Unbox Packaging's luxury packaging dabble with DoBeDo

Pune-based start-up Unbox Packaging has been offering personalised luxury packaging since the past five years. The company's founder Sahil Rao says that the firm has been "successful serving many businesses and individuals around the country".

"We always wanted to come up with a product of our own where we design and manufacture interesting paper and paperboard products," says Rao, highlighting the company's core business. However, due to the growing saturation in the market with ready gifting boxes, Rao thought of venturing into new avenues apart from packaging.

Later, his quest for a new product culminated in the launch of Lumo – a table lamp made from paper and wood – under its debut brand DoBeDo. "Lumo is inspired from origami art and has marble design printed on it," Rao explains.  

To be DoBeDo
At first, the brand name sounded unusual. However, Rao has an explanation: "We wanted to create an experience where everything looks easy to use, easy to buy and easy on your pocket. Our products aren’t very expensive and you don’t need to think twice before buying it. If you look at Lumo, you can see that it has a very simple design; nothing too fancy, but elegant."

Rao says that the name was inspired by famous sayings of philosophers and singers from the classic era.

Lumo is a table lamp made from paper and wood

"Socrates said 'To be is to do'. To which Plato replied 'To do is to be'. On which Frank Sinatra, a singer, sang Do be do be do, which means don’t make it too serious. Just enjoy your life," explains Rao. "Similarly, our products don’t make you think a lot, they are easy and fun. So is our brand."

Also, according to Rao, an unusual name makes it better for online presence.

Asked about Unbox's memorable highlights during the five years since its inception, Rao details that the company always wanted an in-house development department, where experiments on new products can be done and eventually have their own product someday.

"Two years back we started with a development department with a sample making machine. I think that has really helped us a lot and made a decent impact on our business," adds Rao.

Differentiating from the standard gifting boxes, Unbox Packaging tries to fit in where there are smaller minimum order quantities with ultimate finishing possibilities. Apart from that, the company uses different kinds of textured and coloured papers. However, as the market is price sensitive, around 60% of the rigid boxes are produced with coated art paper with some additional post processes.

Lumo is inspired by origami art and has marble design printed on it

The company's main clientele is from the cosmetics and perfume industries with a need for luxury packaging, according to Rao. As for marketing, Rao believes that social media is best suited for the purpose, as "it looks like a strong medium to target the right clientele".

Lockdown woes
The pandemic did not spare this packaging company as well. Rao says that two months post lockdown proved to be very difficult with the labour issues and getting the permits. However, on a positive note, he says, "Overall, we are definitely facing a significant rise in the packaging business this year."

"I think this lockdown really made us think a lot about our business and got a chance to come up with an ideology for our new brand. We thought Lumo would be an ideal product to launch in Diwali, followed by Christmas," Rao explains, describing the idea behind Lumo.

One of the USP of Unbox Packaging, according to Rao, is that it provides its clients with the structural design and helps them on the graphical design front. "I think having a good design is the key to get any packaging look class apart," adds Rao.

Speaking about future plans for DoBeDo, Rao says, "We haven’t thought of any other products yet, but will be launching some interesting products in the coming months."