The Marketing Power of Great Package Design

Your product packaging is easily one of your best and most powerful marketing tools. It can do a wide range of jobs for you and your brand, while still being far more affordable than any TV or social media advertisement. Here are a few of the biggest benefits. 

Attention Grabbing

Firstly, your packaging acts as the loudspeaker that brings customers closer. It can be attention-grabbing, and help your product stand out from the competition on a crowded shelf or eCommerce website. 

Whether you are looking to bulk order paper tape, or looking for a new toothbrush, the product with the best packaging will almost always be the one you keep coming back to. 

Brand Identity

Brand identity is a massive part of marketing, and your packaging needs to reflect that. It should show your company values, your message, how you began, etc. Think of it as a small speech as to why customers should choose you. 

Because you can’t meet each and every one of your customers face-to-face, your packaging needs to do the job of explaining your company and brand. 

Promotes Selling Points

When you think back to the old days of TV marketing and selling, every presenter would thoroughly go through every feature of the product they are promoting. That hasn’t changed; just the way we do it has. 

Your packaging should do the same job and market how your product will change your customer’s life. Promoting what problem it can solve, what it can make easy, etc., all make the product stand out from the competition. 

Enhances Value

One job of marketing is to enhance the perceived value of a product. Customers must know that this product is not only worth buying, but it is also worth the price attached to it. Your packaging can and most certainly does influence this aspect. 

When you use premium materials, have superior build quality, and have a unique approach to the design of your packaging, customers will automatically view the product as valuable and will be more likely to buy it. 

Competitor Differentiation

Marketing is all about standing out from the crowd and setting you apart from your countless competitors. Customers want to know why they should choose you over another brand, and your packaging can do an immense job of making that happen. 

Innovative and distinctive packaging designs can help your product be more eye-catching and not fade into the shelf. You want your product to be the one customers look at, whether they are thinking about buying it or not. 

Emotional Marketing

Whether it be a feeling of nostalgia, fun, or trust, emotional marketing is a powerful tool that your packaging can and should leverage. For instance, how often is your interest piqued by a product that uses ultra-retro packaging designs that you haven’t seen in decades?

Emotional marketing choices are also typically far more memorable, and your customers will talk about them to their friends and family, leading to free marketing to a group of people you may not have reached before. 

Appeals to the Target Audience

Your packaging is easily one of the best tools to appeal to your target audience. If you want to spark the interests of kids, you will use bright colors and pictures, with LEGO being one of the best at this. 

If you want to appeal to a more sophisticated crowd, or make your product appear more sophisticated, you will use minimalist design and colors. 

Cross-Promotion

Your packaging also gives you the opportunity to do cross-promotion and allows you to put other products in your line in front of your customers. For instance, many instant-cake mix boxes will include nods to icing or sprinkles from the same brand in the recipe section. 

Cross-brand partnerships and advertising are also possible, such as Monster Energy, which has included promotional sections of their cans dedicated to new video games, most recently, the latest Call of Duty release. 

Social Media Shareability 

Social media is another exceptionally useful marketing tool, and many people will happily film themselves opening your product if the design is beautiful, and you offer a unique and unforgettable unboxing experience.  

The best part about this type of marketing is that it is completely free and organic. Your product can end up in front of thousands or even millions of eyes you potentially wouldn’t have been able to reach, and you didn’t have to spend a single dime to do it. 

Seasonal/Event Marketing

Another small trick that many brands do is making their packaging seasonal. The trick here is that it turns your product into something slightly different, and potentially scarce or collectable. 

For instance, when the new Beetlejuice film was released, Fanta cans had images of the characters on them, with each flavor featuring a different character. Over the festive season, many brands will add a Christmas twist to their packaging. 

The latter of these two trends changes your product and its use; a regular box of Oreos is something you stick in your cupboard, but a Christmas-themed box is one you can give as a gift, stick in a Christmas stocking, etc. 

In short, seasonal marketing makes your product more of a “must-have” during the time of the theme. This will often lead to increased sales as more people want the fun and unique Christmas version, opposed to the regular version.