Tatcha Delivers Excellence—Unboxing Marketers Take Note

This is a newsletter for marketers who understand the potential an unboxing experience has to shape your relationships with customers. It features expert insights, hot takes on your favorite brands, and everything you'll need to make your unboxing experience an unforgettable touchpoint.

We’ve covered two incredibly underwhelming unboxing experiences (Glossier & SEPHORA), so this week, I wanted to show you what phenomenal Unboxing Marketing looks like.?

Tatcha is a strong beauty brand, and there’s a lot you can learn from their packaging. I’m going to cover a few of the important highlights in this article, but we’ve got an in-depth video review (and an article with even more information) that you can explore here ?

Ok. Unboxing Marketers. Crack out your box cutters, and let's take a peek at an exemplary experience (9 out of 10 on the Unboxing Guidelines) that the vast majority of customers would appreciate receiving.

What are we looking at?

• 3 things they got right --- that you should be doing too.
• 1 thing they got wrong --- that you can do better.

Customer Name

Tatcha ships three different inserts. One is a handwritten note, and the other two are full-color package inserts. They all utilize a customer's name at the top.

Using the customer's name in this highly visible way does a lot for your brand, but perhaps most importantly, it tells the customer "This is not a generic piece of marketing. It is just for you."

Whatever you put after that name will very likely be read, provided you keep it unique and don't send the same message to everyone who orders repeatedly. If you can figure out a way to make personalization like this functional at scale, you should absolutely explore it further. If you can't, read on to learn how you can test and develop this channel on your own.

Call To Action

This can't be stressed enough, if you don't have a CTA in your box, you are losing money.

Tatcha had multiple CTA, and they all worked well. That being said, there was one in particular that could have been enhanced even further. Here is a simplified mockup of the CTA pictured at the base of one of their marketing pieces:

This is a functional CTA that would definitely bring in results, but if you want to take this model and improve upon it, here are four changes that could bring this to the next level.

1. The supporting text ("Our proprietary...") is geared toward how luxurious this product is, but it would be worth running a version that focuses on the benefits of the user instead.?
2. There is a slight disconnect between the title of the section, supporting copy, and CTA. Ideally, you would want all 3 of these things to be related. If you read them separately, you’ll find that the title and supporting copy could be interpreted as more information about the product in the box. They could do this better by adjusting the header to “Hadasei-3: Collection Spotlight” or simply mentioning that there is a complete line of Hadasei-3 products somewhere in the supporting copy.
3. “Scan to Shop” would likely do more for them in a larger font and with a time-sensitive element worked into the copy. For ex: “Order Today and Recieve 10% Off — Scan now ?”
4. Lastly, the QR links directly to a category listing. It has 13 products and “ADD TO BAG” buttons on each. They would likely increase conversions by creating an actual landing page for this unboxing marketing campaign with a single product recommendation. Then, they could optimize that recommendation page over time, develop a high-performing template, and roll out something similar to their other campaigns.

Product Info

Tatcha tells you more about their product in their unboxing experience than most other brands tell you on their website. They’ve provided personalized information about how it was made, the story of why it was made, background on the primary ingredient, how you should apply it, and a link to products that pair well with it. Here is just one of the three pieces that were in the box.

You can (and should) do something similar with your product information in a few ways.

• Answer your customer's questions upfront, and you’ll earn their trust.
• Tell your customers pieces of your brand's story, and you’ll begin to pique their interest.
• Show your customers that you can cater to them individually, and you’ll earn their loyalty.

Story

We've all felt that burst of excitement as we tear open a package from a brand we love. This is the moment of truth, and as unboxing marketers, it’s our playground. But have you ever paused to consider how exposing consumers to your brand story in this high-emotion touch point would impact their loyalty??

It is apparent in the package that Tatcha is taking this into consideration.?

Look at these simple (but impactful) statements I ran across in the marketing material for their experience.

Statement 1:

“Every formula is crafted at the Tatcha Institute in Tokyo, where leading scientists innovate within tradition. Balancing timeless Japanese botanicals with proven clinical ingredients…”

This sentence builds trust. Top scientists are crafting these products using lab-quality ingredients and ancient knowledge. What more could you ask of something you're applying to your skin?

Statement 2:

“Did you know that by caring for your skin with Tatcha…you’re also helping students around the world.”

You didn't just buy a product, you helped put someone through school. You can feel good about this expense, and you should keep that in mind next time you look at someone else's product.

You should be using short, high-impact statements like Tatcha's to showcase your brand's uniqueness. Test your messaging. Workshop the copy. How much meaningful information can you share with your customers in the shortest possible way?

Conclusion

Every unboxing marketer needs to be working toward an experience like Tatcha’s. They deliver expertly crafted products alongside one-to-one personalization, trackable URLs, full-color prints, recyclable material, and well-branded packaging.

Do yourself a favor and compare this experience to whatever you send out today. I am 100% positive you will find ways to improve your unboxing marketing initiatives.

You’ve got to remember, now is the time to improve your unboxing experience. This channel has existed forever and the adoption has been slow, but that won't remain true for much longer.

Innovative teams like Tatcha's are rapidly beginning to realize this channel matters because of a fundamental truth. When you deliver a product people want with material they actually care about, you’re going to start seeing immediate results.?

You don’t have to take my word for it either. The unboxing experience is the easiest channel in the world to test.?

1. Take two batches of 1k packages.?
2. Throw a QR code (pointing to a no-index landing page) in one set of boxes and nothing in the other.?
3. Count how much traffic comes to the page.
4. Multiply it by however many thousands of packages you ship.

Congratulations. You've gotten your first glimpse at the traffic (and missed revenue potential) you could have been learning to harness all along.

See you next week, Unboxing Marketers. Until then, remember to do something nice for yourself.

How we measure Unboxing Experiences

Every day at UnDigital, our team discusses the science behind Unboxing Marketing and how to measure the success of this touchpoint.

• What makes an Unboxing Marketing campaign great?
• What new trends are we seeing among major brands?
• How do we build something that drives consistent results?

Questions like these helped us implement our incredibly popular Unboxing Guidelines for Brands.

These guidelines are used to create millions of successful unboxing experiences every year, and they are tied to the 10-point scoring system we developed to provide feedback to brands similar to what you just read.

For anyone looking to improve their Unboxing Marketing game today, our free guide is the way to go.