Uncategorized

routine

A Swiss cow, water color on cotton paper, by Andy Tauer

A Swiss cow, water color on cotton paper, as seen by Andy Tauer

First things first: Today’s water color exercise: a Swiss cow.

I so totally understand why cows are holy in India. There is this stoicism that I adore. They sit there, on the grass and watch the world, how it changes in circles that close.

When picking today’s picture to the left – a foto of a perfume packed in brown paper,  an order prepared for later shipment, with a card saying “thank you!” on the back- when I picked this, I did not know about the cow, yet. The cow happened in between photo taking and post writing.

But the cow picture fits perfectly. There is a difference between stoicism, (Webster dictionary online defining it as “quality or behavior of a person who accepts what happens without complaining or showing emotion”) and routine (Webster defining it as “a boring state or situation in which things are always done the same way”).

Routine is actually dangerous. As nice as it is, to know your way, to see things happening and having been there before accepting them without much emotions, it is a slippery road. The other day, when I was on the computer, I got a newsletter from Shipwire, my order fulfillment partner in the US, who is shipping full bottles within the US, for me, by basically putting a sticker onto a prepacked box. I need to use this service, as I cannot ship individual full bottles through air.  The newsletter had some hints about good packing.

Good packing in the sense of: Make sure that the buyer experiences your brand when opening your packaging; make it a great, personal and special experience! I thought about it for a second. I thought about how is it to get a parcel through shipwire, coming from Tauer. Not Tauer shipping directly.

So I thought about my packaging of the bottle, and around the boxed perfume. Whether it is protective and stable: Check. All fine there.

But how’s the unpacking?

A card saying “thank you!”? NO.

A nice touch and feel after ripping off the cardboard. NO. (I wrap the boxed perfume in bubble foil, coming from a point where I am utterly worried about damaged perfume boxes. want to change this. Even simple brown paper is more inviting than bubble foil (see picture).

A way to interact, an invitation to share the perfume, picture, whatever, on facebook, twitter, pinterest, you name it? Again: NO.

Inside the boxed perfume: Yes, there it says Enjoy!

So there you go: Since about 1.5 years I ship stuff into my warehouse in the US. Routine. I forgot to continue thinking about how we do it and whether I can do better. When I ship Gardenia from Sotto la Luna in to my warehouse end August: This will change.