The world still judges the book by its cover. Exactly how the world judges a product by its packaging.
With competition rising by the day, it’s becoming necessary to leave a strong impact on the customer’s minds and packaging is the primary way to do that. To make the customer interested in what’s inside, it is important to first make him interested in the outside.
While you are relying on your vendors in China for product packaging, your competitors are working with professionals and creative agencies to create superior packaging for ensuring maximum product sales. They are working to create packaging that sets the brand apart; packaging that grabs eyeballs and attracts new customers.
What you get from Chinese vendors/freelancers VS What you get from agencies?
If someone truly trusts in their product, they’d invest in its packaging, whatsoever.
Packaging is the first impression of a product and as they say, the first impression is everything. In today’s day and age when things and minds are changing fast, your product can easily get lost if it fails to stand out in the first glance.
Yes, sure ordinary packaging is low-priced and may seem attractive but in the long run, it fails to bring you the right customers. Mostly, low-priced packaging is done by vendors catering to 1000 other businesses like yours or it is done by freelancers found on the internet who you can’t hold accountable. This kind of packaging lacks quality, aesthetics and a personalised touch — thereby letting the customers move to other products which made a more solid first impression than yours through their packaging. The pain-points of someone dealing with Chinese vendors or low-budget freelancers is unprofessionalism, delay in delivery, sub-standard quality, run-of-the-mill design and the list goes on. Most importantly, the packaging loses human connection and that is EVERYTHING. What happens in this case is that the product is packaged just so to complete the order you have placed with the vendor.
In contrast, imagine when your product packaging is created with an aim that the product becomes a rage in the market, that it hits the market with a bang! After the conceptualisation of the product, an intensive research is carried out by the creative team to find the product’s target audiences, competitors’ packaging, and an array of other sub-variables to ideate the packaging that uplifts your product and brand image in the customers’ minds. This is followed by the last stage of packaging which envisages final mock-up design, prototyping, etc.
Unique Packaging VS Packaging Guideline
Unique packaging refers to a product-specific packaging which is created for a particular product keeping in mind its functionality, safety, observing the psychological behaviour of its target audiences, studying the competitive packaging models, demographics, distribution model, etc.
A packaging guideline, on the other hand, is a brand-specific document with a particular set of guides related to logo placement, typography, brand colours, product photography style, etc. A packaging guideline ensures consistent packaging across different product categories. It differentiates the brand from its competitors, thereby making a product easily identifiable on shelves and also making it easy for the customer to identify your brand’s products the next time he comes shopping and for repeated sales. In simple words, packaging guidelines are a collective set of packaging rules to be followed across different product categories, thereby making the brand packaging identifiable and consistent. It is known to positively influence purchase decision-making behaviour and create competitive advantage in the long run.
Your packaging decision depends on who you are
If you are a manufacturer or seller dealing with ‘limited but exclusive’ products, you should be opting for exclusive and unique packaging — packaging that is tailor-made for every product. The packaging of a unique product needs to be just as exclusive and unique. So, in case of less products, bespoke packaging is what you shoup opt for.
If you are a manufacturer dealing with bulk products, a smart decision would be to avoid unique packaging for all products as that would lead to heavy packaging costs. What is best in the bulk product scenario is to opt for a ‘packaging guideline’ — it would not only ensure your brand packaging is consistent but also edgy and competitive.
Conclusion
Investing in the packaging of your product is ultimately investing in your branding, which ultimately leads to continued patronage and ever-growing clientele. The mantra is out and clear: Better packaging = Better brand image = Better product success.
Also, if the inside of a product is awesome. Why should the outside stay behind? Take your time to choose the perfect packaging method for your products. Take a note of your budget, the number of products you have and make an informed decision. The only thing to not do is to do ordinary things which lack heart and soul.
PS: Packaging embodies the brand. If your brand is unique, so should be the packaging.
If you have been planning to get packaging done for your new product launches or simply repackage already existing products, we’ve got you covered. If you are working on a new startup or rebranding an existing one, look no further for all your branding needs. Whether it is a logo redesign, a website redesign, powerful packaging, refreshed messaging, or a complete brand makeover, it’s time you get in touch with professional branding agencies like Vowels to make your vision come true. We specialize in brand consultancy, strategy, brand guidelines, CI manual, brand presentation, and corporate branding.
Extended across multiple countries like the Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain, we believe in providing exclusive solutions to all your brand problems.
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