Apple Product Packaging - What to Learn from Apple's Packaging Strategy

Lots of marketers are envious of Apple, and for good reason.

It’s not just their products. It’s their marketing, branding… and packaging.

Table of Contents

Apple’s packaging room

Apple literally has a “packaging room” where a designer spends months testing hundreds of packages with different materials and shapes.

Apple delves into human psychology to deliver the unboxing experience that goes beyond cutting tape.

Judging a book by its cover

It’s all about impute, or, in the words of Steve Jobs, the idea that people really do judge a book by its cover.

If you deliver the best possible product in a sloppy manner, customers will perceive you as such. And vice-versa.

Unboxing

And then there’s the unboxing itself… Which, according to Steve Jobs, is a form of ritual: “You design a ritual of unpacking to make the product feel special. A theater.”

That’s right: Steve Jobs started unboxing before it was a YouTube phenomenon.

Inside Apple’s iPhone Factory In China

What makes Apple’s product packaging so appealing

So with this in mind, let’s look at the three things that makes Apple’s packaging so satisfying:

#1 Anticipation

Apple plays on the curiosity gap, slowly reducing the deficit of what we know vs. what we want to know.

You look at the real-life iPhone picture on the box, pull its plastic off with a tab and peel back the screen protector… And then you pick up your phone and inspect it.

You’ve had an entire experience even before you turned your iPhone on!

#2 Aesthetic

Every Apple package is picturesque without being intense. It’s clean, minimalistic, and beautiful.

#3 Multi-sensory experience

Believe it or not, Apple designed their packaging with air pockets to create a “whooshing” sound when you open it.

You see the packaging, you touch the smooth box, you pull against deliberately created friction, you hear the sound as air leaves the pockets… it’s a sensation overload!

Secrets and cost to make iPhone box REVEALED

Final word

So now that you’ve got the packaging fundamentals, the question is: How can you create memorable experiences with your product design and packaging?

There’s no quick answer… but if you want to win when it comes to branding and customer retention, learning from Apple’s packaging can send you in the right direction.

Apple Product Packaging – What to Learn from Apple’s Packaging Strategy

Apple’s packaging room

Judging a book by its cover