‘It’s all about the packaging’: investigation of the motivations, intentions, and marketing implications of sharing photographs of secondary packaging on Instagram

Abstract

The phenomenon of ‘unboxing’ purchases has confidently and prolifically emerged into popular culture, with consumer-generated images of the branded and stylised shopping bags, boxes, and parcels from new acquisitions now ubiquitous in the social media world. Bringing this relatively unexplored phenomenon from popular culture into the academic literature, this netnographic investigation coupled with in-depth semi-structured interviews aims to understand the motivations, intentions, and marketing implications of such image sharing. Four distinct but interwoven uses and gratifications emerged, driven by identity presentation, documentation, socialisation, and aesthetics. Actions appeared to be rooted in hedonic and symbolic play for both the self and others, but also had significant ability to actively and incidentally influence brand communities, brand perceptions, and consumption intentions. Findings confirmed and extended current uses and gratifications theories surrounding both conspicuous brand association and Instagram involvement and suggested the multi-directional impact of secondary image sharing for individuals, peers, and brands.