Photo purchased from … www.depositphotos.com
My fiancee loves Amazon. She can push a button on the computer, and one box or several boxes will come to the door. Amazing.
So when my fiancee makes a comment about packaging, boxes, and custom labels, I listen closely.
What Is Branding?
This is really a case study about branding. Then again, everything is about branding. Even when a company’s only touch point with a client is a box arriving at their door, a vendor must provide an enjoyable experience and must then repeat this experience in successive purchases. It’s part of their brand.
And what a brand is, essentially, is all of the values and associations reflected in everything from the company’s ads and marketing materials to their packaging. Even the tone of the person you get on the phone when the company sends you the wrong item, and the good feeling they work to instill in you when they solve your problem in their first attempt, is part of the brand. Everything is part of the company’s brand. For Starbucks, not only is their two-tailed siren logo part of their brand, but by now even the specific shade of green in the logo is part of their brand.
The Unboxing Experience
I’ve discussed this in prior PIE Blog postings, but it bears repeating. When a box arrives at your door, the experience of opening it matters. According to my fiancee, Amazon has been sending a number of her packages in brown, recycled-looking boxes recently, presumably to remind consumers that the company is environmentally conscious.
My fiancee recently received a specific soil for a collection of rare succulents she is growing called Living Stones (as in “Dr. Living Stone, I presume”–sorry, I couldn’t resist). When I brought the package into the house, the weight prompted me to ask whether my fiancee had ordered bricks. But no, this is soil. Beyond the Amazon packaging, the succulent soil experience encompasses a number of other promotional qualities.
Flexible Packaging
The bag of soil is transparent and durable. You can see the texture of the potting mix (exclusively tiny stones of different colors, no actual dirt). You can also see that the plastic sack will not inadvertently rip open and dump the contents on your rug. You know what you’re getting, and you know the company that sent the bags values quality.
The Label
The label on the bag includes the logo (for immediate identification of the maker of the product), as well as the name of the product (“Premium Lithops Living Stone Potting Mix”), and a description of the product (“Natural Quartzite, Pumice, Sand, Granite Grit, Calcined Clay”). Plus, the custom label notes that the product is “100% natural and organic,” and that it “helps prevent pests, diseases, and contaminants” (www.rootingforyouplantnursery.com). All of these statements are rendered in a tall, narrow gothic sans-serif typeface in all capitals, reflecting the no-nonsense tone of the information. Clearly the company wants you to buy and use the correct product for these fragile Living Stone plants.
Prominent Contact Information
Finally, and most importantly, the Rooting For You company included not only its logo but also a link to its website. This reflects a number of important things. You can contact the company. It’s like the catalogs I was designing in the 1990s, when I was an art director. I made sure the phone number was on every page spread. Don’t make the customer wait. When they want to contact you to reorder more product, you want that experience to be as “frictionless” (as marketers say) as possible. Customers shouldn’t need to look through the printed materials for contact information. It should jump out and bite them.
Why is this important? Among other things, I’ve been brokering commercial printing for over two decades. I have learned to love the sweet sound of an email arriving from a repeat customer (“ping”). Getting new customers is much harder than doing whatever it takes to keep existing customers happy. And having immediate access to a website (and from there, presumably, to a phone if desired) is part of that frictionless experience. Having all of this information immediately accessible on a simple, elegantly designed, custom printed label goes a long way in communicating the necessary information.
To go back for a moment to the website information, I am reminded of the power of multi-channel marketing, or cross-media marketing, or whatever the current terminology might be. Commecial printing augments the online experience, and online marketing reinforces the print experience. Together they are unstoppable. Having well-branded labeling with the company logo and all relevant information visible from four feet away leads the customer to the URL and the website. And the website gives the customer an opportunity to either order more of the same product or to buy additional products. This benefits the brand but only (and this is the beauty of the equation–absolutely only) if the customer values the product, the print collateral, the website, the assistance on the phone, the carton and the “unboxing experience,” and every other “touchpoint,” every other element of the producer’s brand.
The Thank-you Note
When we’re young, our parents teach us to express gratitude when something goes right. It makes a connection with the donor of the gift or experience and its recipient. Everyone gains something. Interestingly enough, in the package of Premium Lithops Living Stone potting mix my fiancee gave me to check out, there was an additional insert, a thank-you note printed on heavy cover stock. The stock is thicker than regular postcard material. It has “snap.” It feels substantial. You would assume the potting mix vendor had spent a little more to make the postcard feel opulent. After all, you’re worth it.
The thank-you note speaks right to you, “We hope you enjoy your purchase” (www.rootingforyou plantnursery.com). On the flip side is the logo: large, in nice earthy colors. The name of the company is in an informal script typeface, and the other words are in a funky sans-serif typeface. You get the sense that Rooting For You loves plants and wants to help you love and care for them as well. Moreover, you get the sense that they don’t take your business for granted. They are grateful for the opportunity to serve you.
Good Marketing
All of this can be–and in this case absolutely is–conveyed through simple type, a transparent and durable container (known as flexible packaging), and a simple thank-you note. And with all of the contact information immediately available, you know right where to go when (not if) you want to reorder.
Now that’s good marketing. And (given my fiancee’s satisfaction with the product), it’s based not only on effective marketing technique but more importantly on the producer’s genuine desire to make the customer so happy with the whole process that she or he will want to come back for more.
This entry was posted
on Monday, October 3rd, 2022 at 12:15 am and is filed under Packaging.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.