Brajackets

Adding on to my earlier post about product placements in books, here's another cool marketing innovation that has book readers in Japan all over this new trend. Brajackets are just branded bookcovers. They go easily over a book, keep the book clean and neat, and is free advertising for companies, and users can choose brands they identify with. The covers are free and durable, usually in vivid colors.

It's a great way to give consumers something they can use, identify with a brand or product, and its advertising for companies. It's great for cities where public transportation is a norm, or where coffee shops are abundant and frequented by book enthusiasts or book clubs.

As far as I know, these brajackets only available in Japan so far, and are on stands in bookstores. Why not take it everywhere- coffee shops, retailers, laundromats- unless ofcourse the bookstores have a special contract with them. But, if a company is paying for the printing, how does it matter where these brajackets are distributed? Once everyone knows about it, they'll be rushing to these distributors and increasing foot traffic there.

Some of the big brands already in the game are Adidas, Canada Dry, Perrier Universal Studios, Levi's, Haagen-Dazs and a Japanese music bands. I hope this trend attracts more companies and catches on in more countries. Come on Barnes and Nobles and Borders, you have to get these brajackets in your stores, and stack them near the bestsellers and clearance stands.

Why not kick it up a notch? Why not have these brajackets for all kinds of book? The incredibly hard to advertise to segment is high school kids right? Maybe even college kids. If high schools and colleges stocked these brajackets at their local bookstores or ebay or half.com gave away a free brajacket of the consumers choice everytime they sold a book, that'd help get these brajackets popular in new markets. Ofcourse, there'd have to be a little something something in for the distributors, but that's a small price to pay for getting their names into these target segments.

This probably wouldn't be free because of the cost and quality of materials, but the companies making these brajackets could start making laptop sleeves. I have a boring one- i'd much rather have a sleeve with a product or brand that I like.