A Wren Says

First Chanel, now Skims. The Kardashian brand recently went viral for all the wrong reasons: An advent calendar that only had little accessories. Granted, it was billed as advent calendar with just accessories, but people are disappointed nonetheless. They just hoped that spending $148 would get them more. Something special. Rather than jump on the bash Skims train (that more than enough people are on), I’m going to go down a different track. I don’t think advent calendars are a good investment, unless you actually like advent calendars.

I think this is an actual use issue.

You went through the effort to number all the doors, thinking that people will take their time, opening a single door every single day. You sold the product so that buyers can punch into the sections patiently, revealing a little gift across a span of days. But that’s not what they’re doing. They’re opening it all in one go. Instead of admiring the surprises, they’re calculating value. With each travel sized, sample sized, randomly chosen item, they are doing the math on whether or not they’ll get their money’s worth. At the end of the experience, monetary value is the most important thing to them. Though, they also want a social media worthy unboxing video. A classical advent calendar won’t meet those needs.

As more brands choose to get into the advent calendar game, that’s something they need to consider. It’s not about what you want the product to look, but how your customers will actually interact with it. Design towards that to make sure you deliver what they really want.