A brand’s packaging can make or break confidence – and its bottom line. And while the digital narrative around which so much of modern-day life is built gives greater access to consumers than ever and offers new ways to engage and interact, it also makes it easier for consumers to damage or abandon a brand if they feel they’ve been wronged.
Nothing destroys self-confidence like losing a battle with a package marked ‘easy open’. Think of the repeated attempts to peel the easy-open corner with your fingernail. You try separating it by flicking it back and forth to no avail. There have probably been times when you considered trying with your teeth.
And what about the ridiculous clamshells that incise the skin of so many fingertips? Some packaging can, quite literally, torture us. It can extract all the joy of getting a new product and replace it with unimaginable frustration. We call this ‘wrap rage’.
In some ways, we humans are simple creatures. We like things to be easy. So why do some packaging designs ignore this cardinal rule of human nature by being outrageously difficult to open?
That said, some businesses have the foresight and determination to challenge the accepted standard and to find a solution that makes things easier for their customers and the environment—putting a stop to this common affliction.
Even if you’re not a marketing master, it should be clear that making your customers angry is a bad way to encourage repeat business. Making it easy for customers to remove your packaging and access the product inside is an important part of creating a positive user experience.
Old ways won’t open new doors
It’s not only annoying, wrap rage can be dangerous, too. Stories abound of homeowners resorting to scissors, pliers, nutcrackers and even hammers to tackle stubborn packaging — often with painful consequences.
And the evidence of this frustrating phenomenon isn’t purely anecdotal. In our recent consumer survey, 57% of consumers reported openability as a key issue with packaging. Furthermore, cartons with no opening device ranked number two in the most frustrating pack types.
Success is often buried on the other side of frustration. The marker of a successful business is one that takes time to understand who will be interacting with their products. They search for barriers and points of exclusion in their customer journey and address them to reduce complexity in the consumer’s purchasing journey.
With such a strong feeling toward openability voiced by consumers, and in the age where unboxing videos get serious YouTube coverage, facilitating frustration-free opening is where Filtrona Tapes can and does add value to the packaging experience.
With the World Health Organization estimating that “between 2015 and 2050, the proportion of the world’s population over 60 years will nearly double from 12% to 22%”, brands will increasingly need to create more inclusive packaging strategies. Making packaging accessible to all, including the older population and those with different dexterity requirements, remains a key requirement for discerning brand owners. Indeed, at its worst, accessing packaging can even lead to injury and even hospitalisation!
The best treatment for wrap rage is to create frustration-free packaging. Choosing a packaging option that will protect your product while still allowing consumers to open it without a rage-induced melt-down is something we have decades of experience in helping top brands across the globe with.
Opening remarks
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” While that’s the opening line to Charles Dickens’s “A Tale of Two Cities” and one of the most well-known opening lines to a novel of all time, its sentiment could also be said of the maddening experience of opening modern product packaging.
Thankfully, we know a thing or two about openability. So, it’s time to sit back and prepare for a masterclass in the difficult art of the beginning.
In life, we talk about opening doors, eye-opening experiences, opening up when we’re struggling, how the opening play is crucial in a game of chess, the grand openings and re-openings of brand-new state-of-the-art, multi-million-pound buildings, and certainly in our offices, about packaging as being the only marketing tool with a 100% open rate.
The opening lines of novels can, understandably, be stressful for writers. Think of the pressure to start with a bang, beauty, or unparalleled genius. Every great movie also needs a great opening scene to hook viewers from the start. Also, think of the thrill of a theatrical performance on its opening night. There’s just something different about that performance that makes it different from any other performance.
There is so much nervousness and excitement about getting the opening right, and while there are a million ways packaging can convince customers to listen, why do we often overlook the act of opening? Or at least feel nervous about our packaging’s performance in that regard.
Whether you’re starting from scratch or are faced with a difficult second album scenario, where you’re looking to impress the customer again, you’ve got to ask how well you are seeing your customer. Is it time to open the lens, let in more light and look again?
Until recently, many companies have taken a very shallow perspective, focusing on the moment of transaction and delivering a customer experience that’s targeted, fleeting, and often forgettable.
But in a world obsessed with time-saving and efficiency, easy-open packaging is a hit for many consumers.
For example, using tapes from our Supastrip® and VakTape™ ranges to facilitate opening offers quick, easy, and blade-free access to packaging to help navigate the frustrating opening experiences that consumers hate.
Our premium quality tear tape opening solutions serve the paper and board, food and beverage, tobacco, and health and personal care markets, to name but a few, and can be customised to suit a brand’s needs.
And it’s not just wrap rage that our easy opening tapes can help resolve. We also have solutions that can help meet sustainability goals and deliver on openability sitting within our sought-after ECO Range, in the form of Rippatape® Halo, a sustainable paper-based tear tape recently crowned as one of the UK’s most innovative packaging solutions.
So, while companies recognise the need to connect with customers on a deeper level to earn their trust and loyalty, ease has become one of the most important elements to consider when designing a new customer experience.
Our range of tear tapes can help deliver the right message to the right customer at the right time and, crucially, in the right way, strengthen your brand. You only have to look at the attention to detail afforded by some of the world’s most successful brands to see that considering all consumer touchpoints before, during and after the shopping trip ensures they hit the mark in curating a comprehensive journey.
Every project brings unique challenges in cultivating a personalised and holistic customer experience. Still, with our range of tear tapes and application technology, ten years from now, your customers, and your customer’s customers, will be able to look back and say you truly chose your packaging and that you didn’t settle for it.