How does your unboxing experience fit your marketing strategy?

A great customer experience can be delivered at a small business level if the proper attention to detail is given to the shipping box, the bubble wrap, and the proper messaging. Brand awareness has a big opportunity to make a big splash, and has the opportunity for further engagement as part of the customer journey. Correlating to opening a Christmas present, the excitement and anticipation in what has arrived have been taught to us through holiday celebrations, birthdays, and special occasions. Taking part in those moments with your brand being at the center of it, makes it a very "memorable" and brand-conscious moment. It is now a big eCommerce marketing tool and fits within the post-purchase experience of your marketing strategy. This activity has reached the attention of venture capitalists' reviews, creating a customer journey for returning customers.

How does the unboxing experience matter

How much money is it worth for your increased brand awareness in front of friends and family? If you have an unbranded, taped-up box with your shipping label on it - generic in all respects, versus a branded box with a pull-rip ready to be unpacked. Will the mood change upon arrival? Will you gather others around the box and have them share the moment? Interaction with your brand can make customers feel different. Your target audience took a step in engaging with you for your products and services, they upload reviews and unboxing videos are made. How that propagates to others is all how you present your company, and how it is delivered. Your marketing efforts can be repaid in spades with a differentiated unboxing and unpacking experience with strong attention to detail.

When it comes to humans, visual stimuli have the greatest impact on our perceptions, and while it does take some investment for a top-tier unboxing experience, it is the memory and experience that will have a measurable branding impression. As a repeat customer, you also set expectations that differentiate you from others making you stand apart.

Building brand awareness through the unboxing experience

When it comes to marketing goals, the unboxing experience is at the center of the audiences' loyalty, your repeat customers, your social media shares, and via market research, the perception of quality and anticipated engagement with the product and service. Listing your selling points does not have the engagement or excitement in a measure of brand awareness, what you are looking to achieve is a great brand story, what you are aiming to become, the guarantee of fit and finish, and standing behind the brand to your customers. This includes packaging, presentation, labeling, quality of tags, messaging, materials used in packing, stickers, and wrapping. It is all part of the experience, and every detail counts. This is now evidence, proof of your values, you can touch it, feel it, see it. It is no longer an online visual, it is now in your hands and for the first few moments, the presentation of the unboxing brings anticipation to the reality of the purchase, confirming the trust and financial investment in the brand.

Value Added Marketing

While creating a marketing strategy, seeing every touch point for frictionless checkout, the unboxing experience is a core touch point for your brand and re-engagement for the next purchase. A lot has to happen during that unboxing experience. Presentation is not just the only tenet to aim for. There are assurances of fit, function, and finish that is to ensure that the purchase reaches the utmost satisfactory experience. This means a frictionless return policy and process with a pre-printed form so that customers can list out the items that might require an exchange or return. Brand values on a high-quality colored card with a "Thank You" note with the brand values printed on it. Be personal in nature, build that relationship, and be consistent in your unboxing - this sets behaviors and expectations that make a customer loyal, add your brand into a close and personal pleasure, and ultimately reach the advocacy level of brand loyalty with your audience.

Customer Loyalty and repeat customers

Bain and Co. performed a study to where satisfied customers would only return 20-40% of the time. However, when it comes to pushing it to 40% brand loyalty, especially for a commodity isn't based if the performance was good in the execution of the sale. With an increased competitive market product differentiation isn't enough to make your brand stand out over others. Therefore a great unboxing experience can be a differentiator even though your products may not stand out. To have repeat customers, your product availability, pricing, and logistics in delivery all have to perform at a high standard. Therefore the pressure is continuous on the business operationally, and while marketing re-enforces your message, it is the emotional engagement upon arrival that delivers the best chance of brand equity and values messaging.

The Cosabella Unboxing experience

At times, it is worthwhile to talk about some of our customers' products and the experience they deliver. In this particular case, Cosabella does a great job with their unboxing. It isn't flashy, yet does all that's necessary to be consistent in its execution. Keeping it simple, making it about how the brand connects with you is what matters the most. Here are some pictures to bring to light the above points.

Box branding: Simple and straightforward - Domain Name, Tag Line, making it personal. Cosabella branding on top of the box, and "Cosabella.com" on the front, "For me. For you. For people." with the "CB 1983" branding on the side of the box.

Box Opening: Note the pull strip to make a quick entry into the box. Let's not make opening a complicated matter.

Box quality: It doesn't have to be special, as long as it protects the contents adequately. A reasonably decent seal to keep dust and debris out works well.

Box Label location: Using the back of the box where all the shipping label information can be easily accessed.

Open-box presentation: Cosabella uses branded paper with a circular sticker as a seal to the contents of the order. The paper is the width of the box, which holds the contents together. It is like an "open the seal and reveals the contents" experience. Sure it is a bit of paper and a sticky branded disc but has a great visual effect when you open the box, and you are presented with the seal and brand.

The contents reveal: With the opening of the seal and parting the paper to the sides of the box, the first thing you see is a "Thank You" card and its message below it "Welcome to the Cosabella Collective" - Given these are intimates, and lingerie are collected as sets, it encourages to keep collecting. The back of the card delivers the Cosabella values relating to the collections they offer in Lingerie, Sleepwear, and Swimwear. The card is in color, with a beautiful photo of their model wearing their product, and again, it gives you their domain to explore further.

Product Packaging: In Cosabella's case, the protection the items require is from friction, moisture, dust, and anything that could snag the articles of clothing. Here a simple plastic bag with an adhesive seal is all that's needed. Again, the name "Cosabella" is branded on the bag.

Product Labeling: Every item in the box has a label, with the collection name, the product type, color, and size as well as the barcode that's used in pick-pack from the distribution house. Easy to audit the shipment before going out, as well as easy to audit the items when they arrive.

Returns and Exchanges: In every box, a Cosabella form for returns and exchanges with instructions are placed in the box. What's even better, their fit is very on-point when it comes to choosing sizes. The more you buy, the more you know how sizing works with their collections. Given that a customer is motivated to order the correct size, the site sizing and measurement are in-depth and descriptive, so getting it right the first time happens easily. Minimizing this process is done via a frictionless one-two step of marking the items to be returned and shipping them back to the address given.

Conclusion

It really isn't rocket science, yet, it is effort and forethought to get this right. One could say it isn't worth the effort, if you aren't brand-centric in your marketing, and customers value your business through convenience or just price. However, when it comes to market share and growth, branding cannot be ignored. The unboxing experience is a marketing touch point that equates to visiting a physical store. While customer service and in-store branding is all around you, the box reaching your door is all you get when it comes to eCommerce. So better make the most of it, and if you do it right as Cosabella does - then loyal and repeat customers will take shape and be part of your inner circle of brands to you adhere to. Please feel free to reach out to us at wish@thegenielab.com