Have you ever bought a product, only to get home and find that opening the packaging is not only complicated, it is darn near impossible?
Well, you are not alone! Wrap rage is a common reaction experienced by millions of people after buying a new product to enjoy only to find that the packaging is overly complicated to remove. At the end of the day, the customer ultimately ends up with a flustered sense of agitation.
It is a surprisingly common phenomena despite the fact that many people have called upon companies to stop packaging their products in hard to remove materials. And yet, many companies continue to package their products in complicated packaging supplies that require scissors or more robust tools to open the package.
In a world where the unboxing experience is considered a "make or break" element of the customer experience, this should not be the status quo. However, it is an on-going problem for many consumers to this day.
With over 60 years in the packaging industry, we have plenty of experience helping companies optimize their packaging design process to protect and preserve their product, to entice the eyes of buyers, and yes, even to help negate wrap rage.
What Is Wrap Rage?
Wrap rage is a highly negative experience that occurs when a consumer attempts to remove product packaging that is overly complicated or hard to remove. When this happens, customers are left frustrated, angry, and annoyed.
In some cases, the difficult and complicated packaging results in minor injuries such as scrapes, paper cuts and other small lacerations.
Larry here provides a decent example of what to expect when encountering products that are packaged like this. Chances are, you have personally encountered at least one package in your life that has resulted in a similar reaction.
As you can probably tell, packaging that induces wrap rage is not well received by most consumers and producing a package like this is ultimately a huge turn off to your customers.
There are countless videos and user reviews throughout the internet of real people who are more than a little annoyed with having to manage a poor unboxing experience.
In his amazing new book "Ministry of Common Sense" international marketing expert and keynote speaker Martin Lindstrom describes his own unfortunate encounter with wrap rage.
"No matter what I did and no matter what my angle of attack was, the plastic encasement simply wouldn’t bend, dent, or move.I tried wrenching the package apart with my fingers but stopped when my fingers started to hurt. I gnawed at it with my teeth but that only ended up hurting my teeth.
I started banging the package repeatedly against one side of my seat like a piñata. Nothing worked.This was now getting ridiculous, and crazy- making, and I had a flight to catch. I rummaged in my carry- on to see if I’d brought anything sharp with me, a house key or nail clippers, to somehow stab the plastic off, but I hadn’t. Finally, I asked for help. “You don’t have any scissors back there, do you?”
I asked the ticket agent. Sorry, she didn’t. “Or a knife?” No, and I could tell she would have preferred I not talk about scissors and knives at the boarding gate.With not much time to go before my flight left, I raced back to the little kiosk where I’d bought the headphones. “Can you please help me?” I said to the cashier.
Clearly it wasn’t the first time something like this had come up. Removing a box cutter from his drawer, he sawed through the plastic for about a minute and finally handed over the headphones and the cord.
“Do you want to take the container with you?” he asked. “No,” I said. “I don’t ever want to see the container ever again.” An experience like this is in almost delirious defiance of what could ever be defined as “common sense.”
While descriptions of these unfortunate events certainly may be entertaining to the curious onlooker, it goes without saying that finding yourself to be the unwilling protagonist in one of these situations is most certainly not funny.
Need Help Designing Your Packaging?
Combating Wrap Rage For Your Customers
The battle against wrap rage begins with the proper optimization of your packaging design. There are various types of packaging which can be used that have little to no possibility of inducing wrap rage.
For example, you have blister packs, a type of carded packaging. If you have ever bought batteries, then you have by extension, purchased a blister pack. These packaging materials have been known to induce wrap rage in the past, however, new modifications to this type of packaging has made life a lot easier.
Duracell batteries often feature a blister pack with a backer that has a perforated section with a tab. By pressing down on the tab and then peeling it back, you can remove about 50% of the backer and easily remove the batteries. Cheers Duracell!
Another example of packaging materials with low to no wrap rage includes flexible pouches. These pouches often feature an easy to use tear-away lid to open the packaging and also often feature a resealable zipper which can be used to store unused portions of the product contained within.
For liquid packaging applications, there are flexible pouch options which feature an easy to remove twist-off cap. After removing the cap, it is easy to pour the liquid into a glass, or, you can sip directly from the pouch.
Seal bands are also a type of packaging that have moved from wrap-rage inducing to user-friendly by way of the addition of perforated tabs. Perforated seal bands have small sections of the band with perforations that allow for easy-peel applications that make removing the bands a breeze.
Optimizing Your Packaging Design
Optimizing your packaging design will result in the low probability of wrap rage, will increase your chances of happy consumers, increase your chances of repeat business, and will offer you the ability to stand out among competitors who negate even the consideration of wrap rage in their products.
Here are some of the ways in which you can optimize your packaging design to ensure the lowest possible chance of wrap rage for your products packaging.
- Provide easy open applications such as tear away tabs on your flexible pouches.
- Do not use packaging that requires tools other than the human hand to remove the packaging.
- Use perforated films that allow for easy removal of the packaging.
- Give consumers access to applications for easy removal such as peel away tabs on blister packs.
- Ensure that the packaging used can be removed in the shortest amount of time possible.
- Use fewer materials in the packaging process.
The battle against wrap rage begins with good packaging design. By working with a professional packaging expert, you can work out a packaging design that is easy for the consumer to remove. This will result in the lowest chance of wrap rage and will increase your number of happy customers.
If you would like assistance in proper packaging design, our in-house packaging experts can assist you with the initial design, choosing of the right materials and machinery, and implementation of the machinery and materials that you buy.
This will help you to ensure that the final package is both eye-catching and easy to remove which will result in a great unboxing experience. Happy consumers will then become return customers and they will likely be open to recommending your products to friends and family.
