Packaging is one of the most important aspects of creating a new product. All successful brands have distinctive and iconic product packaging.

Apple and Coca-Cola are two of the most well-known brands in the world. Part of their reach is down to the packaging they place around their products. But some companies are still not taking packaging into account when they create their brand, leading to lost sales. Packaging in fact reinforces, extends and ultimately enhances your brand.

Extending Your Brand

Your packaging design is crucial to the perception and recognition of your brand. Successful branding will always use packaging to bring together a cohesive and recognisable brand message. If you were given two different brands of cola, it might only be the distinctive red and white font on the can packaging that would distinguish the Coca-Cola brand from the shop’s own. It’s been shown time and time again that customers are more likely to trust and buy a product that they recognise than something completely brand new; distinctive, consistent, quality packaging is a key part of this recognition.

Unboxing Videos

The experience a customer has of a product is intricately linked with the packaging. YouTube is flooded with incredibly popular ‘unboxing’ videos, where people can share their reactions to a product’s packaging. These videos encourage curiosity and excitement, and particularly focus on products where the packaging is of a high quality, such as Apple’s product range.

Quality Extends Beyond the Product

When a customer perceives high quality packaging, they can assume the same qualities continue within the package in the product itself. Many companies will invest a lot of time designing the packaging for a product, as the customer experience should actually start right from when they first see the product and then when they pick the product up and utilise.

Differentiating Your Product

When your product is competing in a busy market, it needs to stand out on shelf in order for the customer to notice and ultimately buy it. Two products could be virtually identical, but an eye-catching design and practical, innovative packaging will interest the customer more. The age old taste test shows this in the best way; people perceive identical products to be different and the difference is always linked to the branding and packaging.

Practical Packaging

Packaging offers your product protection while it’s being shipped or shelved. Great attention must be given to packaging valuable or fragile products, not just for safety concerns but for the customer’s ease of mind. Many customers would not wish to buy fragile products knowing there is a chance of it not even making it home in one piece! The greater the care put into making the product, the greater the care must be put into creating its packaging.

Forming a Bond

The Innocent Smoothie Company shot to fame by utilising the usefulness and importance of their packaging. By adding small notes onto each bottle and creating adverts featuring the bottles themselves, Innocent have managed to personify their packaging. They have created a personal connection between the customer and the packaging itself.

Becoming a Household Name

In 2013, Heinz released a clever advert in which their instantly recognisable bottle was made ‘invisible’. The advert works so well because everybody knows what a Heinz ketchup bottle looks like, anyone watching that advert would fill in the blank space by themselves. Packaging can and sometimes has, overtaken the product it houses in recognition.

Any product can be enhanced, reinforced and purchased more based on design of its packaging. It is important to factor in the packaging and its design as key in the product design process. Get in touch to find out how DCP can help take your product’s packaging to the next level.

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