Thursday 28 May 2015

L'Occitane and their Labels


There's something very unique about L'Occitane's packaging. You may not have noticed but the majority of their products, prettily packaged, expertly labelled, also has Braille.  While I was playing around with some my deliveries, I noticed bumps on a body milk. It didn't quite register but when I started noticing other bumps I realized what it was and was impressed by my discovering. I don't know of any other beauty/skincare brand that makes this attempt at accessibility.



Google tells me that L'Occitane started this practice around 2006. The owner was inspired to do so when he witnessed a customer with a visual impairment intensely inhaling the scents in the stores. He wanted to make all his products more accessible. This choice comes with costs. Providing Braille on packaging is estimated to increase costs by 4-6% per item but I suspect some costs are recuperated by an increase in sales from this target population. 

I'm applauding this practice. Companies try and put socially responsible spins on their products but its hard to know how much of that is genuine. I appreciate that L'Occitane is very subtle about their use of Braille. I haven't noticed them pitching this fact to me or other customers when I walk into a store which makes me feel like they aren't trying to 'gain profit' by doing so and that there's some integrity behind their intent. Claps and snaps to you, L'Occitane. Claps and snaps.

Have you encountered this before? Are there other brands that support accessibility? 

Let's Connect:

0 comments:

Post a Comment