Did you know that 60%-80% of customers don’t buy from the same business even if they were satisfied with the product?
Drawing and retaining customers is a cutthroat business, and to succeed, your packaging needs to go beyond wowing your customers. Although you need to watch your costs, you must invest significantly in your packaging to win and keep your customers when they first interact with your product.
Here is a guide on product packaging to help you develop an excellent product experience.
Things to Weigh Before Designing Your Packaging
Designing your brand’s package takes a lot of work for successful shipping with minimal to no damage. You will have to make decisions on the shape, size, boxing or bagging, and colors, among others. Before you pull the trigger on any decisions, you need accurate information backed by the right research. Here are some critical things to consider before you design your packaging.
1. Production Lead Time
As an entrepreneur, you have a persistent vision for your brand and the way it should be presented. However, you must remain flexible when you are coming up with the ideal packaging for your product, especially where the production lead time is concerned.
Is your packaging complex? That’s a critical question to ask as it impacts your turnaround time. The longer it takes to produce your packaging, the more it inevitably costs you to put the product out the door.
Assess the several packaging options you have to learn how long it would take to get your product ready. The best option is packaging that helps differentiate your product but doesn’t add unnecessary time to your production schedule.
2. Knowing Your Audience
Every aspect surrounding your product is meant to fulfill a customer’s need. Your packaging ought to respond to this insight if consumers are to find your product resonating with their desires.
Conventional business wisdom is that your packaging should give the customer what they desire. Thus, you should conduct research that helps you understand customer reaction to the several ideas you may have.
For example, if you plan to sell a product to older consumers, complicated packing will hurt your sales as they will struggle to get to the product. Similarly, men will not respond as well to a pink-colored product.
Work to uncover consumer tastes, preferences, and aspirations as these will guide you to the right option for your final package design.
3. Your Brand Strategy
How your product fits into your firm’s branding decisions has a significant impact on the packaging you will choose. Are you dealing with products that fall under one general classification? If so, then packaging that unifies these different products under your corporate brand position can be a boon in scaling your recognition across the country.
If you are dealing with several diverse products, then your packaging decisions will have to revolve around each product’s positioning. Your corporate identity on the final packaging will remain very small, while the individual product’s brand character will be a considerable part of the packaging.
4. Product Protection
Your packaging needs to be both beautiful to look at but also practical. The viability of the packaging design you want has to factor in product protection. For example, if your product is electronic, then protecting against static (that causes 33% of all electrical products) is a critical design factor.
Tamper evidence is also another aspect of protecting your product that the packaging’s design must support. In industries like food and beverage, this package feature is critical in ensuring the safety of your consumers.
Types of Product Packaging to Consider
There are three kinds of packaging you should consider depending on how you want to present your product to the customer.
1. Outer Packaging
The outer packaging is the box or other such option you want to use when delivering the product. Outer packaging plays a critical part in protecting your product during shipping. It also helps differentiate your product as it is the very first thing your customer will notice when their package arrives.
2. Inner Packaging
Inner packaging is everything that goes inside the outer packing you want to use but isn’t part of the product. For example, if you are packing an electronic, the outer packaging is the box, while the inner packaging is the interior molding that helps the product remain in place.
The most significant factor with inner packaging is the practicality of the design. Protecting the product from moving around the outer packaging and adding other useful product-related information is essential.
3. On-Product Package
The on-product package is that which is directly applied to the product. For example, if you are selling a bottle of shampoo, then the on-product package here is the bottle you pour the shampoo into. Any hanging tags or labels you use are also considered part of the on-product package.
Since this is the packaging consumers will likely see the most, you must make its design as appealing as you can. However, do not forget to balance aesthetics with functionality as that counts heavily towards usability and your customer’s ultimate product experience.
Things That Need to Go on Your Packaging
A right package must feature several elements that speak to your customer and help your product successfully ship. Let’s look at some things you should include in your packaging.
1. Product Title
Your product should have its name clearly appearing on the packaging for easier identification, especially for and new consumers.
2. Product Copy
Suitable packaging should explain what the product is about and how to use it best. You can use a tagline or get into more detail in a section on the label.
3. Instructions
To help your customers get the best out of your product, you should have clear yet concise instructions on the label.
These instructions should clearly stress any health and safety-related information as well as any regulatory information such as barcodes and nutrition labels, among others, as specified for your industry.
Win with Outstanding Packaging
A successful product needs to go beyond drawing in customers to retaining them. Excellent product packaging is critical to achieving these objectives. You, therefore, need to understand the elements of an exceptional product package to deliver a differentiated product experience.
1021 SunRise is a speedy courier company that prides itself on efficient parcel delivery. Talk to us today to learn how to best package your product and how to get it into your customer’s hands fast.