Just when I thought I’d seen everything… there comes along a business that does the impossible: They package and sell garbage.
Yes, SELL. They don’t TRY to sell. They actually have bona-fide sales of garbage that range in price from $10 to $100 dollars depending on the circumstance of the garbage collection. For instance, you can get Last Shea Stadium Opening garbage for $100. I suspect regular day to day garbage is just $10.
The story behind this site is that a debate happened between Justin Gignac, founder of www.nycgarbage.com, and a coworker. The argument was basically that the coworker didn’t believe that package design was important. “So I figured the only way to prove them wrong would be to try to package something that absolutely nobody in their right mind would ever want to buy.”
Since he began, Gignac has sold more than 1,000 cubes of New York City trash to buyers around the world.
The point comes across pretty clearly – even if the purchasers are buying the cubes for a gag-gift, these products are selling because they are packaged in a unique and appealing way — a way that makes them more art than just plain trash.
What does this mean to you?
This concept of packaging applies to many areas of consumerism. Take cars, for instance: the Ford Escape is the same as Mercury Mariner and Mazda Tribute. And this applies to your website as well. (This is a web development newsletter after all.)
Despite social niceties, people do judge books by their covers. Here’s is a great example:
These are both sites for the same personal trainer – Which site do you think gets the most signups?
The sheer number of businesses that have a website is astounding and competition is fierce. To a potential client or customer, your website is the packaging, and it is imperative that it looks compelling and trustworthy. Information needs to be easy to find, the site needs to be easy to navigate, and the content should be relevant and informative in order to gain customer confidence. Most of all…it needs to stand out from your competition!
Two questions you must ask yourself:
- What can your website do to separate you from the heap of others who do the same thing?
We can help – See what we’ve done for others - Do your competitors’ sites look more professional than yours? Ask your friends, family and colleagues for their unbiased opinion. Chances are though, that you already know the answer—and we can help you with that too.
About the author: Jeune Ortiz is VP of Marketing and Creative Director at future-ink. With more than 20 years of experience in graphic design and marketing, Jeune brings extensive knowledge and creativity to each website and internet marketing solution to grow your business.
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