InkDrop: Staples Speaks A Woman’s Language
An announcement from Staples appeared in my in-box this morning, about a new program that should help ease the ink/toner cartridge replacement hassle - InkDrop. Though ink cartridges are relatively small-ticket items and Staples is all about office supplies, the way the company has designed and presented the program, could be a lesson for any industry.
The bullets came right out and quickly "spoke" a woman’s shopping language:
-It’s free, even delivery - all you pay for is your cartridges
-It’s convenient - just mail your empties, we send you new ones automatically
-It’s environmentally friendly - we recycle your empty cartridges
How this translates:
1. Free delivery means you can rationalize away your need to visit the store (and we all know that need usually arrives at the most in-opportune times). Feel the stress melt away.
2. All this gets done via snail mail? It’s the Netflix-style solution that so many people have grown to love. A pre-paid envelope and your purchase process goes on without you. Aaaah.
3. Environmentally friendly? The green-factor is often on a woman’s buying radar, but it is less often directly addressed by brands (though I realize for ink/toner cartridges in particular, this has become pretty routine). InkDrop adds beauty to the transaction by reminding customers of the earth-awareness of the whole encounter, which means a lot now - and will mean more to our kids and our kids’ kids (and so on).
The Staples InkDrop program incorporates elements that are important to a lot of shoppers (but that women may notice more quickly) and presents the solution in straight talk that gets to the heart of the matter:
Free delivery. Convenient. Green
Now, you’re talking.
