Lady Gaga is a superstar known for her flair, unique style, head-turning outfits, and exceptional vocal range. Similarly, her beauty brand, Haus Labs, has developed quite a following, partly thanks to its “high-tech” approach to beauty goods and exceptional marketing, though Lady Gaga’s sheer star power hasn’t hurt the brand’s reach, either.
Still, Haus Labs by Lady Gaga only managed a mediocre 5 out of 10 on UnDigital’s Unboxing Guidelines. Though we were impressed by their branding and storytelling, we were largely disappointed by the lack of personalization and the amount of package waste. A breakdown of Haus Labs’ performance is below.
UnDigital graded Haus Labs as it does any brand through the use of our unweighted Unboxing Experience Guidelines for Brands, a robust scoring system that makes use of data from millions of DTC packages.
The guidelines’ rubric is split into two categories — Personalization and Presentation — with five subcategories each. Those in the Personalization segment can receive either 0 or 1 point. For each Presentation subcategory, a brand can earn 0, half, or one full point, making for a maximum possible score of 10 points.
Here’s how and why Haus Labs only managed to score five of those ten points:
Haus Labs did not include any first-name personalization inside its packaging — my name was only featured on the shipping label. That’s surprising, as Haus Labs included two separate branded inserts, either of which would have been a great place to feature my name.
Implementing your customer’s first name inside your packaging is huge for personalization because when they see their name in large print, that will get their attention immediately. You can demonstrate that you value their business and that the package was prepared just for them, resulting in better brand loyalty and engagement, which are great for your bottom line.
Earning the point here requires that brands simply offer some basic how-to instructions so customers can use their products immediately. Haus Labs delivered on that front, providing some product information on the packaging.
Still, you should strive to do more than just the bare minimum. For instance, consider including a QR code link inside your packaging that directly connects users to a brief how-to video. You could also include something like a postcard or other insert that provides simple step-by-step use instructions. That’s especially wise if your product packaging and fonts are small, as with our Haus Labs order.
Haus Labs didn’t include any personally relevant package inserts, such as a postcard, the aforementioned use instructions, or free samples related to our order. As such, they lost out on the point from the relevance subcategory.
When applying the concept to your unboxing marketing strategy, remember that you don’t have to get too fancy; just include something relevant to the customer that demonstrates the order was personalized for them. Haus Labs could have included practically any relevant auxiliary marketing material to earn a point here; they just didn’t.
Every unboxing experience needs to include at least one call-to-action (CTA), and Haus Labs delivered several, which all worked because they provided clear instructions without coming off as pushy or overbearing.
Their placement was awesome, too: Haus Labs included a full-color branded insert with its pair of CTAs. First, the brand encouraged us to tag them @Hauslabs, providing icons for their three social media pages and two hashtags for good measure. We were also told to visit their website to discover more.
Here is a CTA we use frequently in our Unboxing Marketing articles. We know our audience wants to learn how to improve their unboxing experiences, so we provide free content that helps them do just that. We also tell them exactly what to do to get that content and continue their journey. You should be incorporating something similar (and even more personalized) for your audiences.
Another big win for Haus Labs comes from its storytelling capability. The full-color insert provided a paragraph about the brand, its mission, and its products. On top of that, a second insert featured a thank-you message and some information about the Born This Way Foundation, Lady Gaga’s non-profit organization.
Haus Labs’ package was sealed with branded tape, and when opened, we discovered a bright turquoise interior lid, complete with the brand’s slogan, “The Future is Beautiful,” and their social media handle. The second layer of packaging was also sealed with branded tape.
The package, as well as the product itself, was free from blemishes and damage. Overall, the package was what we expected from a respectable brand like Haus Labs.
Haus Labs may have nailed its branding, storytelling, and cleanliness, but it failed dramatically regarding space utilization. Typically, brands that fail here simply use a box that is way too big for the product they are shipping, but Haus Labs took it a step further, cramming the box full of as much packaging paper as it could handle, which is astoundingly wasteful.
Brands everywhere should be looking for ways to reduce waste. It's bad for your bottom line. Consumers don't want to receive chores from your brand, and it makes you look like you don't care for the environment and communities you service.
Brands should make their returns processes as frictionless as possible by providing customers with a link to the returns page or, better yet, a pre-printed return shipping label, but Haus Labs didn’t do either. That’s a real shame, as they clearly had plenty of room to include a shipping label in the box in place of some of the immense amount of packaging paper.
Including information about your return policy boosts consumer trust and reduces payment disputes.
Brands don’t have to score points in all previous categories to still come through in terms of delighting consumers, but they do need to offer a holistic experience that offers a great presentation and significant amounts of personalization. All of those missed opportunities caused Haus Labs to fall short here, too.
The good news, though, is that the brand can easily cultivate a delightful unboxing experience by making minor tweaks to its current approach. Lightening the packaging paper and including the customer's name on the thank-you insert would significantly increase engagement.
Haus Labs certainly nails the branding and storytelling aspects of unboxing marketing, but they fall short of expectations in terms of personalization, failing to include any relevant inserts or use the customer’s name anywhere other than the shipping label.
Haus Labs’ biggest misstep, though, is its space utilization. The package was huge compared to the size of the product, and the brand filled every cubic inch of that dead space with meaningless paper. While we are glad they didn’t use plastic, their wastefulness is still egregious.
Your brand can use the insights from our unboxing experience to improve your unboxing marketing strategy. Take a holistic approach and address the aspects of personalization and presentation that Haus Labs missed. For more information on how to optimize your unboxing experience, explore UnDigital’s unboxing guidelines today.
