#018 - In this episode, Julie shares her top factors that impact the perceived value of your subscription boxes.
Julie Ball is a subscription box business coach. She runs Sparkle Hustle Grow, a multi six-figure subscription box and online community for female entrepreneurs.
#018 - In this episode, Julie shares her top factors that impact the perceived value of your subscription boxes.
Julie Ball is a subscription box business coach. She runs Sparkle Hustle Grow, a multi six-figure subscription box and online community for female entrepreneurs.
So you want to launch a subscription box, don't know where to start? Girl, you are in the right place! I'm Julie Ball, a subscription box coach and your host here at Subscription Box Basics, a podcast for new and aspiring subscription box entrepreneurs that want to avoid overwhelm. So grab a coffee, some pen and paper and let's have some fun! Hey and welcome back to Subscription Box Basics. I'm your host Julie Ball. I'm a subscription box business coach and I run Sparkle Hustle Grow a multi six-figure subscription box and online community for female entrepreneurs. In each episode I pull back the curtain and let you behind the scenes in running a subscription box business. Today is going to be a quick one and we are talking about perceived value. Perceived value is the value that your subscriber perceives the products to be worth. So it can be really tricky when you think about what this is worth because so often they can run to Amazon or any other discount retailer and see what they could buy each item for. But you just got to make sure that you choose items that are really, really great and work on things that can improve your perceived value. And today I'm going to tell you my top factors that impact your subscription boxes' perceived value. Now of course these will all be dependent on your own particular audience, who they are, what they love, how sensitive they are to pricing and how savvy of a shopper they are. But stick with me here. I'm sure you'll get some ideas that you can apply to your box. So first brand names, people love to be surprised with their favorite brand names and when you include them in your box, you're actually aligning yourself with their reputation so we can help your own brand's reputation, kind of the quality of the product. Now that doesn't mean you can't include or shouldn't include custom items, items that you make specifically for your brand. We do it all the time, but trust me when I say that, when my audience opens that box up and sees a Kate Spade office product or one of our favorite brands, See Jane Work, it can really impact the perceived value. Next on my list is product quality. Does the product look or feel cheap, like what is it made out of? Is it made out of a solid material or does it feel flimsy? You can usually figure this out by picking up the actual item and that's why I always recommend that you get a sample of a product prior to purchasing it for your box. Now if you put something in there that looks cheap or feels cheap, chances are it was cheap and that it may break and it may get tossed in the corner and or in the trash and that's definitely not good for our perceived value. Let's talk about the size of the product. This can impact the overall perceived value because if you pack your box with too many small items, it can feel empty and it can feel less valuable. For example, if you have a large box to fill and you have a few small items like lip balm and maybe I don't know, a mini candle, you can imagine how much smaller and less significant those items will feel in that box. So I recommend that you choose products of different sizes and get creative. If that box doesn't look full, add some extra filler like crinkle cut to the bottom of the box to make the box look more full. When it's first open, you can add some filler or crinkled cut on top as well, but it's going to be more impactful if you put it at the bottom. It will raise the products up and it will make it appear as though the box is actually fuller. So we talked about size of the product, but what about the weight of those items? Sometimes a heavier item can actually feel more valuable. Not always, but think about it when you pick up a heavy gift box versus a light gift box, how do you feel? Are you like, Whoa, what's in there? Yeah, probably if it's heavy. Of course if you ship first-class weight can play into your shipping costs depending on your carrier. So just a heads up on that. But again, a heavier item, a lot of times we'll have a higher perceived value, not all the time, but it can impact it. So packaging can impact perceived value because it can add another level to the whole experience in two ways. First, the box design, having a custom design that pops can really excite the consumer when it arrives. It costs more to get custom boxes, yes, but it can make it stand out from the rest of the Amazon Prime boxes, all those Brown boxes on your doorstep. And it becomes an extension of your branding, which can be powerful. And then second, with packaging, is everything in your box just laid out randomly with no packaging? If so, that's fine. But sometimes a product that has extra packaging, like a bow or a tag or a written note, anything like that, some of that can make the unboxing experience more fun. And while it might not actually add value to the individual product, it can give this bigger perceived value because they've enjoyed their unboxing experience a little more. Think about it. If you get a box and it's got a bow on it, it takes that extra minute to like untie the bow and take it off and it's just, it's like unwrapping a gift. The next thing that I believe impacts perceived value is cohesiveness. Okay, look, does your product variety look good together? Does it have a common theme or is it just a hodgepodge of random items that have no cohesiveness. When they look good together or have some sort of common theme or even compliment each other, that perceived value can be impacted in a positive way. And lastly, handwritten notes. Now this may not be feasible when you've got hundreds or thousands of boxes, but especially when you're first starting, handwritten notes kind of bring that personal touch to the unboxing experience. It can help improve the perceived value by making your brand more human. And I really believe that handwritten notes have a place in customer service as well. If they had a missing or maybe a damaged product and you're sending them a replacement, throw in a little handwritten notes and that will undoubtedly improve the perceived value of that replacement product and just help you do better customer service. Okay guys, let's recap real quick. You know there's plenty of other factors that can come into play with perceived value, but the factors that I feel impacted the most are brand name, quality, size and weight of the products, packaging, product variety, and kind of giving that human feel to it using handwritten notes. I hope that helps you as you curate your box items, but as I've said before, the best person to ask is your target audience and your actual customers. You'll learn so much from listening to them, watching their unboxing videos and taking note of where they experienced their most delight and where they seem most underwhelmed. Well, that's it for today. I hope you've been enjoying this podcast and if so, please rate and review it with five big shiny stars as that can help me reach more people. Thanks as always for listening and I'll see you in the next episode.