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Thursday, January 17, 2008

Before You Give A Mouse Pad As A Gift, Consider This...

By Alexa Ferotina

Without a mouse pad, there is an maximizing curser accuracy. But enough technical mumbo-jumbo. A lot of people think that a mouse mad is a mouse pad is a mouse pad. You might be surprised how many computer owners don't even use them or like them. They use books, pieces of cardboard and even paper plates (and wonder why their computer is so slow). I'm not making this up. Others without a computer are certain a mouse pad is a small rental unit for rodents. (I am making that up but it might not surprise me. Folks can and still do have their own odd ideas about computing at times.

The mouse (which incidentally sits on top of the mousepad) was invented Stanford student Douglas Engelbart in the early '60's. . He named it "the bug" but it was later changed to "the mouse". He did not create it to be put on a mat or pad but held in one hand and the user would type on a five-key chord keyset with the other. This system was short-lived. The mouse pad was invented by Xerox employee Armando Fernandez. He first named the mouse pad with separate words, mouse pad, and later fused the two names into a single word "mousepad". Xerox published his invention in 1979. Advertisers caught on fast and began advertising and giving them as corporate gifts. This remains a tradition today. But it has changed in many ways.

A creatively-produced mouse pad is the ideal memorable corporate gift. The trick to giving the right mouse pad,to the right party, and is to think of the end user, rather than your company logo. The mouse pad user gets tired of looking at your company logo every day. I hate to bruise your ego but it is true. Rather than the age-old "my company logo on your mouse pad", smart corporate gift-givers are giving "theme-related" mouse pads as gifts, and often humor or cartooning is incorporated. For instance, giving a mouse pad to a doctor? Why not one featuring a medical-related cartoon? To a scientist? A science-theme cartoon makes perfect sense. See the difference? It is what you might call "non-invasive marketing". With all the products on the market today, many of them very outdated, used to promote corporate awareness, the personalized touch is standing out. So giving a simple high-quality humor or cartoon-theme mouse pad that matches the interest of the one you are giving it to, not only makes perfect sense, it works.

The person not only sees and uses the mouse pad every day, he/she remembers it came from you. It needn't even have your name and/or web address on it. The receiver will remember this gift. It will be very very different than other gifts received. If you've never tried it, simply try it. It works, and it works like nothing else you've ever seen in the "how do I get my name out there" world of marketing.

Disney and Hanna Barbara, it is thought, put the first cartoon characters onto mouse pads, targeting the children's market. They continue to license the images with great sucess

Cartoonist, entrepreneur, Rick London, creator of Londons Times Cartoons, the offbeat popular Internet cartoon is thought to be the first to put professional-themed cartoons onto high quality mouse pads targeting the corporate business and adult gift-giving market. His themes include everything from dentistry to pro-sports to lawyers to veterinarians. He sells them at his various cartoon gift shops including Just Funny Mouse Pads, which is a very popular Internet place to shop.

If you want someone to do business with you, they have to remember you in a positive light. That is why I incorporate humor by giving cartoon mousepads to my clients. It works not just some of the time but all of the time. I don't know why, but it just does.

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