Packaging for Product Launches: How Packaging Can Maximise Your Product’s Success
It’s widely known that customers make most of their purchasing decisions in just a few seconds. They make snap judgments on brands and their products based on how they’re presented, from the brand’s messaging and style to their imagery.
Packaging design for new products is crucial in capturing your customer’s imagination at launch. Packaging plays a pivotal role whether you’ve directly targeted retail shelves, online via your website or at a launch event. This article explores the importance of packaging for product launches, how it influences consumer behaviour and how custom packaging can greatly improve the customer experience.
Why Packaging Design Matters
You’re about to showcase your product to the world. You’ve refined your product over many months or even years. You’ve chosen the launch channels — including social media, email marketing, and perhaps an in-person event — and you’re ready to show the product’s features and benefits.
The product launch messaging and assets for your marketing channels are all prepared and waiting to meet the public. The launch party is here.
You’ve covered everything. Right?
Rewind! Let’s review how to package a new product for a successful launch.
Many retailers are so eager to show off their products that packaging design is an afterthought.
When done right, your product isn’t just sitting on the shelf or in your online shop. It’s actively catching the interest of passing customers. This is where packaging marketing helps your products to stand out online and in brick-and-mortar stores.
Packaging Marketing for Product Launches
Recent studies indicate that packaging design influences customer purchase behaviour through visual cues. The purpose of your packaging isn’t simply to house your product. It should capture the attention of your target audience and make them consider buying your product.
Several premium packaging printing techniques can be applied to your packaging to give it instant appeal:
- Embossing
- Debossing
- Foil Blocking
- UV Coating
- Spot Varnish.
Each of these printing techniques can be applied to various kinds of packaging, such as luxury rigid boxes. When you level up your packaging aesthetic, you immediately have more assets at your disposal when marketing your product for launch.
The packaging helps establish your brand’s position within the market and can be used to communicate your brand’s values. It can help with the complex task of storytelling, giving your customers a compelling reason to buy into your brand.
With the right design, you can seamlessly incorporate a memorable unboxing experience, which, for online retailers, is the first moment your customers make a physical connection with your brand.
Featured: O’Donnell Moonshine Gift Set
Case Study: O’Donnell Moonshine
Let’s look at the food and beverage industry as an example of how to package a new product for launch. Remember that in most settings, you have only seconds to convince a consumer to pick up and buy your product over a competitor’s.
We created the packaging for O’Donnell Moonshine, a distiller putting a modern twist on classic cocktails and drinks.
The artwork on this plastic-free packaging shows the original Mason jars to reflect the historical branding design. These jars harken back to the days of American prohibition, a time of bootlegging gangsters. The box typography includes the catchy tagline “Discover your rebel spirit”.
This is very targeted to an audience’s interest in the drink and the era — and raises curiosity in those looking for a different alcoholic beverage.
Check out our custom packaging for more examples of high-end retail product designs.
Featured: Afternoon Tea Set from One Aldwych
How to Speak to Your Audience with Packaging
First impressions count, so your packaging must convey what’s special about your product in an often crowded marketplace. In most cases, failed launch campaigns come down to consumers’ lack of emotional response caused by a disconnect between what’s being offered and what they stand to receive.
To showcase your brand’s personality and communicate effectively with your audience, you need to consider a few key elements of your packaging:
- Colour — catches the attention of shoppers and evokes emotion.
- Fonts — must be legible and appropriately sized, but also stand out.
- Imagery — tell your brand’s story through images and artwork.
- Functionality — above all else, packaging must be accessible.
To create the all-important connection, let’s look at a packaging example from the high-end gift market.
Some brands use minimalistic designs and premium materials to convey quality and sophistication. For example, this afternoon tea set from One Aldwych reflects the Willy Wonka experience for a unique home dining experience.
The use of deep purple with a bright pink ribbon and the gold foil blocking for the text make this packaging feel fun while remaining sophisticated and up-market. The product is intended to bridge the gap between the luxury hotel and something fun and exclusive that caters to families — the packaging helps make this connection.
Featured: Gift Box from Reef Knots
Use Eco-Friendly Packaging to Make Your Message Clear
An eco-friendly packaging design will make a strong first impression on audiences that value sustainability. To achieve sustainable packaging success, potential customers should immediately be able to see:
- What the product is
- What it can do
- How it fits into their lives.
As well as:
- The values your brand communicates
- Key sustainability facts about your product
- How to dispose of the packaging responsibly.
Aim for these crucial targets in your packaging design before you set a launch date. To help you address these key points, ask yourself the following:
Does the Design Create Excitement?
What is the first impression of the unboxed product? The combination of messages, packaging colour and typography should entice the customer and elicit the feelings you want customers to associate with your brand — joy, sophistication, warmth or security (this depends on your target audience).
For example, the packaging design for a fashion product should communicate prestige and value, such as our packaging for Reef Knots (picture above). You have mere moments to get that first impression right, so make it count!
What Kind of Product Is Being Packaged?
Different products need different packaging strategies. We’re not just talking about box sizes and materials — consider the patterns, textures, colours and imagery. Your packaging should reflect the uniqueness of your brand and appeal directly to your target audience.
If it’s food packaging, recyclable and biodegradable materials are a must, but the packaging and imagery should entice potential customers and make your products look all the more appetising. The copy on the packaging should show nutritional facts like ingredients and cooking instructions and communicate your brand’s values.
What Are Your Goals for Your Product Launch?
Simply put, you want your packaging to capture the customers’ interest and motivate them to buy your product. You only have seconds to do this, so you need to distil the essence of your brand and clarify the features and benefits of your product to have a successful launch.
Consider the key messages you want your customers to understand and how they will receive this information, even just by glancing at your product.
Recap: 5 Packaging Tips for Your Next Product Launch
If one thing’s clear, the appeal of your packaging strongly influences the success of your product launch. Let’s round up those tips for you when working on your package design:
- Focus on Clear Messaging — Help your target audience identify with the product within seconds of viewing the packaging. What it is and does should be clear within moments, so don’t hide your key messages or compromise clarity.
- Foster Connections with Customers — Your target audience must recognise that it’s intended for their interests. We can help you achieve a packaging design that resonates with your audience so that they instantly see the value of your product.
- Maximise Artwork and Imagery — Express your brand’s values visually, bearing in mind that you want to convey your brand’s personality quickly, simply and effectively. Is there a clear way of defining your brand with your artwork selection?
- Use Eco-Friendly Materials — Plastic-free packaging adds to the perceived value of your product for eco-conscious customers. They’ll immediately recognise that your brand has gone to the lengths to create packaging that doesn’t compromise their environmental values.
- Masterfully Convey Your USPs — Last but not least, be clear about what makes the product unique. It’ll be the final push consumers need to finalise their rapid decision-making. Create excitement in the build-up to launch day and urgency when you finally make your product available to purchase.
Get the Packaging You Need for Launch!
We’re carbon neutral packaging experts with over four decades of experience in the packaging industry. We’ve helped countless businesses refine their packaging to create successful products across numerous industries. We know how important it is for brands to meet their sustainability targets and appeal to eco-conscious audiences, so we offer custom packaging solutions for new products that don’t harm the planet.
Get a FREE quote for custom packaging within 48 hours, and let us help you delight your customers today.
