THE PACKAGING USER

You only need to pull the nipple through the tab!

The problem has been known since the eighties. Back then, Schlagermer Mike Krüger already sang the following line in his hit „Der Nippel“: „Almost everything is packaged today, it's very difficult to open!“ I don't often call Mike Krüger as a witness, but in this regard, I'm making an exception. Some everyday products are indeed packaged as if they were deliberately trying to make life difficult for end consumers like me. Anyone who has ever tried to open, for example, a plastic bottle of mouthwash probably knows what I'm talking about. The little resistance nub on the cap, which is probably meant to protect the bottles from misuse by children, can usually only be tackled with difficulty using a knife or scissors. And even then, a bloody massacre in the bathroom is threatened.

Packaging sadism in the hotel room

Or do you travel a lot? Then you probably know the situation where you collapse into your hotel room after a twelve-hour journey, your throat as dry as a prairie floor, and your gaze falls upon an elegant, beautifully shaped bottle of spring water. Worthy of a design award. But the romance ends abruptly when you try to open this charming object of desire. The cap is sealed with a brutal shrink wrap; even a surgical scalpel would probably surrender here. I shake it, I bite it, I desperately search for scissors – in vain. In the end, I ram the hotel ballpoint pen into the plastic skin, the water splashing onto my shirt or even my mobile phone. Anyone who has experienced this multiple times develops strong emotions... It's pure packaging sadism.

A dream come true: opens without tools or tantrums

Therefore, I observe an industry trend with a degree of relief. It's called „frustration-free unboxing“ (or in agency-speak: frustration-free design). The idea: packaging that can be opened completely without tools, without broken fingernails, and without tantrums. Dreamy! The principle is simple: you pull on a subtle tab, it lets out a quiet „hiss“ or „rip“, and a box opens as if by magic. No plastic straps, no metres of adhesive tape. A prime example of this trend is the tech industry: anyone unpacking a new Apple iPhone today, for instance, won't find a single gram of plastic film around the box. Instead, you pull on two paper tabs on the back, and the box gently slides open at a relaxed pace. A miracle.

The sacred ritual of unboxing

Creative directors like to call this „the reinvention of the customer journey.“ (A bit pretentious? Hello – they're advertisers!) It's no longer just about the product, but about the sacrosanct ritual of „unboxing.“ Packaging is now designed to unfold like an origami-like blossom, an experience. With premium luxury brands like Tiffany & Co. or Chanel, the boxes unfurl so artfully when a single ribbon is loosened that the perfume is presented as if on an altar. Unpacking a mundane coffee machine suddenly makes you feel like an archaeologist uncovering Tutankhamun's tomb. The trend is even making its way into supermarkets: Barilla pasta packets now come almost everywhere without the annoying plastic window and can be portioned cleanly via a clever paper flap.

If the staging overshoots the mark

I understand the psychological trick behind it. If the unpacking itself makes you so happy, you'll think twice about making a complaint. However, I think a little further. As much as I celebrate the absence of scissors and craft knives: sometimes the design elite get a bit carried away with the staging. Last week I bought a new electric toothbrush. It was delivered in a box that opened up over three levels, lined with velvety recycled paper, in which the brush heads were embedded like precious gemstones. In the end, however, I was still just holding a piece of plastic with bristles in my hand and was faced with a pile of artfully folded cardboard, which I reverently placed in the recycling bin. Big marketing cinema. Nevertheless, the art directors of this world should beware of excessive triumphant howling. After all, Mike Krüger already knew the solution to the problem forty years ago: „You just have to pull the nipple through the flap.“

Harald Brown is not a packaging developer, a marketing strategist or a recycling professional - he is Packaging users. Nothing more and nothing less. And that is precisely what makes his perspective so valuable: unembellished, direct and full of everyday observations.

In his column "Let's wrap it up" he describes very personal experiences with boxes, foils, lids and everything that wraps products. Sometimes wonderfully funny, sometimes with a subtle side-swipe, always from the perspective of a consumer.

Anyone who produces, designs or sells packaging gets a refreshing view from the outside - and in the best case a smile.