David J Greer's Blog Business, Technology, Strategy, and Marketing

I am often surprised at how strongly I react to the physical form factor of things that I buy and use. My wife does the toothpaste buying in our house and she recently bought Crest toothpaste that came in new packaging. At first it seems like a good idea — toothpaste that will stand up on the bathroom counter.

The problem for me is that now the toothpaste looks exactly like all the other squeeze tubes on the bathroom counter. I don’t know how many times I almost put sun screen on my toothbrush instead of toothpaste lately. I rely on the fact that toothpaste should look like toothpaste and not like anything else on our bathroom counter.

Apple is one of the leaders in the technology field in combining incredible form into a compelling package. From the visual delight of seeing an iPhone or iPad to the feeling of holding one in your hands, there is a positive visceral response to these devices.

In today’s age of instant communication, tweets, and email, I think many of us have lost sight of ways we can surprise and delight our prospects and customers with physical forms. There is only so much you can do with color and lines on the two dimensional form of a screen.

Some ways you can think about physical forms as you interact with your customers:

1. Try sending a printed, high quality document, with a personal hand written note instead of a PDF. While it will take longer to get there, it will have a physical impact that the PDF will rarely achieve. As a bonus a high quality brochure usually sits on a desk before being put in recycling, unlike the PDF which only needs a simple click of the delete key to be removed. A personal note always provides a better opening to creating a connection.
2. What is the experience of a prospect or customer entering your office or business? What are the first things they see? What do they feel if they sit down to wait? Once they get past reception, what impression do they get of the three dimensional experience of your premises?
3. If you send a physical good, how is it packaged? Apple aces this too by packaging all of its products in attractive, stylish, and functional packaging. You know it is an Apple product even before you open the package.

Physical form does matter. What experience do you create for your customers?