Opening Lines
Quality Packaging Cements Customer Relationships
Roger Caracappa, Estée Lauder's senior vice pesident of global packaging, had everyone's attention at HBA's Innovative Packaging Symposium. Caracappa delivered the event's keynote address on May 4 at New York City's Westin Hotel, and his advice to the audience was sound.
Build and maintain relationships with customers and peers, and don't compromise when it comes to quality.
Caracappa, as well as the entire Estée Lauder team, believes in the importance of establishing relationships with both consumers and within the industry. "In today's market, it would be a bad decision to take your customer for granted," he explained. "It is extremely important to your company."
Relationship building involves more than just good public relations, however. You can build a relationship with customers by paying attention to the details to deliver a quality product, Caracappa said.
For Estée Lauder, those details include choosing double-board set-up boxes with gold, quilted wrap inside, for its Private Collection line. The details also involve making sure that products fit properly in their platforms, and that the outer sleeve is beautifully articulated. According to Caracappa, building a customer relationship "doesn't mean using generic colors on platforms in order to save two-tenths of a cent."
Although Estée Lauder's Private Collection might only account for a tiny amount of the company's overall profits, its packaging needs to reflect the company's upscale style. "The look and feel of a signature line sends an important message to your customer about the company," said Caracappa.
Sometimes, when a product is ready to be launched, its packaging may be slightly imperfect, but some companies may decide to ship it anyway and then correct it. When that type of imperfection happens at Estée Lauder, Caracappa said, "then, 500,000 potential customers would get something that's just okay, and not perfect. This is not acceptable to us."
How does Estée Lauder plan to compete with companies that sell beauty products at lower price points? "Success [will be achieved] through quality," said Caracappa. "Consistent quality has to be there."
Using the example of Starbucks Coffee's success, Caracappa explained that the key in differentiating your product from all the rest is to make sure that customers perceive your brand on a higher level. "Consumers are ready to trade up in almost every aspect. And they are smarter than you think—so we need to focus on all the details."
Marie Redding
Senior Editor