Clearly, product packaging is an important part of branding, and overlooking it will only cause you to lose customers. Let us have a closer look at why product packaging is essential when it comes to establishing your brand presence in the market.
Good product packaging creates a solid brand recognition
If you think back to any iconic brands – Coca Cola, Dove, Jaguar – they all have one thing in common – an uncommon and unique product look. They did not replicate the colors, style, or product packaging of any other brand. When we look back at these iconic brands, we can recognize them almost instantly. The red and white colors of Coca Cola, the white dove of Dove, and the sleek leaping jaguar figure of Jaguar are characteristic and identifying elements of each of these brands. This is what product packaging does for your business.
Maintaining consistency in your product’s packaging helps customers recognize it right away from a shelf in the supermarket. We can identify a Dove shampoo bottle from far away amid an abundance of other shampoo bottles that look almost alike. This is exactly how your product would gain recognition and quick identification if you decide to package it in a unique manner that stays true to your brand vision and image.
Plus, good product packaging also offers you a chance to set yourself apart from your competitors. It is very likely for coffee beans roasting companies to provide their customers freshly roasted coffee grounds in a simple sealed brown paper bag. Even though this packaging is sturdy, customers will have to go the extra mile to transfer the bag’s contents to an air-tight container to preserve its quality and freshness.
However, if one company decides to do things differently and incorporates a ziplock-style bag, customers can simply use the same bag for storage. They wouldn’t need separate containers to store the coffee grounds. One can open the ziplock, take out coffee grounds as desired, and seal the bag right back.
Good product packaging can sway a customer’s purchasing decision
Customers look at numerous different factors before they make the decision to purchase a product. Even if the product has superb features and works great, a customer might decide not to purchase it if it comes in an ineffective and clumsy packaging. Consider this:
You are a personal care brand that sells face wash in a squeezy tube-like bottle. You use good ingredients, and your face wash is paraben and sulfate-free. However, your squeezy bottle’s cap is very strong and doesn’t flip open very easily. Plus, even if you are able to open the tube, too much product squeezes out at once. This can heavily deter your customers from purchasing your face wash.
However, if you consider selling the same face wash in a pump bottle, you might solve all your problems at once. Your customers won’t need to put in a lot of effort in trying to open it and then can simply press down on the handle and take as much face wash as they wish. Here, with a simple change in your product packaging, you were able to sway a customer’s purchasing decision by not only offering them ease but also appropriate usage and less wastage in terms of quantity.
Good product packaging serves as an excellent marketing tool
Branded products, if used smartly, can be excellent marketing tools. Consider the case of Coca Cola. They launched a batch of Coca Cola bottles where the label said: “Share a Coke with Brian”. They replaced the names with the most common names in the United States (such as Luke, Anne, Mary, etc). The company even launched labels like “Share a Coke with Dad”. They then asked everyone to share pictures of the bottle with their own names or their friend’s name on it.
Social media sites like Instagram, Facebook were flooded with images of people drinking Coca Cola in a bottle with their name on it. The company created a fun thing for their customer to do while also boosting their social media engagement. More and more people caught on to the trend and eventually, everyone wanted a Coca-Cola bottle with their names on the label.
Smart product packaging can thus help you generate interest and market your products innovatively. Make sure that the packaging idea you come up with can create shareable content for people to either post about or share with others. For e.g. A potato chips company can package the food item in reusable containers or a cafe could give their takeaway boxes with coasters for customers to later color in.
