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Sony Understands Packaging

By Jacob Cohen | May 3, 2007

I recently ordered another pair of the Sony MDR-V6 Headphones for listening to music at work, since I was pleased with the quality of the first pair I bought to use at home.

As I was unpacking the headphones, I noticed that Sony has taken a lot of care to make the packaging of the headphones elegant and easy to use.

Easy to use? What does that mean for packages? Well, have you ever bought something that came in that invincible hard clear plastic that is stitch-welded shut around the entire edge? The only way to get into those products is to cut it open with a strong pair of scissors or a sharp knife. The cut edges of the plastic themselves are sharp enough to cut your hands if you’re not careful.

The Sony packaging is quite easy to open without using anything but your hands. In fact, you can get it open without actually destroying the box it comes in. These headphones come with their own carrying pouch, but if they didn’t, it’d be easy enough to store them in their original packaging.

Here is the package from the outside, which looks basic enough.
The box looks conventional enough from the outside

Here is the top of the package after opening the cardboard portion.
The top of the box is easy to open without breaking, cutting, or tearing anything

The inner part slides out and presents the headphones on a shiny cloth background, with the cable neatly tucked behind (but easy to get to without destroying the box).
Inner packaging material holds and displays the headphones while hiding the cord

Why does this matter? It shows that Sony is thinking about the presentation of their product beyond what the potential customer sees sitting on a shelf. They are thinking about the experience of the customer as they open the package and remove the headphones.

(These photos were taken with my Sony Ericsson Z710i camera phone.)

Topics: Design |

7 Responses to “Sony Understands Packaging”

  1. boris Says:
    May 11th, 2007 at 7:09 am

    Well, it shows that they are still NOT thinking hard enough about it. Ever opened a Mac product? Thats what I would call an experience. I have bought a lot of Sony and Mac products in the last years, and the difference in packaing is stricking.

    Your fotos show that this nice headphone comes in a cheap brown cardboard box. Does that make you feel like you bought something valuable?

    Not me.

    But at least they START thinking about it. They’d better.

  2. Jacob Cohen Says:
    May 11th, 2007 at 12:24 pm

    I’ve never bought a “Mac” product, but I’ve bought an Apple iPod. It did come in a attractive box. Apple is generally very good about the physical appearance of their products, from the product itself, to the packaging it comes in, even the Apple stores where they are sold.

    I do think, however, that Sony does a pretty good job. This is only a $70 product. There are headphones and other devices costing many times more than this that have the frustrating stitched-plastic boxes.

    Also, perhaps it is the quality of my photos, but the cardboard box is not brown, it has a sort of semi-shiny gold color. Definitely looks classier than the “brown” natural cardboard color.

  3. laura Says:
    August 8th, 2007 at 9:39 am

    soy laura de argentina y estudio diseño industrial….tengo que hacer un trabajo de packaging de sony y estoy averiguando sobre la identidad corporativa de sony y tengo que saber quienes son los usuarios principales de mi camara fotografica sony….
    si tienen algun tipo de informacion o alguna idea que llame la atencion me serviria mucho

  4. laura Says:
    August 8th, 2007 at 9:44 am

    sorry im laura from argentina…i am studying industrial design and i am doing a work about sony packaging…i need to know anything about the corporation identity or about the users of sony photografic cameras….so i can do a packaging which identified the product….

    sorry if my english is not very good…thanks!

    laura

  5. Jacob Cohen Says:
    August 8th, 2007 at 6:17 pm

    Hi Laura,

    I don’t actually own a Sony camera. In these photos, I used my Canon digital camera to take a picture of a pair of Sony headphones.

    Actualmente no tengo una camara de Sony. Para estas fotografías, yo usé una camara de Canon. Solamente les auriculares son de Sony.

    Lo siento si mi español no es muy bién, tampoco. :)

  6. Harry Bradman Says:
    March 14th, 2008 at 5:42 pm

    Hello Everyone :)

    I have been a great admirer of products as well as packaging style and materials that captivates us and urges us to buy the product at first glance or you can say its pretty enough to put ourselves in trouble to choose one out of three or four.

    Sony along with other vendors did the right things to choose clampshells for such devices so that you can actually have a closer look at what you are about to buy, thanks to custom packaging technology we now have a new approach to things that we see with our naked eyes.

    So, its like you won’t buy what you can’t see :)

  7. Jon Says:
    May 1st, 2008 at 2:00 pm

    I love how pretentious the customer base of Macintosh is.

    When it comes down to it, packaging means almost nil to a concerned buyer. Sure if it’s pleasing on the eye, the marketing of the company has been effective - but if the product itself isn’t quality made (and you can bet these headphones are), then the whole purchase of the product was a waste.

    But hey, at least you got a cool box out of that MacBook Pro, huh?

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