Amazon Wins the Marketing Game Again with Its Singing Boxes Campaign
Using product packaging as a marketing strategy has been used by companies for over 100 years. Companies use creative packaging to make their products stand out in the mind of consumers. Anything a company can do to make their packaging memorable in customers’ minds will help the brand as packaging connects the customer for the brand.
The Importance of a Customized Box
People love stories. Packaging that tells a brand’s story is an effecting marketing strategy. If your packaging links to what your brand stands for, you are telling the customer a unique story. This may include the shipping box’s design and style, features, and text. This is part of the reason that customers gain brand loyalty and speak about the product online, furthering brand awareness.
Dan Balan, CEO of Fastraqq, says: “A good package design, which is disruptive, defiant and daring, often resonates with the zeitgeist of the times. It authenticates the company and extends the brand over time.”
The packaging also enforces marketing campaigns such as TV or digital ads, and whether or not the customer can identify the brand based on the box. A couple of companies stand out in terms of using customized packaging to promote their brand.
Amazon’s Holiday Commercials
Amazon is among many companies that realize the importance of connection to packaging. Amazon’s packaging is fairly non-descript—just a plain cardboard box with the logo. Certainly not anyone would describe as beautiful shipping boxes. But Amazon has been able to get a plain brown box to generate excitement among customers. Some people have even chosen the Amazon Prime box as the theme of their birthday cakes and parties (as seen in the Facebook post above!).
Their holiday commercials that have run for three seasons, feature singing Amazon shipping boxes has personified their packaging. Amazon used a large portion of their holiday budget on these commercials that were centered around their boxes, and it paid off.
The commercial from 2018 shows Amazon packages being delivered for the holidays. In the background, The Jackson 5 sing “Can You Feel It”, with the mouths on the Amazon packages singing along. The message of the commercial is that the Amazon boxes are singing loud to create a festive spirit. At the end, a girl watching her light up snow globe quiets the Amazon package in her own bedroom. This further implies that the brand is everywhere from warehouses to delivery trucks to little girl’s bedrooms.
This past holiday season’s advertisement is set to Solomon Burke’s “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” shows singing Amazon boxes on delivery trucks, in families’ homes, on subways, and while families and friends re-unite for the holidays. It ends with the delivery truck driver coming home to her family at the end of a long day. Amazon uses the commercials to show a ‘human’ side by making them relatable to all kinds of people.
The commercial from 2018 shows Amazon packages being delivered for the holidays. In the background, The Jackson 5 sing “Can You Feel It”, with the mouths on the Amazon packages singing along. The message of the commercial is that the Amazon boxes are singing loud to create a festive spirit. At the end, a girl watching her light up snow globe quiets the Amazon package in her own bedroom. This further implies that the brand is everywhere from warehouses to delivery trucks to little girl’s bedrooms.
This past holiday season’s advertisement is set to Solomon Burke’s “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” shows singing Amazon boxes on delivery trucks, in families’ homes, on subways, and while families and friends re-unite for the holidays. It ends with the delivery truck driver coming home to her family at the end of a long day. Amazon uses the commercials to show a ‘human’ side by making them relatable to all kinds of people. https://www.youtube.com/embed/VSFTtMkg36M?&wmode=opaque
The Cost
Amazon put out a lot when it comes to keeping those personalized boxes singing. According to statista.com, the online retailer spent $4.47 billion in U.S. dollars in 2018. Amazon continually increases promotional expenses to further its reach. The singing boxes ads extended from TV to online video, digital, print, and social media as well.
As an industry leader, in well…just about everything, many companies look to Amazon for guidance as how to run their business. Amazon has set the standard for businesses in many industries, and now takes its marketing strategy to the next level by focusing on their personalized shipping boxes. It’s like what the Tiffany box did for jewelry, but for online shopping.
How it Resonates
The commercial series has been pure genius for Amazon as customers now have an even greater brand recognition of their box. And, because the commercial humanizes the shipping boxes with singing in people’s homes, workplaces, while being delivered or held by a customer, it serves the message that Amazon is everywhere. And quite frankly, it is. With one commercial series Amazon went from being a huge online brand to being a personalized, people-centered one. In the holiday commercial arena, Amazon hit a grand slam.
How can you mimic Amazon’s success? Obviously, every company cannot have singing boxes, but you can create a feeling of personalization through creative promotional packaging. Box style, graphic design, colors, and logos all play into how a customer associates with your brand.
Custom promotional packaging can be a great marketing tool because it puts a brand in front of existing and new customers that can lead to increased sales. Custom printed mailer boxes can go far beyond just reaching the customer it was intended for and can even take on a life of their own, as seen in the Amazon holiday commercial series.