
Dear Packaging, I Hate You - tigrella
https://medium.com/@BoltVC/dear-packaging-i-hate-you-6608dceefe8b
======
beat
Totally disagree with this article. Talking about startup resource constraints
while illustrating with the products of the biggest, most successful company
in the world is more than a little disingenuous.

Focusing on a great user experience _includes_ focusing on the packaging. The
experience should be totally seamless. For an upscale/luxury consumer goods
company (like Apple), shoddy packaging is _expensive_ \- far more expensive
than the luxury packaging whose costs the author decries. If I want a mediocre
experience, I'll go to HP or Asus or something. A continuously delightful user
experience buys customer loyalty. The thoughtfulness of good packaging
engenders trust.

If I see bad packaging, I trust the the attention to detail less for the
company that made the product. If they don't care about the box, they won't
care about the buttons, or the software, or the color correctness, or any of
the thousands of other details that make a consumer product. Then I stop
shopping for quality, and start shopping for a price point and feature list.

When Apple argues that they have the best products in the world, they can
point right to their packaging - they have the best packaging in the world.
Best in every way.

Is this good logic for a startup? Of course not! No startup has Apple's
resources. A startup has to focus on ONE thing. But Apple has to focus on ALL
things.

~~~
hamburglar
Apple _used_ to have the best packaging in the world, but lately it's been my
opinion that they've lost sight of making the packaging functionally nice and
are simply focusing on making it nice _looking_. Case in point, the incident
last year where the guy first in line at the Apple store for his iPhone on
release day struggled with opening the box and ended up launching his new
phone onto the sidewalk in front of a news crew. Incidentally, I watched a
friend do _exactly_ the same thing the very next day. And recently, a friend
and I both bought some particular apple accessory and separately commented on
how difficult it was to figure out how to get it out of the box.

~~~
kenrikm
Agree++ The iPhone 6 Packaging was terrible. Way too easy to drop the phone
since it was in a really shallow groove right at the top.

~~~
agumonkey
Motorola used a similar packaging for the Moto X. Ironically, the cheaper Moto
G packaging uses simple deeper cardboard folds and thus is a lot more
'secure'. See: [http://imgur.com/XTNbTr7](http://imgur.com/XTNbTr7)

    
    
      "Being rich demands fine motor skills."
        -- a high end smartphone owner

~~~
kenrikm
Or if motor skills are lacking, future iCracked customer, Disclosure: I work
for iCracked (YCW12).

------
calciphus
Generally, I agree. I feel like I'm wasting my money when I unwrap something
with overly "beautiful" packaging. It's a tiny fraction of my experience, I've
already bought it at this point and figuring out all the nested little
components hidden away and all the custom printing is just adding to the price
with expensive trash.

I know it's heresy, but I hate Apple packaging for exactly this reason.
Startups seeking to emulate wasteful and expensive packaging are convincing me
they're more concerned with image than substance.

~~~
dublinben
I haven't opened a recent Apple product, but they tend to have _less_
packaging than a comparable device from many other brands.

------
TeMPOraL
Every time this topic pops up, I'm reminded of the scene from Continuum (I
checked it out recently, it's in the third episode of the first season).
There, a time traveller from the future buys a bluetooth headset and reflects
on the 'ridiculous amount of packaging for something so small'. "No wonder you
had a trash problem [in 20th century]".

(I recommend the show strongly, btw. While often more "fi" than "sci", it has
an extremely good discussion of the interaction between people, government and
private interests. In the show's universe, corporations have bailed out the
failing government and formed a Corporate Congress...).

------
duderific
I thought this was going to a humorous article about wrap rage, which is a
pretty interesting topic. This article sounded a bit whiny to me - "I can't
compete with Apple's packaging! Waah!" I don't think anyone expects a
startup's packaging to be at the level of Apple, so I'm not sure the topic is
all that valid.

------
bbarn
I might be alone in this, but I have an alternative problem with really nice
packaging... The "don't waste stuff" mentality my parents instilled in me
makes it really hard to throw the stuff out. I often find when I'm moving, and
downsizing stuff, I'll have ignored an empty product box because it was too
nice to toss when I started using the product.. the product of which, I may
have long since given up on.

As a result, sometimes I feel like I'm hoarding the crap, as if it's a
necessity later if I want to sell it, or I'm gonna make some warranty claim on
it?

------
sblawrie
Packaging = Marketing. It's expensive, but it makes your product seem better
to the end user. Yes, Apple has more money to spend on marketing, and your
small startup can't compete on that front.

------
ginko
One of the best unboxing experiences I had with a device was the Amazon
Kindle.

Simple, minimal waste (a big factor for me), and already preprogrammed to my
Amazon account.

------
Skrypt
I think the author focuses too much on outlier examples (Apple, Oculus).

Great packaging and branding has a serious impact for companies today than
previous years. More people sell online then ever before (shopify, etsy, etc)
and there's no longer that brick-n-mortar experience you typically go through
when buying your products in a physical shop. You buy online now and then that
item is shipped to you.

In many ways, the packaging IS the brick-n-mortar experience for customers
when they receive your product. No one gets excited about seeing a generic
brown box on their doorstep. They get excited about the fact it has Amazon
Prime printed on the side with the branded tape. "Yes! My what-you-call-it
just arrived!".

This is the same experience that companies like Bonobos, Birchbox, Naturebox,
Teespring, etc deliver. Its branded extremely well and they all care very much
about delivering an extension of their brand to someones doorstep. In the case
of a lot of subscription box companies, the products inside are relatively
cheap to source. A large cost IS the packaging because they are delivering on
an experience.

Try the World's box is fucking amazing (www.trytheworld.com). It feels good
opening and seeing what's in store for you this month. I'm sure the products
inside cost next to nothing, but its not just about that.

The author seems to make a case that Apple spends way too much on packaging
(not surprising considering Steve Jobs cared about every detail inside and
out). Then he uses Oculus as an example of really generic packaging that
people go amazeballs for. Uh, yea we're talking about a 1 in a million type
product that sold for billions, and did you see their DK1 packaging? It came
in a freaking suitcase basically.

I think these are both pretty outlier cases, and the norm is that great
packaging can really polish a company and expand their brand and product.

This is what we care about deeply at Pakible (www.pakible.com), the company I
founded to help any company make beautiful packaging for their brands.

Yes, typically it takes a long time to create packaging and is very costly,
and that part I will admit is true. But that is also one of the things we are
changing about the industry with Pakible. To not have to worry about the
construction, sourcing it, designing it. We help people do that so they can
focus on the rest of their business.

------
germinalphrase
In addition to cost we have significant waste. A young designer named Aaron
Mickelson created a 'packaging-less' product line that was consumed as part of
the product itself. Certainly, there are going to be practical concerns - but
it's not a bad direction to be turning our focus.

[http://design-milk.com/aaron-mickelson-redesigns-consumer-
pa...](http://design-milk.com/aaron-mickelson-redesigns-consumer-packaging-
eliminate-waste/)

~~~
dublinben
Those are all really nice designs. The only criticism I have is with the final
one.

Some bagged tea (Celestial Seasonings, etc.) is already available in superior
packaging. They use a single unwaxed carboard box for all bags. None of the
bags have string or paper, making them completely compostable.

------
Mithaldu
Is it just me or is this a stealth commercial for Pencil?

~~~
paulgerhardt
Doubtful. From what a quick scan on Crunchbase says, Bolt did not make any
investments in FiftyThree (the makers of Pencil) nor do they share investors.

Bolt has however made a number of investments in hardware companies that
gained traction through crowdfunding. This is the audience.

Not all of these companies were founded by people with backgrounds in this
space, so the model they resort to when looking for "nice" is to emulate
Apple. FiftyThree is a former Microsoft industrial design team so they had
knowledge of how to make any kind of packaging. They serve as a great goal
post for Bolt to point to as an alternative example of "nice" _that 's not one
of their own investments._ The implication here is that they are not self-
promoting.

------
mrmondo
Here I was ready to agree on the poor state of language specific package
managers...

------
tsunamifury
The author is implying that startups are Cargo-culting great design by merely
copying high end packaging but not ensuring their product is actually
excellent and useful.

I agree to an extent, but really why not both. A great product should be a
FIRST priority, then a great on boarding experience should follow just after.

But maybe, just maybe -- focus on making that onboarding experience as minimal
as possible, not full of needless packaging and long animated videos.

------
swalsh
I like how they show the DK2 as boring. I got the DK1, and it came in a hard
plastic case with custom foam cutout. That thing had to be fairly expensive...

------
smackfu
Reminds me a lot of their previous article: [https://medium.com/@BoltVC/no-
you-cant-manufacture-that-like...](https://medium.com/@BoltVC/no-you-cant-
manufacture-that-like-apple-does-93bea02a3bbf)

That one had a lot less anger, and just suggested that you should not compete
with Apple in their areas of expertise, which would probably be a good idea in
the field of packaging as well.

------
archagon
Packaging is the real world analogue of an app icon. Your product has to grab
and retain my attention within two seconds for me to give it any consideration
at all. Does Apple packaging have that effect? You bet it does! Do nicely
packaged Kickstarters pique my curiosity more than cardbord-box prototypes?
Yes, by far.

Appearances matter quite a bit, I'm afraid.

------
owly
The worst thing about Apple packaging is the environmental impact. There is no
need for so much plastic. I know they could design a recycled cardboard insert
which would achieve the same design sensibilities and be a selling point to
environmentally conscious consumers. STOP POISONING THE EARTH AND OCEANS!

~~~
_jsn
Apple's packaging does not necessarily optimize for recyclable materials
(though they do, sometimes). More importantly, they optimize for space
efficiency.

The last few generations of iMac come in a box that is sloped on one edge,
whereas they used to be a standard rectangular prism. This unusual reduction
in size allows them to tessellate the boxes in shipping and fit significantly
more boxes on each airplane. This saves the company millions (literally
millions of dollars from a seemingly-minor packaging change!) and also reduces
the amount of jet fuel being burned to ship them around the world. Everyone
wins, environment included.

But yes, it is also true that your lightning cables come wrapped in a little
plastic thing. It would be nice to choose a more biodegradable material for
that sort of thing.

------
sksixk
why not a real example of a small company spending too much on packaging? hard
to make an argument without one.

