, partners receive 6% to 8% of gross sales.
The University of Connecticut, for example, sends out promotional mailings about the care packages four times a year to 15,000 parents and alumni. The direct mail piece arrives in a university envelope, on university letterhead, and typically pulls a 25% to 30% response.
“The university brand really helps get the envelope open,” Moran points out.
Then, a kid in a dorm receives a box called “The Tailgater” – featuring Frisbees, Nerf balls and snacks for those trips to the big game. Another might receive “Cafeteria Relief,” which arrives stuffed with cookies and nuts for the student tired of campus cuisine.
Partners often custom design packages to meet a specific objective such as “Home Sweet Home.” This pack, created for the William Raveis Real Estate Co., contains products to welcome buyers to their new homes.
CarePackages.com fulfills orders for the ready-made or customer-designed packs that range in price from $8 to $30 each.
PricewaterhouseCoopers had success with an acquisition and retention promotion directed at the thousands of temporary staffers it hires during the tax-return season. The customer-conceived “P.T. Care” package – a kind of spin-off from the military survival kit – included a power bar, Visine eye drops for eyestrain and aspirin for the inevitable headache. It was designed around a $12-per-head budget.
CarePackages.com maintains control over pricing, Moran says, custom fitting orders to budgets if necessary.
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