Attention-grabbing boxes
Marketing of beauty goodies reflects changing consumer behaviour, writes Susan Edmunds.
Manufacturers battling for space on crowded shop shelves are opting to grab consumers’ attention by giving them a firsthand taste of their products.
This strategy, product boxes, has become big business in New Zealand.
Among the most prominent in the market are Black Box, which sends out free boxes of products to consumers who meet the manufacturers’ target demographic, GoodieBox, a subscription-based beauty product service, ReachMe, which caters for new parents, and the new Best Beauty Box Ever.
Merilyn Havler, who launched The Best Beauty Box Ever in February, said it was a sign of changing consumer behaviour.
She spent much of her career in sales and marketing with beauty brands and said there used to be far fewer options available.
Although consumers now had much more choice and power, it was easy for them to feel overwhelmed when faced with a huge range.
A beauty box was part of the ‘‘path to purchase’’, she said.
Delivered to their doorsteps, it gave customers the option to try something they would not have bought before. ‘‘We are all creatures of habit and generally have a basket of products that we shop within. It takes a lot to get
‘We are all creatures of habit and generally have a basket of products that we shop within. It takes a lot to get you to try a new brand.’
you to try a new brand.’’
Some of her boxes contained goods that were yet to be launched in the New Zealand market.
The Best Beauty Box Ever offers boxes containing products worth up to three times the purchase price – a ‘‘ball season’’ option on offer is selling for $72.95.
Havler said the discount took away the fear that a shopper would spend money on something they did not like.
She said her firm was inundated with submissions from manufacturers who wanted their goods included. A new box is released each month.
At Black Box, founder Clinton Beuvink said manufacturers could let their products do the talking by including them in a box.
‘‘Try before you buy is a valuable marketing tool. Message delivery is becoming quite difficult,’’ he said.
Mike Lee, a senior marketing lecturer at the University of Auckland, said the boxes were a new take on product sampling.
He said it was a way for brands or new products to try to break through. ‘‘If you are trying to get your name out there, it’s very difficult to convince a retailer to take a chance on you with limited shelf space. This is a way to access consumers.’’
He said services such as My Food Bag could also eventually find they were tapped by brands wanting their products promoted to consumers, too.