Why packaging is an essential element of your brand

We all know that packaging is essential for most products. At the most basic level, it is something to hold your product, keeping it clean and transportable.

However, packaging is also a huge part of your product marketing and can make the difference between it being purchased or not. What your packaging looks like, what it is made from and how practical it is now all forms part of people’s buying decisions, so it is vital to invest thought and professional design into this process.

For many years, packaging has been overlooked by marketing departments in favour of flashy posters and television adverts, but it is now apparent that your packaging could be seen more often than any advertising.

Customers will walk past it in a store on a regular basis, they will have it in their homes, and they will see others using it, so your packaging has many chances to speak to a potential customer. It is therefore a huge part of your brand image and needs to tell your customers a great many things, all in one appealing, informative and noticeable look.

To explain further, Nick Mills, General Manager of Ansini, shares his insights as to why packaging is an essential element of your brand.

Brand identity

Getting your packaging right is important for every single brand, no matter what your product is or where people buy it. It is an expression of your brand and your position within the market and can help to make your product more distinctive and unique.

For many products, the packaging might be seen every day by the customer if it is part of their daily routine such as toothpaste, bread or mascara. This means it can become a way to form a subtle relationship with the customer and can affect how they perceive your brand. If the packaging is aesthetically pleasing and practical, it can create a positive user experience that they are likely to want to repeat.

Good packaging design creates an image around your brand that can tell customers that it is high-end or good quality. Alternatively, you might want to play on the reliability or homeliness of your brand, securing its place as something traditional or well-established.

Customers are known to want to trust a brand before they buy it, so conveying this message is crucial when it comes to entering a new market and establishing yourself before you have had chance to become a household name. When you create this impression, it can encourage them to be willing to spend more on that product, as the packaging allows them to believe it is worth it.

When your marketing campaign is seen online, in magazines or across a billboard, it can be very two dimensional. Your packaging is what brings your product to life in front of the customer and must therefore be linked to your marketing in order to make it recognisable and to trigger a reminder of the messages your advertising has been trying to put across.

Practical functions

Your packaging is not just there to look pretty, it has purposes that it needs to perform too. One of those key elements is communication. No matter what you sell, there will be something you need to tell your customers.

You might need to explain them how to use the or why it is different or better than the others on the market. That information needs to be easy to find and easy to understand if you want it to be picked up off the shelf without being overwhelming or making the packaging feel crowded.

This isn’t just about providing facts; it is also about creating a positive experience for the client.

The first purpose of packaging is to deliver your product to the end-user in one piece. It needs to protect the contents to ensure that it is usable, presentable and fit for purpose. The packaging itself also needs to be protected, so thinking about how it will be stored, transported and displayed is important to avoid it becoming damaged and looking tatty in front of the customer.

To make packaging more durable, there has been a tendency to use a lot of plastics and unrecyclable materials. In a world that is now more aware of waste, some customers are shunning such things, so this needs to be taken into consideration from a selling point of view as well as from an environmentally responsible one.

Selling

There are a lot of factors in the decision-making process of purchasing, and your packaging is the last thing that will influence that process before it is added to a basket. It is believed that almost 60% of product decisions are made at the point of sale, so this is your products opportunity to catch the eye of someone and persuade them to opt for your brand over any other.

Don’t forget, you’re not just selling this product, you’re selling the next one too as the customer builds a relationship with your brand and comes back for more.

Our packaging needs to do a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be fun. Thinking about who your target market is helps you to determine how you can make your packaging stand out.

Choosing colours, styles, shapes and materials that appeal to different senses can make your product memorable and attention-grabbing. This isn’t just the case in a physical store, but also online, as it is often pictures of the product in the packaging which are used.

Keeping your packaging unique, informative and strong is not an easy challenge, but it is a significant one in the quest to make your product stand out in a busy marketplace. It is the bearer of your whole brand identity and should speak to your ideal customer about who your business is and why your product is the one they should choose.

Understanding the wide variety of functions that packaging has can help to influence your design and make it something more successful than ever before as part of your brand building and recognition.