Hall is using this ‘inappropriate outer’ analogy while discussing a form of wrapping that’s a multi- million-pound business for the printing industry and can sometimes be a missed opportunity for printers and print specifiers – envelopes. 

As he points out, in the worst-case scenario using the wrong type of envelope for a job can render the time and effort that has gone into the contents a complete waste of money. 

Conversely, an envelope that is harmonious with the finished job creates additional brand value, and can elevate the entire piece to another level entirely. 

It’s worth repeating what Blake Envelopes managing director Michael Barter has previously pointed out in these pages: “People spend £5 apiece producing a lovely brochure to send to their top clients, then post it out in a boring old brown or white envelope. For a few pence more they can have a stand-out product that will set them apart. I can’t guarantee an envelope will make someone a sale, but I can guarantee the right envelope will be opened.” 

Barter’s company makes the same point as Hall in a video on its website, where a loved-up young couple choose an engagement ring, only for the jeweller to wrap the ring in scrunched up newspaper and stuff it into a brown paper bag, much to their horror.

Outer space

This choice between the appropriate versus the inappropriate seems terribly obvious, doesn’t it? And yet, speak to any envelope supplier and there is one thing they are in absolute agreement about: all too often envelopes are an afterthought. 

“It’s definitely an issue,” says Baddeley Brothers managing director Charles Pertwee. “I don’t want to sound too boring, but it’s often the case that people should start with the envelope shape first.”

There’s a good reason for this wise advice from a business that dates back to 1859, because ending up with a print format that doesn’t fit into a standard envelope size will inevitably result in additional costs. 

“It’s a lot more expensive to buy a bespoke envelope than it is to use a standard shape, which the buyer could still have in a nice bespoke material,” Pertwee explains. 

“We all have standard cutters. If you go outside those dimensions then you’ll have to have a specific cutter made, or have the envelopes hand-cut.”

For some jobs, this bespoke effect will of course be exactly the premium effect desired. And Baddeley has a nice line of business producing envelopes using premium thick stocks, and difficult materials. 

But that sort of spec should be part of a fully thought-through plan from the outset, rather than a fait accompli that comes as a costly surprise at the end of a project. 

Albert Rockhill, managing director at the aptly-named All Colour Envelopes says he deals with clients who are presented with this scenario “pretty much every day”. 

“You’d think people would spend time working this out beforehand, not least because of the cost of postage. Yet I’ve had people who’ve designed a job that’s 162x229mm, so it’s exactly the size of a C5 envelope,” he says, despairingly. 

“People say to me ‘I can’t believe I’ve made this stupid mistake’, and I have to tell them they’re either going to have to go with a bespoke envelope price or scrap the job they’ve just had printed.”

By the same measure it’s just as important to work out what the thickness and weight will be of the eventual contents of that envelope. 

“If you put a heavy brochure in a paper envelope it’s going to get bashed in the postal system, and the corners might break through,” Rockhill adds. “That sort of item will need a board or gusset envelope, or a padded bag.”

Rockhill says that when it comes to companies that are switched on to the potential power of envelopes, the marketing departments at major brands are generally exemplars and understand the difference a savvy choice of envelope can make. “They use a lot of coloured envelopes. And we also find that start-ups do as well, they often test different envelope combinations,” he notes. 

On the subject of colour, Blake Envelopes claims that a coloured envelope increases response rates by 40%. “Classy, quality coloured envelopes command respect and will arrive with whom they belong,” says the firm. 

All Colour Envelopes says it has worked with mailing houses to test various colours and that it has found that yellow gives the highest response rate, while black is viewed as prestigious. 

Colour trends come and go, of course. Pantone’s colour of the year is currently Marsala, “an earthy red wine colour”. While the palette for spring 2016 includes (and there’s an interesting opportunity here for the printing industry) “a desire to disconnect from technology and unwind” with a calming palette that includes rose, peach and buttercup.

Some colours have perpetual elegance and will always convey an impression of sophistication and substance, such as the right choice of cream or grey. 

However, the contents-to-envelope specification needn’t always be matchy-matchy, as Hall at We Made This points out. “While I quite like it when something is integrated, it’s also a good chance to use contrasting colour and texture. The main point is to think about it beforehand.” 

Hall is also a fan of the sort of tear-strip ‘book-wrap’-style packs popularised by e-commerce firms such as Amazon. 

Opening gambit

And then, there is the booming area of printed envelopes. The Envelope Works Group in Lancashire set up an entirely new operation earlier this year, The Reel Envelope Company, precisely to cater for this market. 

“The envelope is the most important part of any mail piece,” says group chief executive Mark Farrimond. “It’s the first thing people see and it determines whether someone is going to open it or not. 

“A printed envelope stands out against the white and manila bills as something to be opened,” he adds. “The four-colour market is growing, hence our new site. We’ve got GMG colour management and Fogra certification because we are specialising in vibrant, accurate colour.”

Farrimond’s customers include print managers, blue-chip corporates and charities, which are major users of printed envelopes and deploy them for addressed mailings, doordrops and inserts. 

The Royal British Legion, for example, used a four-colour printed C5 envelope as part of its recent Poppy Day campaign. The design featured attention-grabbing four-colour halftone imagery with a union flag background and images of service people from past and current generations. 

In that particular example it was completely apparent that it was a Royal British Legion campaign due to the obvious branding. And Cancer Research UK is equally forthright with its ‘this could be goodbye’ campaign that has been deployed with different formats of sealed envelope inserts. 

Conversely, some charities will use alternative tactics, such as a completely plain white or manila sealed envelope that invokes curiosity about the contents, precisely because there is nothing on the outside to indicate what it contains.

Insert expert Jim Lewcock, chief executive at The Specialist Works says the effectiveness of envelopes will see his team buy some 50m this year, up from 30m in 2014. 

“To decide whether you use colour or printing is secondary. Deciding whether you use an envelope or not is a much bigger decision,” he states. “We’ve nearly doubled our envelope production because the envelope itself does a job. An envelope gives the ability to apply layers of information, and we can play with these layers to pull out different elements of a proposition.”

There are also differing views about the wisdom of using printed envelopes versus a plain envelope but in a striking colour. If, say, it’s yet another mailing from an unwanted broadband supplier, an externally branded envelope will make it easier to despatch a missive directly to the bin. Again, the key thing is to think through all aspects of a campaign from the outset. 

“We’ve tested different things. Sometimes if you use too much in the way of graphics you’ve shouted to the consumer ‘this is advertising’ and they will just bin it. Sometimes, less is more,” Lewcock says. “The ideal scenario is to think about all elements of the campaign at once, including the envelope.”

It’s also worth considering who will be opening the missive, as Hall at We Made This points out. “It does also depend on how mail is handled at the recipient address. Someone else could open all the mail and render the envelope redundant. That’s why it’s preferable to send something to a named individual, it’s more likely to get to them.”

Hall also notes that there’s a potential opportunity for printers here, in being on the front foot in offering expertise and advice at the early stage of a project. 

He says: “I wonder if the reason the envelope is sometimes overlooked is because it can fall in between different people’s responsibilities, between the client, the designer and the printer? If a printer were to say ‘have you thought about how you’re mailing this’, then it’s an opportunity for them to be more proactive.” 

The overriding message is to think through all elements of any print job that will ultimately involve an envelope, in order to get the best possible end result. Pertwee at Baddeley Brothers sums up the situation perfectly: “Envelopes are so often an afterthought. When they’re not it really does make a difference.” 

TOP TIPS

Think about the overall job from the outset, including what type of envelope or wrapping will be used at the end of the process

Investigate the wide range of standard envelope formats and styles to find the best off-the-shelf options

If you’re going to go for a bespoke print format that will require a bespoke envelope, plan ahead accordingly and speak to suppliers about the timescales and costs involved

Think about the weight and thickness of items such as brochures, and what sort of envelope will be required to ensure they arrive in good condition

Don’t leave the envelope decision until last