First impressions are very important, especially when it comes to products and packaging. Your choice of retail packaging reflects your brand and customers can make their first impression based on that alone, before even seeing the product itself.
Retail packaging should represent your brand values and include design techniques that will appeal to the right audience, while standing out from the competition.
When designing retail packaging, here are a few things to consider:
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Make it Brand Focused
Before looking into any elements of design, you first need to consider who you are as a brand, your objectives and your values and how you plan to convey these with your retail packaging. You can reflect these values with your choice of colours, language, imagery, promotions and materials.
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Have Your Audience in Mind
As well as keeping your brand in mind, it’s important to think about your customer at every step of the design process.
Some questions to consider are:
- How will each element appeal to my target audience?
- Which phrases and images would be the most captivating?
- What will they do with the packaging afterwards?
- Are my customers concerned about being environmentally friendly?
By asking these questions, it reminds the team to keep your audience in mind and will present more effective results when delivered to customers.
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Make it Multifunctional
Design innovative retail packaging that can serve a purpose after it’s primary use. For example, make it durable and aesthetically pleasing enough to use as a storage box in your home, or fill it with activities for children to complete or make it suitable for displaying your products on store shelves.
Not only does this reduce waste, but it will also differentiate your brand from the competition and add to the value of your product and service.
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Build Customer Relationships with Creative Inserts
Repeat customers are attracted to your brand because of the service they receive, as well as the products. Adding creative inserts, such as thank you notes, promotional flyers and custom letters all help to increase profits and future order sizes, while being low cost and highly targeted.
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Don’t Be Wasteful
Recently, as more people become more eco-conscious, consumers are beginning to look down on businesses for excessive and non-recyclable packaging. Utilise the space your packaging has to offer to the fullest and try to avoid excess materials, such as screwed up tissue and cardboard when it isn’t necessary.
Make a first impression that will exceed customer expectations and encourage more sales with innovative packaging. If you’re interested in working with our team on bespoke retail packaging, get in touch today.
