What is Kitting? A Time-Saving Solution for Your Marketing Assets
As a business owner or marketer, you’ve probably found yourself with multiple assets that need to be arranged or assembled in a nice, neat package and no time (or desire) to do it yourself. At Smartpress, we call that kitting. But what is kitting?
In short, it’s a time-saving solution that streamlines execution for you and your business. And you’ll find that, at Smartpress, it includes way more than putting things together in a box.
Key Takeaways
- Kitting involves grouping, assembling, packaging and shipping various items together in one unit, and can even include envelope insertion, belly banding and securing hardware.
- Examples of our kitting and fulfillment services include compiling sales and media kits, hand-collating training binders and storing inventory until you’re ready to use it.
- Add kitting services to your Smartpress order by contacting your sales rep or submitting a Custom Quote with your kitting request.
What is Kitting?
Our kitting solutions involve assembling various print items or promotional products, packaging them and then shipping them together in one unit. That unit could be a box, a binder, a pocket folder, you name it.
Also known as bundling, kitting saves you time and money because Smartpress does all the processing and assembling for you, which is a huge win if you have a large distribution list of customers, event attendees or conference contacts.
Different Types of Kitting and Assembly Services
For a premium online printer like Smartpress, kitting services can be broken down into two categories: kitting and assembly. And no matter what you’re putting together, we can create the right kitting solution for you.
Still not sure what we mean? Here are some ideas for how you can use kitting, whether you’re a marketing agency, small business, enterprise or nonprofit.
Sending product samples? Here’s your inspo for a totally branded unboxing.
“We can add promotional products to kits, along with your printed material, to create a stunning presentation!”
Kitting Ideas for Marketing
Great marketing campaigns often include kitting and packaging your collateral together. Here are some ways kitting and marketing work together:
- Compile updated marketing materials and send them to your various locations.
- Send seasonal promotions and print collateral to your clients and customers.
- Distribute your print and promo products to the new locations you’re opening (we can accommodate 10+ locations at a time).
- Compile sales tool kits or media kits in one box. Think a brochure, window cling and branded merchandise all in one.
- Invite new clients into your brand culture with welcome kits full of samples and branded swag.
“Our favorite kits to assemble use specialty boxes with lids and fun packaging materials like crinkle paper,” said Paul Swanson, Smartpress’ online production manager. “Feel free to send us your promotional products like water bottles or office supplies that we can add to these kits, along with your printed material to create a stunning presentation for your clients!”
(Hint: Order your promotional products and branded apparel right here at Smartpress.)
Kitting Ideas for Businesses
What is kitting? Well, it’s fulfilling, too. For businesses and corporations of all kinds, fulfillment kitting services can be a big help. How? Just think of all the components to your kitting job. Maybe it’s promo products and apparel, maybe it’s print collateral, maybe it’s both. Now think of where you’re going to store all those items until it’s time to use them. Yep, Smartpress will do that for you, too:
- We kit your items together and store them until you’re ready for us to send them. This is especially helpful if you have multiple locations and multiple people placing orders for your kits.
- We can compile and/or collate your training and on-boarding documents into binders and manuals for employees and staff. Welcome kits make an awesome first impression for new team members!
- We can also handle intricate projects, like hand-inserting for custom cards and envelopes you send out for employee anniversaries or holidays.
And if your kit is complex, we welcome the challenge: “Some of the tricky ones have many unique parts that require a deeper level of attention to keep them in order,” said Swanson. “These projects can get so large that we need to rearrange the department to fit everything into one big assembly line.”
“These projects can get so large that we need to rearrange the department to fit everything into one big assembly line.”
Assembly Ideas that Bring Your Kit Together
As we’ve mentioned, kitting isn’t just about putting items into a package – at least, not at Smartpress. We provide kitting and assembly solutions you probably wouldn’t think of and do it in ways you probably couldn’t imagine: “We do a lot of hand-assembly tasks that are not able to be done by machines,” said Swanson.
Tasks like this:
- Hand-folding specialty brochures, taping tuck boxes and adding snap rings to sets of flashcards.
- Hand-collating everything a machine can’t – it’s real people doing real work.
- Adding belly bands to sets of printed products.
- Adding binding hardware to projects.
- Applying glue dots to reply envelopes.
- Applying double-sided tape to posters for easy application.
- Applying labels or sticker barcodes to shrink wrapped packages for resale.
How to Add Kitting Services to Your Order
Now that you know what it is, how do you get it? You can add kitting services to your online printing order at Smartpress in two ways:
- Contact your Smartpress sales representative for a Custom Quote.
- Submit a Custom Quote with your kitting request.
When you go the Custom Quote route, you’ll experience the personalized, white-glove service Smartpress is known for, plus products printed (and assembled!) with premium quality. What more could you want?
Compile Your Assets with Kitting at Smartpress
So, what is kitting? Now you know it’s all about grouping, packaging and shipping your promo products and print assets together. You also know it includes a lot of hand-assembly tasks, like folding, belly banding, securing hardware and applying labels. And it can also involve Smartpress storing your inventory until you need it. All things that your business, enterprise or nonprofit can use to save time, money and stress.
Treat yourself and your brand to convenience at the highest level with kitting services from Smartpress.
