Great customer experience begins on the store shelf

Before a customer buys your products, they have interactions and experiences with both your brand and product. The packaging and label design can decide whether that experience turns out to be good or bad.

In any new experience in life, first impressions are formed within a matter of seconds. This happens when we are doing our shopping as well and notice a new product. That first moment of truth is crucial to whether your potential customer will pick up the product – or not. If they choose to pick up the product, they move on to a crucial part of their decision-making process: the second moment of truth.

The phrase "First Moment Of Truth" was first coined in 2005 by A.G. Lafley, Chairman, President and CEO of Procter & Gamble. The company understood that a shopper's eyes typically swept through a store shelf full of products; theirs and their competitor's – with a very short attention span given to each product.

1. The First Moment of Truth is when the customer is looking at a product. This can be in-store or online.
2. The Second Moment of Truth is when the customer purchases and uses the product.
3. The Third Moment of Truth is when customers provide feedback about the product. They share it with the company as well as their friends, colleagues, and family members – but we'll come back to this one.

According to research within psychology and marketing, product decoration can trigger sensory impressions linked to positive or negative sentiments. How your labels look, feel, communicate, function – or even smell – can affect stakeholders in that second moment of truth.

Let's take a closer look at four ways to engage and communicate with your customer through your labels in both the first and second moment of truth:

1. Better customer experience with visual design elements

Adding the type of visual elements to your label that your target audience will be visually drawn to should be of high priority when you're designing labels. This is crucial in their First moment of truth.

The colours, pictures and shapes you use also play an important part, but in terms of eye-catching elements, you might want to consider the following finishes:

• Enhance contrasts with MATT & GLOSS VARNISHES
• Create glitter and glow with PEARLESCENT EFFECTS
• Create an impression of exclusivity with HOT or COLD FOIL EMBOSSING
• Get a metallic glow with METALLIC INK on the label
• Create the illusion of shimmer with METALLIC GRAPHIC elements

Read more: How psychology and sensory marketing will help you sell more products

2. Better customer experience with

sensory design elements

If a potential customer picks up your product, it's essential to keep them keen and interested in that second moment of truth. Appealing to one of their other senses will increase the chance of them completing a purchase.

Sensory experiences we can create using textures, fragrances and decorations:

• A TACTILE VARNISH allows you to raise and manipulate areas of the label to create a tactile illusion of everything from raindrops on a leaf to grains of sand on a beach.
• A TEXTURE VARNISH can make the label feel like other items, such as leather, snakeskin or pineapple – to name a few.
• The SKANEM SOFT & GENTLE VARNISH makes the label extra soft to the touch, making the product appear gentle, soothing, and smooth.

Read more: How monomaterials in packaging increase recycling and circular economy

3. Better customer experience with interactive Smart Labels

Modern technology can be a powerful marketing tool. Both to engage customers and to understand them better.

The information provided on traditional labels and packaging can be quite conventional and linear. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but adding some competitive interaction to your labels will also provide your customers with added value. 

This can be solved in different ways, but the following three technologies and formats are prevalent right now:

• Gamification is about turning the label into a game that benefits the customer. Either in the shape of physical prizes, digital scores or challenges. This is not new, but Gamification is constantly evolving. For example, McDonald's continues to have great success with their collectable Monopoly promo labels on containers, which contains both physical awards (e.g., free side order) and digital codes. In addition, products with interactive labels (such as Smart Labels) can send the customer to a landing page, website or an app by scanning the label with their smartphone.
  
  
• QR codes are powered by a relatively simple technology that connects your customers to the content of your web page. Instead of telling stories with words or pictures, you can, for example, tell your story with video or engage your customers with a contest. By simply scanning the QR code with the camera function on their smartphone, the customer can discover new layers of your brand. Perhaps with a film that shows how or where the product is made, the story behind the manufacturer or a video tutorial with tips and tricks? This helps you build your brand while your customers connect with the product.
  
  
• Augmented Reality (AR) added to the label and packaging allows the consumer to interact with your products while still in the store or when using the product after purchase. By turning on the camera function on their smartphone and simply pointing it at your product, your chosen AR elements pop up. Perhaps a list of ingredients, stats or animation related to that particular product. And best of all – the consumer sees all this directly in their camera function viewer. Yes, just like in the Pokemon Go app.

BONUS! Smart Labels provide a foundation for the Third moment of truth, as Smart Labels allow your customer to interact with your brand, share information with friends and build loyalty through prizes and discounts.

Read more: How to make your packaging and labelling stand out from the crowd

4. Better customer experience with security labels

Show your customers that you're serious about security by using a security label.

A Skanem Africa label can come with various security features, such as:

• Security Seal – a seal indicating whether the product has been opened or not. If security has been breached, the seal will be visibly torn, damaged, or completely removed.
• Thermochromic Ink – an ink that changes its colour at different temperatures. That way, you'll know if the product has been exposed to a harmful environment in terms of temperature.
• Microprint – creates an element that makes it much harder to counterfeit the product. Both text and patterns can be used for this.
• Hologram stickers – Anticounterfeit, Heat-Sensitive, Waterproof and Heat Resistance

You'll never get a second chance to make a first impression

Using one or more of the design elements and labelling features listed in this article, you can enhance the customer experience and increase the chances of selling your product.

We're very passionate about strengthening the customer journey and your customers' moments of truth in relation to your products here at Skanem Africa. After all, your label manufacturer and printing facilities increase your branding efforts and should not create friction or gaps between your customers and your product. 

We create labelling solutions to help brands make their products look beautiful, stay secure, share information with end-users, and, at the same time, be kind to the environment. That is why Skanem Africa labels are seen on millions of products every day and pretty much everywhere – whether you're at home, the office, or at a grocery store.

Our labels come with a promise of quality, durability, and a genuine effort to help you increase your sales. Reach out to us for more information on how to enhance your products.