Leaflet distributors. You know those people who just manage to stand in your way, trusting flyers in your face as you charge through the peak hour crowd so you can snuggle up with your cat on the couch and watch the latest tv drama?
I have nothing against them. In fact, I used to distribute leaflets for a restaurant for a two days holiday job when I was sixteen. So I know how thankless and tiring the job can be.
But as I declined to take a leaflet from yet another leaflet distributor politely, mainly because I wasn’t interested in buying a property and also, I didn’t want to contribute to the growing amount of leaflets in the trashbin less than 5m from where the distributor stands, it did make me wonder who sustain the biggest loss here.
Leaflet Distributor
The leaflet distributor probably has a certain target to hit by the end of the day. As much as I know they are paid by per hour, the target serves an indicator of their productivity. Well, he or she can be dishonest and chuck the whole lot into a well-hidden bin. Instead, they are out in the public, disregarding others’ annoyed look as much as possible, trying to shove the leaflet into your hands and hope to see you either read it or tucking it into your pocket.
Small Businesses
Then again, you think about the businesses who print out those pamphlets. Many of them are small-time businesses and not big corporations. Some of them fork out a lot of money for those pamphlets to be printed out so they can tell people what their businesses are all about.
And let’s face it, if these business owners have spare cash for their promotion, they probably will spend to advertise on television or radio and not just print leaflets to be randomly distributed out to some random person who has the least need of their products. I wonder how many handouts are converted into actual sales.
Unless there is real value printed on the leaflets, nobody is going to keep them and remember the brand who printed them.
Gaia
That brings me to my next point. The environment. Think about all those trash that people chuck away once they read the leaflets (if they even read at all). All those papers from all those cut down trees. I don’t think companies will spend extra to print on recycled papers.
That concludes that the environment is the actual biggest loser here. Not the leaflets distributors nor the brands. Promotional leaflets don’t usually value-added in any sense. The smart ones will add a coupon in the pamphlet increasing the chance that someone will actually keep it to use it.
But most of the times, it’s just irrelevant information because I don’t need it. If I need something in this digital world, I’ll Google it and find out how I can get it. Meanwhile, I can even check out the reviews before I even buy it.
So businesses, SMEs and entrepreneurs, take your marketing online, the cost will be lesser or equivalent to printing those flyers and hiring someone to distribute them.
Perhaps the biggest winner is the printing companies here. And perhaps by taking away leaflet distribution, it will impact their business but not by much since they still can gather business from poster printing and name cards. Well, with name cards (do we still use them these days?) is another story altogether…
What are your thoughts on leaflets distribution? A for or an against? Please share your thoughts with us down in the comments below.
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