Why Is Branded Packaging So Important?

The packaging you choose will play a vital role in attracting, exciting and making a lasting impression on your customers.  Used correctly, it can aid the process of creating greater brand recognition and loyalty.  So we thought it prudent to look at the role of branded packaging in today’s marketplace and highlight just why it’s so important.

Customer Experience

All customers will expect a similar experience, regardless of whether they are buying from a shop or an online retailer.  For online purchases the packaging should enhance this experience.  Good quality packaging that conveys the right messages through personalised printing, will communicate with your audience and start to build rapport, trust and a relationship that promotes loyalty.

Branded Packaging as A Marketing Tool

With the huge influence social media has on many of us, visually pleasing images create likes and followers, promoting businesses and brands.  As an extension of this, shoppers are more likely to recognise branded packaging, that recognition drawing them to make a purchase.

Packaging Colour Sways Consumer Purchases

Colour plays a key role in consumer decision making.  Without knowing, our brains react to colours in different ways and we start to form opinions about items from this information.  Here are some examples of what different colour can represent:

Black = authority, power & strength

Green = growth and nature

White = cleanliness, purity and simplicity

Red = passion, boldness and excitement

Orange = fun and low-cost

Yellow = optimism and hope

Purple = royalty and sophistication,  

Blue = trust and reliability

Once a target demographic has been established, the colour and how it’s used can communicate directly to the right audience.

Creating an Emotional Appeal Through Branded Packaging

We know packaging is part of the consumer decision-making process and it goes way beyond just getting your brand noticed.  Through a combination of text and images, printed packaging can be used to relay important messages to your customers and connect on a deeper level.  Hill’s Science Diet pet food is an example of how packaging can be used in this way.  They reinforced the brand’s science-based nutrition and at the same time created an emotional appeal through images of healthy well-fed pets.  They even included messages on each package to hit home their commitment to nourishing shelter animals with messages like “Helped 9 Million Shelter Pets Find a Forever Home”.  These carefully curated images and content perfectly target the intended audience.

Perceived Added Value through printed packaging

Packaging design is one of the most important ways in which perceived value can be attributed to products.  Printed packaging enhances the look and feel of a product, giving the impression of getting more for your money, connecting with the consumer on a personal level and making the packaging all part of the brand experience.

There are cases where a product cost less than the packaging, but the customer will still make the purchase because of the perceived value the packaging is creating.

The Effects of Unbranded Packaging

Unbranded packaging was enforced on cigarette brands to discourage young people from buying them.  All cigarette packaging must now be printed in ‘the worlds ugliest colour’, chosen through market research. The brand name, font and location was standardised across all brands, making it dull and uninviting.

Research carried out by Cancer Research UK showed that removing branding from cigarette packaging will reduce the attractiveness of the product, because it closes the advertising opportunity.  This illustrates how powerful branded packaging can be.  Australia also introduced a plain packaging law. Their post-implementation review concluded that unbranded tobacco packaging has begun to achieve its public health objectives of reducing smoking.

The Unboxing Experience

For the eCommerce sector, the first time your product comes into physical contact with your customer is when it is delivered. This makes branded packaging a powerful marketing tool with the opportunity to create a memorable “unboxing” experience.

A successful unboxing experience such as those delivered in recent years by Birchbox, Apple and Dollar Shave Club, will enhance your marketing campaign, drive customer engagement, improve the way your customers feel about your product and most importantly push future sales.

It’s a growing trend and invaluable marketing tool, with millions of dedicated video posts on platforms such as YouTube.

It Won’t Ruin Your Sustainable Image

If anything, branded packaging will do the opposite and be an aid to enhance your sustainable credentials.  Cardboard packaging is, after all, made from 80% recycled material and can be recycled after use to make new boxes, time and time again.  You can even remind customers of this with a message, showing a recycling symbol and using water-based, non-toxic inks.

It’s Easier Than You Think to Get Branded Packaging

We help many businesses with branded packaging, working with design agencies, established companies with a history of buying packaging and new start-ups.  We can print boxes from as little as 500 units and have the flexibility to be able to offer a range of printing techniques to suit all budgets, artwork and markets.

Don’t miss out on the opportunities that printed packaging can offer – Get in touch with us for your branded packaging quotation.