Known for its commitment to helping women thrive through donations and community support initiatives, Thrive Causemetics is certainly a brand we can get behind, but its unboxing experience is due for a major overhaul.
Feeling impersonal, generic, and simply rushed-feeling, the brand’s unboxing earned a mere 4 out of 10 under UnDigital’s Unboxing Guidelines.
Just as is true for any other brand we score, Thrive Causemetics’ unboxing experience was stacked up against UnDigital’s 10-point Unboxing Experience Guidelines for Brands, an unweighted system that features two categories — Personalization and Presentation — that are then both split into five subcategories.
The Personalization category includes the subcategories of customer name, product information, relevance, call-to-action (CTA), and story. Brands stand to earn either 0 or 1 point in each of these areas.
The Presentation category consists of branding, cleanliness, space utilization, returns, and delight, and unlike those of Personalization, brands can earn either 0, 0.5, or 1 point in each Presentation subcategory.
Thrive Causemetics scores across each of these ten subcategories are detailed below:
Ideally, brands should provide personalized marketing collateral that uses the recipient’s first name, as it goes a long way in making the experience feel relevant and personal.
Thrive Causemetics didn’t do anything to make the package feel like it was just for me, failing to incorporate my name anywhere in the unboxing experience other than the generic shipping label and receipt. If not for that, my order could have easily gone to anyone, which left me feeling like just another number in a system as opposed to a valued customer.
Providing your customers with product information can help decrease their time to value and ensure they can put your products to use right away, and even if your packaging is too small to accommodate a readable font, you should always consider providing a supplemental insert.
Thankfully, Thrive Causemetics did include product information on the packaging of all four items I received. However, it was not in an accessible font size and many consumers would struggle to read anything on the exterior of these items.
There are lots of ways for brands to make their unboxing experiences relevant to customers, such as including a branded insert, personalized samples, or a thank-you note.
On the other hand, they can take the Thrive Causemetics approach, doing absolutely nothing to make the experience relevant and undoubtedly leaving customers feeling underappreciated.
Indeed, after scoring just a moment ago, the Thrive Causemetics unboxing experience stumbled again, as it was not tailored to me or my order in the slightest. My name wasn’t used in the collateral, and the brand failed to include an order-specific insert.
Every unboxing experience should feature a simple but explicit CTA. It will tell a customer what they should do next and encourage them to re-engage with your brand.
Thrive Causemetics, though, didn’t include any CTA in the unboxing experience, nor did they include any insert or internal messaging, save for the receipt. Omitting the CTA leaves customers just like me feeling as though their journey with the brand is over, which will very likely cause Thrive Causemetics to lose money.
Always weave some of your brand story into the unboxing experience. You don’t have to be long-winded. Include a few lines of text that encapsulate your values, mission, or charitable works so that you can build relationships with your audience.
Thrive Causemetics has a great story and operates under an inspiring mission, but not a single one of its customers would be able to glean any of that from the unboxing experience. The brand should have provided some general information on how it helps women thrive through its charitable works, but it didn’t.
In general, branded packaging needs to be immediately recognizable and in sync with the brand’s image, especially with DTC packaging. To that end, Thrive Causemetics delivered my package in a brown paper envelope, and though that would typically make for a pretty bland choice, the brand did a good job incorporating its signature turquoise color and branding onto the envelope.
Presentation matters, especially when you remember that most DTC customers will never set foot in your store or interact with your brand in person. These unboxing experiences are all they get, so they need to be made to count with flawless packaging.
As for Thrive Causemetics, even though I loved the branded packaging, the envelope itself looked a bit dirty. I’m not sure if it had just been sitting on a warehouse shelf for too long or if the packaging was just on the cheaper side. In any case, the package wasn’t dirty or blemished enough to lose a full point, but it wasn’t clean or crisp enough to get a full point, either.
Thrive Causemetics made good use of space. Its envelope had some built-in padding, and although that layer was thin, it was enough to protect the types of products I ordered. After unboxing, I had a single piece of relatively flat trash to get rid of, making for an easy clean-up.
Brands need to ensure that they minimize waste through their space utilization efforts without exposing products to undue risk of damage. Ideally, recyclable materials are key; stay away from plastics whenever possible.
Thrive Causemetics included a couple of sentences about their return process on the shipping receipt. They also included contact information for customer service, but that’s simply not enough. To earn the full point here, the brand needed to do more to make returns frictionless. It could have provided a QR code link to its returns page or, preferably, included a pre-printed return shipping label.
The Thrive Causemetics unboxing experience was far from delightful, instead being generic, under-personalized, and forgettable.
The problem here boils down to the almost total lack of personalization. Delightful unboxing experiences make consumers feel like the package was put together just for them — Thrive Causemetics’ experience just didn’t do that.
UnDigital’s Unboxing Guidelines for Brands can help you avoid the missteps made by Thrive Causemetics while delivering a memorable unboxing journey your customers will love. Check out our guidelines to learn more and make unboxing marketing one of your greatest strengths.
