Packaging A New Product: 8 Tips & Tricks
Let’s face it – people do judge books by their covers. The same principle applies to anything we buy and use, including gifts, tools, clothes, and more. The package of your products, in other words, is akin to the first impression a customer has before using or enjoying them.
As a small business owner, you know the importance of packaging a new product smartly, attractively, and consistently with your brand. Today, let’s break down how to package your new products with eight clever tips and tricks for maximum results.
8 Tips and Tricks for Packaging New Products
- Make Sure Your Design is On-Brand
- Tailor the Package to Your Target Audience
- Offer Attractive Packaging
- Keep Your Message Simple
- Honesty Is Key
- Consider Sustainable Packaging
- Include Instructions
- Go Over Legal Requirements
1. Make Sure Your Design is On-Brand
Firstly, and most importantly, you must ensure that your product packaging is “on-brand.” Put simply, on-brand means that packaging is:
- The same color scheme or visual aesthetic as your products, website, and other company materials
- Tonally similar to other packages or written materials for your brand
- Fitting for your brand’s core mission or identity
For example, imagine that you run a company with eco-friendly products. Being “green” is a major part of your company’s identity. It would be contrary to that identity if you ship your products in massive packages with lots of plastic waste.
Consider your brand and what it means to your customers, then come up with packaging solutions that fit your brand identity before going forward.
You should also consider:
- Colors
- Lettering
- Fonts
Think of other visual aspects that already define your brand identity, then use those when designing new packages.
2. Tailor the Package to Your Target Audience
Next, consider your target audience members and what they desire. For example, if your target audience is primarily men, straightforward and no-fluff packaging is probably ideal.
If your target audience is college-educated women and you sell makeup, on the other hand, a cursive or decorative font with a bit of extra attention paid to the aesthetic wouldn’t be a bad idea!
3. Offer Attractive Packaging
The best product packaging is, naturally, highly attractive and visually compelling. There are two elements to designing and shipping attractive packages.
Color Considerations
Consider color before anything else. Use those for your primary shipping box colors if your brand already has a handful of defined shades or hues. But remember that color can be a visual communicator – red, for example, is exciting and reminiscent of passion or love.
On the other hand, green can be enlightening and intriguing while reminding customers of nature.
When considering your design process, custom packaging with graphic designs may be important as well. Here too, great color makes great packaging. The color design element can truly be the differentiator between you and competitors in your target market.
Structural Design
Then think about the structural design of your new product’s package. Custom boxes are good choices for most products, but what size should you pick? Generally, you should avoid leaving excess space inside your packages (i.e., don’t make packages any larger than they need to be to save on shipping costs) for your customers and you.
But you should also ensure that your packages are easy to open! Hard-to-open packages can ruin the excitement that should be inherent in purchasing a product from your store.
4. Keep Your Message Simple
Keep them simple and straightforward if you decide to include words on branded packaging. Writing too much on a package defeats the purpose of the visual language used elsewhere. In the worst-case scenarios, it can turn customers away from your brand entirely!
5. Honesty Is Key
As you decide what to write or how to design a new product’s packaging, remember this vital fact: honesty is everything. Now more than ever before, customers are susceptible to signs of inauthenticity in the companies they patronize.
To that end, don’t use packaging to:
- Oversell your product or outright lie
- Represent your product as something it’s not (like showing inaccurate graphics of the product’s capabilities, etc.)
6. Consider Sustainable Packaging
You can do your brand a big favor and potentially get more customers to try your company out if you move to sustainable packaging. Packaging with materials like biodegradable cardboard and more is ideal – by the same token, you should try to avoid plastic packaging, which is the exact opposite of "green."
A new, eco-friendlyproduct packaging design can significantly impact your company's sustainability scores. Consider taking this step ASAP - odds are your packaging needs can afford you to remove a few packaging materials, like unneeded plastic, stickers, and so on.
7. Include Instructions
Some new products can be technically complex or difficult to figure out intuitively. That’s all right! You can and should include instruction manuals or sheets in the packages for your products.
Not only does this make enjoying a new product easier for your customers, but it also shows that your brand is committed to them above all else.
8. Go Over Legal Requirements
Lastly, don't forget to review the legal requirements for new packaging. Depending on your state or industry, there might be restrictions or requirements, for instance, on:
- Package sizes
- How much plastic you can use if any
- The shape of new packages
Why Is Packaging Important?
Simply put, the packaging is crucial because it’s the first impression of your brand to a new or current customer. When someone receives a product from your company in the mail, the first thing they see is the box or bag it comes in. Therefore, good packaging can have a significant impact on brand recognition.
Even in the seconds that follow buying a product, customers must interact with the packaging to get to the item(s) inside. Suppose you design your packaging to be visually engaging, informative, and compelling. In that case, your target audience members will have a great experience before they even get their hands on what they ordered.
The reverse, of course, is also true. If your packaging is poorly designed, or if it looks ugly, customers will be less than thrilled to receive their ordered products in the mail or to pick up a product from your retail store. In other words, the packaging is a significant part of the customer experience, and it’s not something you can afford to ignore!
How Does the Packaging Affect a Customer’s Decision To Purchase?
On top of all that, packaging can affect whether a customer decides to buy something or not. If they only see a product in its package on your store shelf, that product package has to sell the item inside to a prospective customer.
If your packaging is ugly or uninspiring, it can cost you money in the long run. Designing excellent packaging for a new product is one of the best ways to guarantee it flies off your store shelves.
Moving Forward
Ultimately, how you package your products can significantly impact how many people buy your things, what they expect from your products, and even how long your brand sticks in the mind of your target audience. It's always a good idea to design compelling, eye-catching, and attractive packaging for each product in your lineup.
Remember these tips while using Box Genie’s package design tools, whether you need cardboard boxes, cartons, bags, mailboxes, or something in between. If you stick to the above design principles, every package you craft will look great to your e-commerce and retail customers. Good luck!
Sources:
Brand Identity Definition | Investopedia
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