What makes you open your mail?

By Rick Kitchell

How do you get someone to open a piece of mail? We all get a ton of junk mail every day from credit card companies and video rental places and home remodeling stores. What is it that makes you open something? If it looks official, like it’s from the government, or if it looks like a bill, does that make you open it? What if it has an offer for some useless product or service that you could get for free? Would you open that? What if it was just a really cool-looking design or had a photo of a tropical island or some hot-bodied, scantily clad model on it? What if the envelope was completely blank, or maybe hand written and addressed directly to you by first name only?

What is it that makes you open mail? What is it about the envelope that drives you to be sure you aren’t missing something important by just throwing it away?

As a designer of advertising and mail promotions, these are questions whose answers are as illusive as the giant squid. But the answers are out there. You all prove that by opening your mail every day. So I now throw this age-old question to you, the brave and fearless masses who either love getting new mail or hate me for sending it to you.

What makes you open your mail?