Unboxing experience has evolved more than the terminology over a decade. The term has become a powerful lingo that defining objective goals for the design process have become quite difficult. It almost seems like expecting a theatrical performance from the packaging and it becomes sensational. Especially with the E-com channel, brands are aggressively pursuing packaging to increase their marketing footprint where the lifespan of that packaging is short-lived. The hype of the unboxing experience has led to overindulgence of design and overuse of material.
Getting a brief statement"the packaging should have a great unboxing experience", just raises the anxiety for designers. It is not a negative emotion but it is the pressure to build something great/wow with lean opportunity and a lot of expectations.
It has become a big question for brand managers, designers and consumers, What is the unboxing experience? Is it bigger than the product? Is it about consumer expectations or engaging them mindlessly? Is it directly proportional to value for money? Is it making packaging go viral?
The charm of unboxing a packaging is so perceptual that it has become a race to please customers and provide instant gratification. Though the opportunity is top-notch we can define the experiences that are thoughtful as per the life cycle of packaging, consumer needs and environment.
Here, I am penning down my experiences and insights from multiple projects and how addressing certain ambiguous points can help projects sail smoothly. I have observed most of these points should be discussed/addressed during client briefing or at the kick-off of the project to be aware and get better clarity. Lack of information on the below-mentioned points creates undue pressure on designers and with perplexing vision, the journey of designing intangible experiences starts.
The great unboxing challenge with minimal to no increase in the cost of packaging
The most dangerous idea to sell and to believe.
This is one of the most unrealistic expectations one could set for a design brief. Always have a realistic goal wrt to costs as this is the most crucial factor to account for while designing an experience-driven packaging. One should account for a healthy margin of at least 25-30% cost increment. Don't mistake this for the cost optimization brief where the sole purpose is to reduce the cost of packaging.
Setting healthy incremental margins sets the right alignment between brands and designers. This helps in determining the scope of opportunity to explore during ideation.
The best way is to head start with an approx cost in mind by accounting for hard costs and hidden variables. Keeping current/reference packaging cost as the base we can determine approx percentage increment in price that can be expected in the new packaging development. The cost model can have certain variables as constant, certain incremental and a few can be accounted for high price escalations.
Vision, Expectations and Priority
When vision is blurry, you create unwanted/fake expectations from the design brief.
It is the sincerity of a brand that helps in aligning designers with correct expectations.
The best way to navigate through these projects is to clearly align three goals i.e. vision, expectations and priority based on research and business model. A quick brand positioning exercise can help you to determine if you want incremental changes or something groundbreaking and disruptive.
Impactful packaging comes with clear defined experiences
Don't aim for more than two high-impact experience pointers at a go, it may overwhelm consumers.
If the above exercise of aligning vision, expectations and priority is done properly your design directions and experiences can be straight to the point and impactful. The reason to define crystal clear experiences is to create impactful designs that convey the story of the brand in the shortest period of time. The attention span of consumers is very short-lived hence it requires a clear vision wrt how you want consumers to interact and engage with packaging.
Value additions a go-to lingo
Not every packaging needs 360 degrees revamp.
Sometimes incremental changes are the most realistic way to approach a design brief. This helps to create a design that is more functionally driven and creates longer brand loyalty. . Value additions are about adding value propositions for each milestone or journey of packaging rather than focusing on consumers' delight. It can be on locking feature, tamper-proof, opening & locking experience, adding sensory cues, holding experience, optimising storing, easy disposal, etc
Designs with functional experience have a higher brand recall value and instant gratification and stay longer on the retail shelf. Functional designs not only help in building an impactful brand experience but also help in easing operational challenges.
Key takeaways:
Building emotional experiences in packaging without getting emotionally attached
Being aware and sensitising brand owners of ground challenges brings sanctity to designs
To align vision, expectations and priority with brand owners
To have healthy margins to explore designs. This can be calculated roughly as stated above
Defining not more than two high impact areas of experience
Value additions in packaging that are more functional driven bring higher brand recall value and ease in operations of handling
To know more about my experiences with clients and how I navigated, reach out to me at amitajain16@gmail.com
-Amita
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