With custom shipping boxes that are big enough to hold a car and product packages that are designed to create a jaw-dropping unveiling experience for consumers once they leave the store, boxes are much more than just simple pieces of cardboard in today’s consumer market. And the excitement around the now seemingly limitless possibilities of a carefully designed cardboard box have even reached the pizza industry. While virtually every person who hasn’t been living under a rock their entire life has eaten from or at least seen a pizza box, few of us have likely given the box much thought. And it’s even less likely that many among us have given much thought to who folded our pizza box or how fast they folded it. Until now, that is.
“Fastest Box Folder” Gains TV and Internet Fame
Getting your food delivered faster than the competitors has been the goal of many pizza chains for many years. This requires a carefully choreographed dance that begins with the ordering of the food, which then makes its way through the assembly line, ending with the finished pizza(s) being boxed up and delivered within moments of coming out of the oven. Some pizza chains are encouraging more customers to carry out their orders instead of ordering delivery, though, by offering special carryout deals. A recent promotion at Domino’s, for example, offers customers the chance to get a large two-topping pizza for under $6 if they carry out instead of having it delivered. As part of the advertising campaign, Domino’s Pizza brought in its “fastest box folder,” Dale Lamoureux, as an example of how they’re keeping up with the demand.
Advertisements featuring his lightning fast pizza-box folding skills have been aired across television stations as well as on the internet. As it turns out, folding and delivering boxes can even be elevated to the level of a competitive sport, making the box itself a tool of the game.
What This Means for Retailers Outside the Restaurant Biz
Retailers outside of the restaurant business might not think there are lessons to be learned from this box-folding ad campaign, but with so much buzz about a box it should be taken as a hint that packaging matters. The “un-packaging experience” of a product, whether it’s a pizza or a high-tech toy or a diamond ring, has become part of what customers pay for in this day and age. Packaging can create excitement and a memory, rather than just being discarded in an instant to get to what’s inside. Domino’s pizza boxes have become part of their branding, with their logo along with various unique and timely designs gracing every corner of the cardboard. So whether you use custom shipping boxes to deliver products to your customers’ door or boxes for items to sell right in the store, you could probably learn a thing or two from this food service stunt. The importance of product packaging as part of the consumer experience simply cannot be ignored.
