What makes a customer intrigued and curious about a new product? Whether you run an online business or own a physical store, product packaging is a crucial advertising and marketing strategy. Your product packaging must be creative and eye-catching to draw the customers' attention to purchase the product. Your product will be judged based on your packaging in the eCommerce market scene. This means, by your product packaging, people draw conclusions about your product before using it. Packaging plays a vital role in the success of your brand.
This article will take you through the meaning of creative packaging, the importance of good packaging for your product, the best packaging ideas to level up your business, the essential and standard features expected of product packaging, and how to stand out amongst the competition with your product packaging.
What Is Creative Packaging?
Creative packaging is a packaging design that helps a product stand out among its competition. Creative packaging involves properly combining colors, patterns, and more to make a design. You could design your product's packaging if you have professional skills, or you could recruit professionals for the design process.
Let's look at why good packaging is crucial in business.
Importance Of Good Packaging
The first thing a customer notices about a product is the product's packaging. The packaging is a message for the consumers. The following are the importance of good packaging.
- It helps customers create a positive opinion about your product, persuading them to purchase it.
- It helps build your brand. It ensures that your brand stands out from your competitors by differentiating your products from your competitors.
- It gives your product some personality.
- It helps promote your brand.
Image taken from Strikingly User
Best Packaging Ideas for All Kinds of Products
There are a lot of creative packaging ideas that eCommerce brands can use to drive sales. Your packaging ideas depend largely on the product you're selling. Like you wouldn't love getting a shoe in a tote bag or a pair of jewelry in a pouch, packaging ideas vary by product and occasion. You can however achieve excellent packaging for any product with some general tips. Below are cool packaging ideas for any type of product.
- Mailer boxes
- Product boxes
- Packaging sleeves
- Hanging displays
- Custom pouches
- Custom product packaging
- Mailer Boxes
They are the best option for eCommerce packaging. They can be used for a wide variety of companies ranging from food and beverage, cosmetics, and jewelry, to skincare brands. They are simple, elegant, and customizable for every brand. They often act as primary product packaging. They give the consumer a feeling of importance and satisfaction. When leveraged correctly by your brand, that feeling can turn into customer retention, loyalty, and satisfaction.
As the saying goes "variety is the spice of life". Mailer boxes come in three different varieties. .
- Standard mailer boxes with wings
- Mailer boxes with a sticky tear strip
- Mailer boxes without wings
- Product Boxes
These are cool packaging ideas for individual packaging of small products like cosmetics, chocolates, perfumes, or candles. They offer extra printing space for additional information. Product-sized boxes and cases give the product a compact and portable feel. They are great for customers who worry about the size. Product boxes come in paperboard and different designs and sizes depending on individual preferences.
- Packaging Sleeves
They are used to wrap mailer boxes and product boxes, giving any packaging a branded and informational boost. Packaging sleeves are cost-efficient, eco-friendly, and can be used for any product. Customers can reuse the packaging. It also helps in brand recognition. They offer more information about the product and extra brand content. It also helps keep the product close and secure.
- Hanging Displays
They are used for hanging toys, cosmetics, and confectioneries. A hanging display is a unique packaging idea best used in a retail setting.
- Custom Pouches
These are primarily used for products like snacks, pet foods, soaps, and alcohol-free liquids but can be used for a variety of reasons. Custom pouches are mostly used in retail settings for hanging displays if they have the proper structure.
- Custom Product Packaging
Image taken from Strikingly User
Custom product packaging is a unique packaging idea. It doesn’t fit the most common forms of packaging. Custom packaging is your best idea if you need a more customized solution. Products with unique selling points that can be properly reflected in a custom package style. Custom packaging creates a unique brand experience with product-sized boxes and interactive packaging - inserts, unique void fill options, stickers, and cards.
1. Inserts
Adding a little "thank you" note to your package is a creative way to add a nice personal touch to each package. It can be a "thank you for patronizing" or "thank you for choosing us" message. This leaves a lasting impression on your customers and influences their future buying options.
2. Cards
You can also include cards with your social media handles. This is a great way of getting engagements from customers. They can give reviews and feedback about your product. You can also encourage them to share your product on social media platforms.
3. Stickers
You can use stickers to give your package's product customized finishing touches. Stickers are affordable depending on the printing size and shape. Adding a sticker to your product packaging gives it a customized look.
Custom packaging is the best packaging idea for media-based projects designed to capture your audience. It is also used to promote and advertise a new product or service you're releasing.
Essential Features Of Product Packaging
Product packaging is much more than the outer designs - the colors and patterns. There are some essential features to be incorporated in the packaging in line with consumer rules and regulations. These key features include
- The branding and logo
- Packaging design
- Product documentation
- Barcodes and country of origin markings.
- The Branding and Logo
Let's say you see a half-eaten apple design on any product, what comes to your mind? Apple, right? That is Apple's logo and branding. Your logo is a distinctive feature that makes consumers quickly identify your brand products and services. Read more about branding from this blog post. A Strikingly website lets you integrate your customized logo on your header and other parts of your website. That way, users can just click on it and return to the homepage. This makes for easy navigation for website users, which can, in turn, positively affect your website traffic. See how this Strikingly user’s website has its logo positioned at the top-left corner.
Image taken from Strikingly User
- Packaging Design
The design or artwork on your packaging must be different and not similar to any other brand.
- Product Documentation
This has to do with the description of your product, its uses, and the specific target audience if any.
- Barcodes and Country of Origin Marking
Barcodes are those groups of thick and thin lines placed on a product. It allows a computer to get the product's price and other information about it. Country of origin marking involves stating the country where the contents of your products are gotten from. Failure to add country of origin markings on your packaging attracts a penalty.
How To Stand Out With Your Product Packaging
Having noted some cool packaging ideas that you can use for your brands, let's look at some tips that will help you stand out and sell more with good product packaging
- Make a reusable package
- Add some "spice" to your packaging
- Create a design focused on your product
- Create a fun packaging
- Focus on a specific target audience
- Get inspiration from nature
1. Make A Reusable Package
Reusable packages are not only cost-effective but eco-friendly. Consumers do not have to worry about recycling or throwing away the package, they can simply reuse it. You can use the recyclable paper pulp, cardboard, or a plant-based poly mailer if cardboard isn't an option for your brand.
2. Add Some "Spice" To Your Packaging
Look at what your competitors are doing and do better than them. You can add a little spice to your standard packaging. It can remind people of home or something dear to them.
3. Create A Unique Design
It is not enough that your design is appealing and attractive to the eyes. It should also be unique and captivating. Let your design speak for you. Avoid too similar branding or repetitive color schemes. The text on your package is as crucial as the design. The text is the message you give your consumers. Ensure that you show off your brand personality in the text.
4. Make Your Packaging Fun
Fun is not only attributed to kids. Everyone likes to have fun once in a while. Adding a fun element to your product packaging will help you stand out from your competition. The wine industry is one industry that has started to embrace creating fun packaging. Whichever industry you are in, one way to make your packaging fun is to let your users get a sneak peek at the product. Transparent packaging, like the one the Strikingly user below used, can help you achieve this.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
5. Focus On A Specific Target Audience
Focusing on a specific target will help you create packaging that is befitting and appealing to that target. If your target is teens and youths, you will know how to build your packaging to suit them. If your target audience is kids, your packaging should be well-suited. You can include more bright colors, cartoon characters, and fun elements kids fancy.
6. Get Inspiration From Nature
There are some unique packaging ideas you can get from nature. For example, the banana, the pea pod, the pine cone, and the kangaroo pouch, amongst others, are all nature's unique packaging. There are colors, shapes, patterns, and designs from nature that will make killer product packaging ideas. While taking a walk, look around you. You might get the best packaging ideas from nature.
Conclusion
Packaging influences how consumers view, think, and talk about your product. The role of an innovative and creative packaging idea cannot be overlooked. The saying "first impression matters" captures the role played by creative product packaging. Having the right packaging can make all the difference. Product packaging is much more than the designs. It's what and how you want the audience to see your product. In today's competitive market, standing out and being unique means creating product packaging that’s on-brand, relevant, and highly in tune with your customers’ needs.
Your packaging does noes not only concern physical products. You can display your excellent packaging in your product photos and showcase them on your eCommerce store. A Strikingly website allows you to embed beautiful photos of your product and its packaging, so you can immediately get your customer’s attention. Great packaging added to the fantastic website designs of our templates will lead to impressive sales turnover for your business.
