I Want you to Open my Letter: Effects of Uncommon Envelope Formats and Materials

The challenge for direct mailings is to get opened by the receiver since a huge number of direct mail ends up in the trash bin without being read. Uncommon envelope formats and materials might be able to enhance the opening intention by stimulating consumers’ curiosity. We conducted an experiment to investigate three levels of format and material uncommonness on the opening rate of the envelopes and the degree of evoked curiosity. Moreover, we examined the effect of curiosity on the evaluation of the offer which was contained in the direct mail envelope. Our results show that uncommon formats and materials evoke curiosity and increase the opening rate of direct mail envelopes. Furthermore, curiosity turned out to act as an amplifier which makes the offer evaluations more extreme, i.e. evaluations even improved for attractive offers and deteriorated for rather unattractive offers.