Beauty brand Lancôme has the foundation in place for a great unboxing experience, but an overall lack of personalization and a failure to deliver a call-to-action (CTA) undermines that strong start.
The brand earned 4.5 out of 10 points under Undigital’s Unboxing Guidelines, demonstrating that it excels in a few areas while leaving some opportunities (and a ton of money) on the table.
Lancôme’s package was measured against UnDigital’s 10-point Unboxing Experience Guidelines for Brands, an unweighted system designed using research carried out across millions of direct-to-consumer DTC packages and a rubric that includes two broad categories: Personalization and Presentation.
Lancôme’s performance is detailed below:
Brands need to include the customer’s name somewhere other than the standard shipping label, but Lancôme fails to do that. Its package contained a sample catalog with various shades to try — which would be a great place to integrate the buyer’s name into the unboxing experience — and could have included a personalized postcard with a simple thank you message, but the brand ultimately missed the opportunity to win their customer's attention.
When evaluating your own unboxing strategy, ensure you are using the customer’s name in one to two areas other than the shipping label. Adding the buyer’s name to the unboxing process drives home the point that the box and its contents are “just for them.” If you do this, you'll be 10x more likely to get engagement from your customers in this touchpoint.
Initially, the sample positioned at the top of the box could be confused with a product information pamphlet. Sadly, it was just the sample — a beautifully branded one, for sure — and nothing more. Lancôme should have provided some product information in the packaging to help get more out of the order.
Generally speaking, even if your product is relatively simple, give the users some tips or additional information about the product. You can include a QR code, a link to an instructional video, a short bulleted list, or even a small postcard telling them how or why it was made.
The packaging and samples (of which there were lots) were relevant to the order and succeeded in making the unboxing experience feel more personalized. Lancôme did a good job of selecting samples a consumer would likely enjoy based on the core product.
With that said, though, adding samples is not the only way to make an unboxing experience more relevant to your audience. Including product information, a personalized note, or any other supplement content can earn you a win in the relevance category.
Consumers are, naturally, excited to receive their orders, which is why every DTC package needs to include an explicit CTA. If you close out a great unboxing experience with one, your audience members will be much more likely to re-engage with your brand.
Lancôme didn’t deliver any CTA, though, explicit or otherwise, even when they could have easily delivered by providing a discount code for their latest products or asking to sign up for their mailing list.
Be honest with yourself, are you providing an explicit CTA in your packages? Do your customers know what they should do next with your brand? Did you create a CTA specifically for the audience engaging with your content? Check out our example. You're learning about unboxing marketing, we're giving you a free eguide, all you have to do is click the image. That's the level of CTA you want in your packages to avoid missing out on a massive amount of customer engagement.
Lancôme shared a part of its brand story on the free sample positioned at the top of the box, telling a little about the company and the product while maintaining a consistent and engaging brand voice.
When designing your unboxing experience, tell your story. Briefly convey one of your values, provide a bit of unique history about the product, or share something about your community involvement.
From the outside, Lancôme’s box looks like your average cardboard packaging, but the inside is fully branded using a white backing and the brand’s name. The bottom of the box has attached packaging paper, which is also branded.
While you can certainly brand the outside of your packaging, many brands avoid doing so to help discourage theft. Therefore, it is generally recommended to only brand the inside of your package. It is an approach that elevates the customer experience without putting their orders in danger.
The box and products were clean and free from damage, and the packaging itself did not have any visible scuffs, dents, tears, or marks of any kind. That’s about as good as it gets in terms of DTC packaging.
Lancôme only earned half a point here, seeing as it used most of the space inside the box but relied on its plethora of samples as filler. The bottom of the box was packed with the attached branded packaging paper, which served to protect the product and enhance the unboxing experience, but Lancôme then placed the order and samples on top of the paper in no particular order.
Finally, they used the foundation sample as the top-side filler, which created a bit of a barrier between the other products and the top of the box. Lancôme could have improved the unboxing experience by using molded packaging or a bit of branded filler to protect the products.
Lancôme didn’t include anything inside the box that could assist with the returns process. While their site offers a simple return policy and a tool to generate a return shipping label, Lancôme could have made the entire thing much easier. Specifically, it would do Lancôme well to include a return shipping label or at least a QR code link to the returns page of their website.
While most consumers would enjoy the mix of free samples, it’s likely that they wouldn’t exactly find the Lancôme unboxing experience delightful. The lack of product information, a customer name, or CTA demonstrates some major personalization shortfalls that leave us wanting more.
Today’s consumers expect a lot from their unboxing experiences, and where Lancôme has the makings of a great unboxing experience, they certainly need to prioritize personalization.
At UnDigital, we provide brands with actionable insights that they can use to exceed these lofty expectations, drive better engagement, and keep customers coming back for more. Make sure to explore our unboxing guidelines if you want to learn how to strengthen your brand’s revenue through unboxing marketing.
