For almost all businesses, retaining existing customers is far more valuable than acquiring new ones. That’s why with every brand interaction and especially with brand packaging, it’s vital to exceed expectations from the first impression and build a strong customer loyalty.
Why is the customer experience so important?
A recent survey from HubSpot found that 65% of customers said they’ve stopped buying from a business over a single poor customer service experience. Although previously, brands were fine to simply have customers ‘buy and forget’ before the next engagement, it’s now expected that businesses offer a continuously good customer experience at all touchpoints.
Customers want a positive experience not only with a business’ product or service, but with the whole experience with the brand, and packaging is a key way to achieve this.
Brand packaging and a positive customer outlook
Brand packaging is the first thing that customers will see and feel when it comes to finding the right product. That’s why it’s such an instrumental factor for driving a positive initial experience with your brand; in many cases more so than the product itself.
But as well as making a memorable first impression, you can use your brand packaging to create a sharable experience which builds brand loyalty and helps your business grow. Here are some of the key components:
Anticipation
Much psychological research has shown that it’s the anticipation of the experience that brings more happiness to people than possessions. Creating anticipation with a striking, well designed and functional package will make the unboxing experience all the more enjoyable and add value to a customer’s perception of the product.
Consider the materials you’ll use, the information you’ll provide and how you’ll present your items – all details need to add value for the customer to create a more memorable and sharable experience. The better the experience, the more likely your customers will be to endorse your brand and influence others.
Customise
Customising your brand experience can effectively make your valued customers feel exclusive and special, and drive a positive impression of your business. You could do this based on location, by event, or through luxury styled elements such as a handwritten card. Customisation needn’t be carried out on a massive scale; show your appreciation for your repeat or most valued customers and help to sustain a long-term relationship with them.
Adding value to the customer experience at this crucial stage with your brand, can also greatly influence the way your brand is seen against competitors.
Security
Though brand packaging is essentially a device to protect the item inside, as packaging has become more important it should also be strong enough to withstand damage itself.
Many people will try to find the most perfect looking packaging and ignore the damaged ones. Security is a key component to creating a positive brand experience, however you’ll also need to strike a balance between secure packaging and using too much material or packaging layers. If the unboxing process is too fiddly or lengthy for customers it takes away from the experience and could create frustration.
Sustainability
Instead of looking to your website or reading corporate information customers will often look to the brand packaging purely at the point of sale, to decide whether a company is trustworthy and reputable.
As people are becoming more environmentally aware and businesses are becoming more ethically responsible, brand packaging too is increasingly highlighting the sustainable aspects of the product and the packaging itself. Sustainable packaging can impact upon the fulfilment a customer feels by investing in something sustainable, and can help to drive brand loyalty.
At The Packaging Experts we can help you develop effective branded packaging that communicates your company’s values and product information, and creates a memorable brand experience. If you’d like to discuss your ideas with our team or find out more, you can contact us on 01256 352415 or email info@thepackagingexperts.co.uk.
