| I think the author focuses too much on outlier examples (Apple, Oculus). Great packaging and branding has a serious impact for companies today than previous years. More people sell online then ever before (shopify, etsy, etc) and there's no longer that brick-n-mortar experience you typically go through when buying your products in a physical shop. You buy online now and then that item is shipped to you. In many ways, the packaging IS the brick-n-mortar experience for customers when they receive your product. No one gets excited about seeing a generic brown box on their doorstep. They get excited about the fact it has Amazon Prime printed on the side with the branded tape. "Yes! My what-you-call-it just arrived!". This is the same experience that companies like Bonobos, Birchbox, Naturebox, Teespring, etc deliver. Its branded extremely well and they all care very much about delivering an extension of their brand to someones doorstep. In the case of a lot of subscription box companies, the products inside are relatively cheap to source. A large cost IS the packaging because they are delivering on an experience. Try the World's box is fucking amazing (www.trytheworld.com). It feels good opening and seeing what's in store for you this month. I'm sure the products inside cost next to nothing, but its not just about that. The author seems to make a case that Apple spends way too much on packaging (not surprising considering Steve Jobs cared about every detail inside and out). Then he uses Oculus as an example of really generic packaging that people go amazeballs for. Uh, yea we're talking about a 1 in a million type product that sold for billions, and did you see their DK1 packaging? It came in a freaking suitcase basically. I think these are both pretty outlier cases, and the norm is that great packaging can really polish a company and expand their brand and product. This is what we care about deeply at Pakible (www.pakible.com), the company I founded to help any company make beautiful packaging for their brands. Yes, typically it takes a long time to create packaging and is very costly, and that part I will admit is true. But that is also one of the things we are changing about the industry with Pakible. To not have to worry about the construction, sourcing it, designing it. We help people do that so they can focus on the rest of their business. |