Box-ing Happiness

Abstract

This ongoing research aims to explore the consumer behavior and psychology behind the subscription box business models and the motivations of buying and sharing this experience in social media. The study tries to explore meanings of unboxing videos, not just merely observe. This exploratory research focuses on the subscription box business model which has become extremely popular among shoppers and are widely used by many companies. There are not enough overall statistics about subscription box industry but between 2013-2016, subscriptions have increased 3000% (Chang, 2016). The most popular subscription box companies are Birchbox, Ipsy, Mac & Mia, FabFitFun, The Year of Wellness, GlossyBox, BeatityAriny, Le Tote Box, Box of Style and Dollar Shave Club (Boyd, 2016). Content is generally created based on customer's preferences. There are so different subscription box models in a wide range of categories (women, men, beauty, food, moms, babies, kids, drinks, fitness, eco, crafts, pets, artisan etc.). However, the industry has become so saturated that new entries are starting monthly subscription boxes for more specific categories like niche boxes and luxury boxes (Ray, 2015). Social media plays an important role in the diffusion of subscription box business models. Particularly, YouTube videos on subscription boxes are conspicuously increasing. So, in this study unboxing videos in YouTube will he used. Main research method of the study is interpretive video analysis (videography). Today, there is an explosive diffusion of privately produced videos using the Internet as a favorite medium of distribution. This has also opened new ways for the social sciences to produce and present data. The dissemination of video as a technology has now allowed many more social scientists to use it because it is not only relatively cheap, reliable, and available but due to its widespread private use, video has become less and less obtrusive. Knoblauch and Tuma (2011:416) consider videography to be a specific form of focused ethnography since the use of video has important consequences for the focusing process. Ethnography helps to determine exactly where, when and who is to be recorded on video. This exploratory research will contribute to a developing understanding of a new consumption phenomenon, subscription-based e-commerce. This research also contributes to consumer behavior by adopting ethnography on videos. Analyzing videos can bring valuable insights to consumer behavior study.