The Easier to Use, The Better
Perhaps one may argue that packaging should do more than just store the product and dispense it and that would be a fitting view as well. Gone are the days where things are done from necessity. Basic necessities have been met. We’re living at a time and place where aspects such as the place where the product is sold, how much it weights or if the packaging can be reutilized or not, affects how a customer ‘experiences’ a product, which is likely to be packaged.
Now, for most beauty product users – packaging does a lot of things but most importantly, it reassures them on the product. Marketing and consistent advertising, product reviews, the place of purchase and how easy it is to use ultimately influence the overall customer experience. The most important aspect of all is by no doubt the ease of use. If the packaging withholds the customer from using the product with the least strain – all the advertising, the pricing and location are automatically associated with a negative episode of using the product.
How Important is Customer Experience
Through the use of the internet, a lot of businesses today are able to obtain general customer and public opinion regarding their products and services. Review platforms and websites have played a tremendous role in assisting business owners and industry participants in understanding what customer experience is and what it entails of.
The data from the usage of these review platforms shows us that customer experience is vitally important. Research by the Marketing Institute of California shows that customers are more likely to abandon using a product if it is difficult or unpleasurable to use. The same data demonstrates that consumers are more willing to spend extra money on a product that is easy to use than on a product that is relatively affordable but somewhat ‘challenging’ to use.
This data illustrates that consumers are perfectly capable of deciding not to buy a product simply because their previous experience with it wasn’t the best. From a marketing and sales perspective; this would mean that customer experience is one of the most important factors in business as it lingers above price as one of the primary if not the main decision altering factors.
In Conclusion
While the four marketing P’s remain – it is clear that one is amiss. The fifth P is Personal Experience. Products are sold to both businesses and the public in large quantities and to large numbers. Perhaps at the earlier point of the distribution process where the products are sold in bulk to suppliers; there is no such thing as personal experience. However, once the product gets into the homes of individuals – the situation changes. It doesn’t take much from a troubled customer who has had an unpleasant experience with a product to influence thousands of other households to reconsider buying or using the product.
In the end summary, what we learned while researching customer experience, are primarily two points: businesses shouldn’t see their product as 'mainly' being for the retailers who distribute these products on their behalf. The very people in the business must first take the initiative of experiencing the product beforehand themselves. If the experience isn’t the best – then that will echo throughout the product life cycle. The other point we have come to understand better is: in the case of beauty and wellness products; the product and the packaging cannot be separated. The end-user can only 'experience' the serum, scrub or cream product by means of the packaging in which the product is stored; in which case the packaging proves to be of utmost importance.
Visit the products page on the Floraison website (www.floraison.net/products) to explore cosmetic packaging items which are easy to use and which deplete the stored product completely – to the satisfaction of a happy customer, every time.