Fiskars Silhouette Mailing

Background

Fiskars makes a range of household products. Since 1967 they have been manufacturing scissors of the highest quality.

They wanted purchasing managers and managing directors of hardware stores and chains to be reminded that Fiskars scissors are a cut above the rest.

Idea

To demonstrate that Fiskars scissors have premium-quality cutting edges and can handle even the most delicate of tasks, the letter itself was a cut-out, made with the product.

The 100 traders who received the mailing could see for themselves the sort of results their customers could expect from Fiskars scissors.

A cut-out coupon was included as well as a free pair of scissors.

Results

The objective was for a 25% response. In the event, 53 of the 100 people mailed responded, ordering over 1,000 additional pairs of scissors. This represented a 19% increase in sales compared to the previous month.

In convincing 47 new customers of the quality of Fiskars products, the company was able to invest in expanding its range of precision scissors.

Our Thoughts

This is a mailing with a long tail. The 47 new customers will keep buying scissors from Fiskars so the ROI will continue to expand, perhaps for years.

Some direct marketers just want wham-bam-thankyou-ma’am and a project that’s open and shut in a matter of weeks. Mail that’s purely transactional has always seemed to me to be missing a trick whereas ideas that are branded, designed to get an emotional response as much as a rational one, such as this, last longer and will usually prove to be more rewarding.

This is a letter, yes, but it is also a beautiful object, which people talked about, showed to visitors and kept on their desks.