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

One does not have to be a computer expert to know that one needs a mouse for the curser to work. And for the mouse to be more efficient, it does not hurt to have a mouse pad. But enough techno-geek speak. Many feel that a mouse pad is a mouse pad is a mouse pad. YMany users opt not to use one. They use books, pieces of shipping boxes and even paper plates (and wonder why the curser isn't moving very fast) I'm not making fibbing. I know some of them. Others without a computer are certain a mouse pad is a small rental unit for rodents. That part is a joke.

The mouse itself was invented in 1963 by a Stanford student named Douglas Engelbart. He called it "the bug" but it was later named to "the mouse". It was not made 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 is said to have been invented by Armando M. Fernandez when he worked at Xerox in 1977. 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. Later advertisers, artists, cartoonists, and others begin to see the advertising and promotional potential in mouse pads.

Mouse pads, if designed properly, can be an ideal corporate gift. The trick to giving the right mouse pad, today, is to think of the end user, the beneficiary of the pad. Rather than the age-old "my company logo on your mouse pad", savvy businesspersons and entrepreneurs 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 With all the products on the market today, many of them very outdated, used to promote corporate awareness, the personalized touch is standing out.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 makes ingenius sense.

With a funny cartoon on the pad, one that is more about the customer than you, that user not only sees and uses the mouse pad every day, he/she remembers it came from you. It is even better *not* to have your name and/or logo on it. He/she will remember from where it came. It will be uniquely different than other gifts received. If you've never tried it, I highly suggest it. I pick out twenty or thirty for my best clients and send them out regularly. It is not the kind of advertising to attract mass customers, though can be done so with the proper budget, but it is a perfect way to build loyalty and goodwill, and a consumer who is in a good mood every time he/she thinks of you, and laughs at the cartoon on the mouse pad.

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.