Aside from providing some basic product information, Pat McGrath Labs failed to personalize the unboxing experience in any way.
As such, the brand earned a 4 out of 10 under UnDigital’s Unboxing Guidelines, demonstrating a firm grasp of the importance of presentation but almost completely neglecting the need for personalization, leading to an unboxing process that can best be summed up as “meh.”
UnDigital, as with any other brand, scored Pat McGrath Labs using its ten-point unweighted system, which is based on extensive direct-to-consumer (DTC) package research. The system features two main categories, Personalization and Presentation, which are then both divided into five subcategories.
The Personalization category includes sections for customer name, product information, relevance, call-to-action (CTA), and story, in which brands can earn either 0 or 1 point. The Presentation category covers branding, cleanliness, space utilization, returns, and delight, and brands can earn either 0, 0.5, or 1 point in each of those aspects.
Below is a detailed breakdown of Pat McGrath Labs’ scores in each of the ten subcategories:
Pat McGrath Labs did not implement the customer’s name anywhere inside the packaging. To earn a point here, the brand would have needed to deliver some sort of personalized marketing collateral, such as a thank you note. The goal is to make the customer feel special and draw the customer’s attention to a specific component of the material, like the CTA.
Talk to your customers in your marketing collateral. Refer to them by their first name to boost engagement and make the experience more memorable.
Pat McGrath Labs provided some basic product information, including how to use the items and a brief rundown of key ingredients, which earns the brand a point for decreasing the consumer’s time to value for the consumer and helping them start using the product right away.
Still, the brand could — and should — have done more here, such as including an insert with additional product information, as the text on the packaging was in a hard-to-read font.
Pat McGrath Labs didn’t include any relevant collateral, such as an insert or samples, to make the unboxing experience feel unique. Overall, the process was generic and largely “cookie-cutter” in nature: We’re sure that, no matter what we ordered, the experience would have been nearly identical.
You can succeed where Pat McGrath Labs slipped up by tailoring every unboxing to the customer and their order. Something as simple as a product-specific sample or insert would have made the unboxing feel relevant and personal.
Customers are generally excited to receive and open their online orders, and it is that excitement that makes them more apt to respond to any CTA you deliver. Pat McGrath Labs didn’t include a single one, which is comparable to throwing money down the drain.
Always include at least one CTA in your unboxing process. Ask your audience to follow your brand on social media, check out your newest products, or sign up for your digital coupon mailing list. Whatever you do, encourage a follow-up interaction with your brand.
An unboxing experience should leave customers feeling closer to the brand they purchased from, but the Pat McGrath Labs unboxing experience fails to do so, lacking any details pertaining to their brand story. They didn’t express their values, mission, history, or any other aspect of what makes them unique.
Always share some of your brand’s story with your customers. Including even a few lines of copy within the packaging can nurture relationships and make your audience more loyal.
Pat McGrath Labs partially redeemed its unboxing experience with its presentation. The package was branded, featuring a two-tone interior and the company’s name on the interior of the lid.
Moving forward, Pat McGrath Labs should take its branding a step further by including a colorized insert, and they could check multiple boxes off at once by adding the customer’s name and a CTA to that insert.
The interior of Pat McGrath Labs’ packaging was clean and free from blemishes, as were the products themselves, but the outside of the packaging just looked a bit dingy, as if it had been sitting in a damp warehouse for far too long.
In the world of DTC goods, customers aren’t interacting with your brand face-to-face, instead forming their opinions based on the quality of your website, products, and packaging, so it is critical that you nail the presentation.
The product was not a bad fit for the box, but there was a fair amount of dead space. That’s not what cost the beauty brand a point, though. The bigger issue is the wasteful use of packaging. There was quite a bit of bulky packaging materials, much of which was plastic. Pat McGrath Labs should switch to a more environmentally friendly packaging material and use slightly less of it.
The only thing that Pat McGrath Labs absolutely nailed was the returns process. They provided a pre-printed return label and a QR code link to their returns page. If a customer needed to send something back, they would have no problem navigating the process.
Always make it easy for your customers to file returns or exchange requests. Sending a product back is inherently tedious, but you can salvage customer relationships by demonstrating your willingness to make things right.
Pat McGrath Labs did a few things well, but the experience was not delightful by a long shot. They need to significantly improve the personalization components of their unboxing strategy if they want to truly delight customers.
Brands like Pat McGrath Labs can capitalize on its missed opportunities by prioritizing personalization in their unboxing strategies. If you want to learn more about how to drive revenue and maximize engagement through unboxing marketing, check out UnDigital’s unboxing guidelines today.
