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Okay, it's pet peeve time. Here's one of mine - opaque packaging on frozen fruit and vegetable packaging.
You with me?
I've lost count of how many times I've opened a bag of frozen fruit to find unripe, freezer-burnt, or melted-and-refrozen-mush inside.
It should be illegal. No one would expect you to buy fresh fruit in an opaque bag. It's produce, not processed, you need to see what you're getting. But freeze it, slap a solid pouch around it, and suddenly we're all buying blind.
I want to see the fruit.
And I know I'm not the only one.
Thomas McKinlay over at Science Says just posted a new study: When a food item had transparent, instead of opaque packaging, people:
(One caveat: don't do this if your product's ugly. People wanted the see-through brownish bean stew less in transparent packaging. Also, when we're buying the food for someone else, this effect disappears. Apparently, we don't care if the other person's getting ugly food. Humans are selfish!)
There's another kind of packaging that has nothing to do with plastic.
It's made of words. And most brands wrap their brands in really, really opaque version called corporate-speak.
"Premium materials." "Thoughtfully designed." "Committed to quality." Every one of those is a thick blue plastic box. So vague you can't see the fruit.
The fix is: get specific. Specificity is the see-through bag.
Let me show you what I mean.
Sofa set: "This genuine leather sofa blends classic elegance with comfy everyday use. It showcases rolled arms, plush seat and back cushions, and sinuous springs for balanced support." = Opaque.
"The frame is kiln-dried maple from a mill outside Portland. We bring the lumber's moisture down to 6–8% inside a specialized oven to permanently stabilize the wood to give you an heirloom product you can pass on to your grandkids. The sinuous S-shaped steel coils strung under the cushions hold 750 lbs without dipping." = Transparent
Candle brand: "Hand-poured with premium soy wax for a clean, long-lasting burn." = Opaque
"Me and my sister Dana hand-poured these last Tuesdays, with the fresh Vermont spring air washing over us through the workshop window as we occasionally burnt our fingers." = Transparent
See it? You don't tell people your thing is good. You walk them onto the floor and let them watch.
But transparency only works if you've got something worth showing.
Most brands hide behind the box because they're not sure they do. But you know you do.
Now it's time to raise the curtains and show them the truth, so they can start loving your products the way you do.
The easiest way to do it? With emails. Showing up in their inbox week after week, not with hype-y promos or opaque language, but by giving them the behind-the-scenes, the juicy details, the research and materials and people behind your products, so they can't wait to get their hands on them.
If you want that for your stuff: chavyhelfgott.com/voice-of-fame-email-revenue-engine
Don't be the bag of bad frozen fruit they dump,
Chavy
P.S. - In case you missed it yesterday, I've got an awesome free resource for you. One that will show EXACTLY what you need to do to show up in AI search results. Step by step, by the great Freddie Chatt: https://freddiechatt.com/ecommerce-ai-search-checklist/