Packaging is often the first physical (sensory) interaction shoppers have with a product. Packaging conveys your brand identity, values, and product benefits at a glance. Unique packaging helps your product stand out from competitors on the shelf. In essence, packaging serves as a silent salesperson, delivering your final marketing message and potentially swaying the customer’s decision at the point of purchase.
Regardless of how qualitative or cost-effective your product is, the initial impression of your product will be based on its packaging’s design. Design’s sole function is to differentiate a product on the shelf from the rest. Design is the aesthetic appeal that packaging needs. It conveys the product’s imbibed value proposition and evokes emotions that connect shoppers with products.
Therefore, focusing on innovative packaging can provide you with an edge over the competitors. In this context, custom packaging design can capture attention, improve shopping experience, enhance brand identity, and infuse your product with a unique character.
Custom Packaging Design Solutions Positively Impacts Brand Identity & CX
In hypercompetitive markets– branding, packaging, and quality are the key differentiators. However, when it comes to physical interactions with products, what catches the attention is the packaging design. More than just a protective cover unique packaging acts as a trusted brand spokesperson that tells a lot about your product before anyone opens it.
From enhancing brand recognition to improving the shopping experience, packaging design is the hallmark of effective branding. Therefore, brands going for custom packaging design solutions are making a prudent decision that will pay for their investment.
Let’s explore how custom packaging design can impact your brand’s identity and CX:
1. First Impressions and Brand Recognition
In a market where consumers are exposed to over 10000 different products during a normal supermarket trip, distinctive packaging can make your product stand out. Custom packaging provides you with that distinctiveness. Creating distinctive and visually appealing packaging designs that resonate with your brand’s principles and style can make your products stand out, encouraging recognition and recall.
2. Emotional Connection and Brand Storytelling
Custom packaging design builds emotional bonds with customers through the careful use of colors, images, and messages. It shows brand values and character, with features like green suggesting health awareness or simple/minimal designs hinting at luxury. Because shared values shape most of the brand relationships, packaging design that tells your brand’s story creates stronger customer connections.
3. Shopper Experience
Custom packaging design is the first step towards how a shopper will get the unboxing experience. The packaging should be designed in a way that improves its unboxing and even if customers want to reopen or store the product, the product labeling must stay intact and readable. Special design touches like cut-out shapes can make opening the box fun. Practical features ensure boxes stack well and ship. Since people reuse packaging, a well-designed box keeps the brand visible long after the first purchase.
4. Sustainability and Environmental Responsibility
While these may be attributes related to packaging material, a design that reflects a brand’s efforts towards these two –sustainability and environmental responsibility will be preferred by shoppers. Custom packaging design shows a company’s care for the environment, which matters since millions of shoppers think environmental issues are key. People often like eco-friendly choices so using sustainable materials and less packaging is smart when designing. Brands that show their eco-friendly side through packaging can stand out and connect with people who care about the planet.
5. Product Quality Perception
Custom packaging designs created by professionals are highly thoughtful. They not only improve the aesthetics, but they also help in sending a message of quality. Packaging designs project how a brand is worth its price. It builds a perception that the product is qualitative.
Over the years we at Litmus Branding, a custom packaging design company have found that:
- Shoppers are more loyal to brands that provide accurate information about their products on the packaging labels.
- Packaging design influences the shopping decisions of 8 out of 10 shoppers.
- 75% of shoppers determine the worth, value, and quality of a brand product by merely looking at its packaging material and design.
- Sustainable packaging creates a sense of satisfaction in shoppers that they have not added more to the environmental degradation with the use of plastic material.
- Poor packaging design, lackluster colors, or inconsistent design leads to a sense of mistrust in shoppers regarding the product’s quality.
- Shoppers judge products by their packaging.
6. Standing Out in a Packed Market
Today’s market is full of products. Millions of product assortments are listed on e-marketplaces, thousands of products are on display on hypermarket shelves, and an equal number you will find in other retail showrooms. What will prompt a shopper to provide undivided attention to a particular product? The packaging design is the answer! Custom packaging helps products catch the eye. While shoppers roam around the aisle of retail showrooms or supermarkets they are compelled by unique design features, shapes, or textures that make products hard to resist. Smart design shows why a product is special compared to others and grabs attention.
7. Versatility and Adaptability
Custom packaging design solutions give brands the ability to keep up with market trends and seasonal promotions while keeping their brand identity intact. Brands can change colors or graphics for holidays while sticking to their usual structure. This flexibility helps brands stay relevant in a market that changes. Custom packaging that can adapt to different needs fits various product sizes within a line creating a brand family that people recognize right away.
8. Information Communication and Legal Compliance
Custom packaging strikes a balance between looking good sharing key product info and meeting legal rules. Well-designed packaging shows ingredients, instructions, and safety warnings clearly. Good design includes required information without making the overall look messy, while also teaching buyers about the precautions. When it comes to packaging material, all brands are focusing on getting recyclable material owing to sustainability compliance.
How to get innovative packaging design?
A professional custom packaging design company such as Litmus Branding can help brands create innovative and custom packaging designs.
Here’s how you can make a difference in your packaging design:
A. Hire a custom packaging design company like Litmus Branding
Companies like Litmus Branding have years of experience and a thorough understanding of design principles, consumer psychology, and market trends. They understand what succeeds and what fails in different industries and can use this knowledge to develop packaging that connects with target audiences.
B. Imbibe Creative Innovation
Professional designers at custom packaging companies are skilled at coming up with fresh ideas. They can create unique, eye-catching designs that make products stand out on busy shelves. Litmus Branding, for example, puts creativity first in its approach making sure each packaging design is not only practical but also striking.
C. Match the brand’s identity with the design
A good packaging design company doesn’t just make attractive packages; they create designs that match a brand’s identity and values. The method involves getting to know the brand’s story, target audience, and market position to create packaging that acts as an extension of the brand itself.
D. Conduct Market Research for Design Insights
Companies like Litmus Branding often do market research to understand what consumers prefer how they behave, and what’s trending. This approach based on data, makes sure the packaging design not only looks good but also appeals to the target audience and stands out in the market.
Conclusion
Picture a world where people spot your brand right away and where customers’ eyes brighten just seeing your product. This isn’t a fantasy—it’s what custom packaging design can do. For brands making products, it’s the way to create a better shopping experience that connects with buyers on a deeper level. When brands team up with skilled and creative packaging design firms, they can get a big leg up on their rivals.
By leveraging the expertise of professional packaging design companies like Litmus Branding, brands can create packaging that not only protects their products but also tells their story, captures attention, and builds lasting connections with consumers. From start to finish, our full-service packaging design company handles every part of the packaging design process.