Custom matchbooks are quietly making a comeback, and it is bars, restaurants, hotels, dispensaries, and even wedding planners ordering them. Businesses order them because a matchbook does what a business card can't: people actually use it, toss it in a drawer, and see the printing dozens of times before the matches run out. Matchbooks are also among the cheapest printed products you can brand, which makes them an easy add-on to any merchandise order.
Who orders custom matchbooks
Traditional buyers of matchbooks include the hospitality industry. A matchbook left on the bar or in the check presenter is a throwback that customers will love to take a photo of and bring home with them. Dispensaries and smoke shops that sell products that their customers use on a daily basis are also traditional buyers of matchbooks. Matchbooks are also a product that are sent to customers by candle companies as a supplement to their other products. Finally, matchbooks are becoming a very popular wedding favor. They can be printed with a date and monogram to make a unique and memorable wedding favor that is being used by weddings and events all over the country as the favor of the decade.
Matchbooks vs matchboxes
There are a couple standard ways that matchbooks and matchboxes are printed: the twenty-strike matchbook folds up like a traditional diner matchbook, and the small matchboxes are filled with wooden matches. Books are very cheap and thin, while the boxes are more high-end feeling and stand up on their own on a shelf. Both print on the full outside surface of the item. The position of the striker, the number of matches, and the tip color of the matches can all be changed for larger print runs, but in the end, it’s the colored tips of the matches that people notice the most.
Design that works at matchbook size
Matchbook artwork is usually best treated as a tiny poster, with a single strong logo or wordmark, a single accent color and a back panel with your address or handle printed on it. Foil stamping and colored interior pages are nice to have and only cost a small upcharge. Because the cover is so small be sure to ask for a physical proof or a good quality mockup before placing a large order, as something that looks fine on screen can often appear to crowd the fold lines when printed.
Pricing and quantities
Matchbooks are typically priced in tiers, with higher volume of books decreasing in price per book. Small runs cost noticeably more per book, while orders in the low thousands drop to cents per book. For a bar or dispensary giving matchbooks away on a daily basis, a quarterly order of a few thousand is typical. Given the fact that matchbooks weigh almost nothing, shipping is very light, and matchbooks are actually the cheapest form of branded merchandise that can be shipped in mail orders.
How ordering works
Ordering follows the same flow as any custom product: choose book or box format, pick a quantity tier, and upload your artwork. Once an artwork is uploaded by you, it is then laid out by a designer on a corresponding template for your approval for production which can take several weeks. The matches product is a restricted item for air freight and therefore sent by ground freight. It is best to allow extra time for ground freight than for air.
Matchbooks pair naturally with the rest of a branded counter: see the custom branded matchbook, our personalized lighters guide, and the full custom lighters collection.
