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Newsletter: #946: The “Remarkable Wrappers” Issue

[Welcome back to the Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That! newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]

You have a fantastic opportunity to make a lasting impression and get people to talk about your company. It’s something you hand your customers with every product, and it’s so obvious that some companies miss it — your packaging.

Here’s how to make it more remarkable:

1. Make a point
2. Make shipping fun
3. Make someone smile
4. Check it out: This Was First

1. Make a point

Want to make a big deal out of a cool product feature? Make it immediately clear in your packaging. For example, Festina proves their watches are made for divers by selling each watch submerged in bags full of water. Now, there’s no question about what makes their stuff different — the packaging says it all. It also makes it easy for their customer to talk about the watch’s underwater capability in one sentence: “They sold it in a bag full of water.”

The lesson: How can you get your customers to start conversations about your product’s best feature?

Learn more: PSFK

2. Make shipping fun

For most online customers, shipping is the most boring (and sometimes frustrating) part of the transaction. But if you’re buying Senador Volstead beer, shipping is a fun part of the experience. Inspired by Prohibition, this beer is shipped in a teddy bear to mimic the camouflaging techniques 1920’s bootleggers used to transport their beer. It’s a cool way to make packaging worth talking about while also protecting the beer.

The lesson: Senador Volstead’s customers are much more likely to tell their friends about a bootlegging teddy bear than bubble wrap.

Learn more: Adverblog

3. Make someone smile

Cancer treatment can be scary and confusing to anyone, especially kids. So to help children understand their treatment and gain some hope for the cure, one hospital in Brazil rebranded their chemotherapy as a “Superformula.” To do it, they covered chemo-bags in insignias from superheroes like Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman. The hospital also hands out custom comic books that show the superheroes overcoming similar struggles to cancer with the same superformula.

The lesson: Can you think of a harder product to reposition? If packaging can do it for chemotherapy, think of the possibilities you have to make your stuff more remarkable.

Learn more: Adweek

4. Check it out: This Was First

Even the internet’s most famous sites had to start somewhere. Learn about the beginning of brands like YouTube, eBay, Groupon, and more.

Check it out: This Was First

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