Regulars / Branding and design | 43 Sensory significance Vicki Strull on how packaging haptics and the power of touch build brand loyalty ow many Apple product boxes and touch’ conducted by Sappi North experience. Unboxing videos and infuencers have you saved? In your home. America in conjunction with Dr David are a huge trend on social media and have HRight now. If you’re an Apple fan, I Eagleman, studies found that nearly half of become an important extension of the bet you have at least one empty box sitting the brain is devoted to processing sensory consumer buying journey. Brands want you on your offce shelf or in a closet. So, how input, and much of that sensory receptivity to feel happy, engaged and connected to many have you saved? I’ll go frst: 21. focuses on touch – the only faculty them when you unbox, unwrap and reveal Saving Apple boxes is a thing. Just ask distributed throughout the body. their product nestled in its packaging. the internet. A 2021 tweet about the From brain imagery and scans, scientists Interestingly, watching an unboxing video is collectible packages collected nearly have discovered that more than half the not a passive activity. It activates our brain’s 700,000 likes and fans created their own brain is devoted to processing our sensory ‘mirror neurons’, an experience discovered hashtag: #TeamKeepTheBox. And whether experiences – sight, smell, taste, sound, by Italian researchers in the 1990s.its boxes from Apple, Samsung, Hermes, and touch; much of that is focused on our Mirror neurons are what make us feel or Tiffany’s or Target, I’ve heard of people who sense of touch, which is exactly why I – a think that we are actually doing something use their saved boxes for keepsakes, drawer brand and design strategist who specializes by watching someone else do it. For organizers, art collages, and even as a tiny in print packaging and labels – am talking example, when someone yawns and you coffn for a deceased hamster. about the brain and haptics. Haptics, the yawn, even if you’re not actually tired. Your Sometimes we save packaging because science of touch, infuences what we buy, body is physiologically empathizing, and so we fnd uses for repurposing it, upcycling how we feel about our purchase, our brand you yawn. it, or creating art with it. Other reasons perception and our brand loyalty. Mirror neurons are activated when we are more subtle; for example, the nostalgia watch unboxing videos. Part of our brain factor – the clean, glossy white iPhone or Let’s begin at the end thinks we’re unboxing the product, too. Mac box reminds us of the frst time we To understand the impact of touch on That can trigger two other phenomena: bought an Apple product. For others, the packaging and purchasing, let’s begin at the Psychological Ownership and the packaging feels too premium to throw away. end of the buying process: the unboxing Endowment Effect (more about those And still others simply love the box design as much as they love the product itself. “What is it about touch that connects us But there is a broader answer to the question of why we save Apple boxes, or with brands and how we experience a brand’s any packaging that we deem too precious to toss. To understand, we need to go all content? One theory is that the physicality of the way back to pre-historic times, when humankind went from walking on all fours print and packaging has a powerful effect on to walking on two legs. Standing upright the way we consume, comprehend and retain freed our hands to explore. Receptors in our hands, and particularly in our fngertips, messages, as compared to digital mediums” caused the rapid development of our haptic sense and triggered the evolution of our brains to accommodate that incredible sense of touch.In The Neuroscience of Touch, an extensive piece on ‘neuroscience, communication, paper, persuasion Apr - Jun 2022