YouTube had only been around for a little over a year when a grainy footage of a Nokia E61 emerging from its box revolutionized the role of packaging in marketing.
The channel unboxit sits at a meager 31 subscribers, but the video is a staple in marketing classrooms for being the first to use the term ‘unboxing’. It doesn’t look so historically important; it’s just a man at his desk with inelegantly stacked Nokia phones speaking about the Nokia E61. But since then, unboxing videos have become large-scale productions using impressive cameras and lighting to perfectly capture the moment of taking an item out of its box.
Packaging has long stopped being a mere barrier consumers had to get past to experience a product. No company understands this better than Apple. Its marketing philosophy, dating back to the 70s, goes:
“People DO judge a book by its cover. We may have the best product, the highest quality, the most useful software, etc.; if we present them in a slipshod manner, they will be perceived as slipshod; if we present them in a creative, professional manner, we will impute the desired qualities.”
Apple’s former Chief Design Officer Jony Ive carried this philosophy forward, saying, “Packaging can be theater.” Apple’s easily recognizable logo and an embossed product image make up the crux of the minimalist white box. The tightly fit box and lid make for a controlled release, creating suspense and inducing anticipation in the consumer opening their new iPhone for the first time. It does so much with so little.
What may once have been a desire to see fellow consumers’ authentic experience with a product has become an integral part of a brand’s marketing strategy. The high price of certain products drives people towards unboxing videos so they can live vicariously through others and creates aspirations to own them someday.
Unboxing videos are now popular with all kinds of consumer goods, from cosmetics to candy, increasing the importance of good packaging. Packaging makes the first impression of your product, becoming integral to the identity of the product before it is using the product. Packaging is important for product success in digital marketing spaces and competitive markets like Dubai. Here are a few ways you can make the packaging sell your product:
1. Stand Out
When your products leave your hands to the next step in the supply chain, they sit among similar products. Disappearing into a sea of competitors stands in the way of success. You can’t be in every store to sing your product’s praises. Let your unique packaging do it for you. Play with colors, textures, fonts, and innovative shapes to make sure the face of your product is nothing like the others on the shelf.
2. Convey Brand Identity
Don’t stand out just for the sake of standing out. Do it with reason. The first impression matters, but any positive experience will be ruined if what’s outside cannot speak for what’s inside. This can have a negative effect on future purchases of your products. Design your packaging with your brand’s identity in mind. Think about the ideas central to your brand and how you can portray them creatively on the packaging.
Let’s look at perfume packaging. Chanel takes a minimalist route with packaging, while Holy Oud goes for a texturally rich cylindrical box in a warm brown with gold accents. It is astonishing how two brands can take the opposite route to convey the same idea– luxury.
3. Stay Consistent
When designing the packaging for one product, think about how the same design philosophy would translate for your other products. Every product, along with its packaging, is a chapter in the story of your brand. Adopting a consistent theme helps your brand find a place in the memory of your consumer base.
Packaging companies understand this. Seek the service of a local packaging company so you maintain consistency through similarities in theme, font, layout, colour palettes, and a unified artistic style. Create unique elements or a combination of elements that your consumer base unconsciously associates with your brand.
Glow Recipe is a skincare brand that uses different fruits as the star ingredients of its products. They make this the unique element of their brand and their packaging. The cohesive theme shows effort while also solidifying the image that they create nature-based products. They use a colorful inner packaging layer when presenting product information with more illustrations of each fruit.
4. Target Customer Base
Don’t blindly choose a pre-existing format. Apply the research you did on your consumer base for product design into package design. Collaborating with your local trusted packaging supplier means you can create designs apt for your future customers. Packaging design mismatched with consumers can make them decide on the spot that your product isn’t for them. Ensure that the color palette, font, shape, and finishing you choose matches your brand and your customer base. It helps to study packaging trends in your industry for inspiration.
5. Create Emotional Attachment
The role of good packaging doesn’t end when the customer takes the product out. If done right, customers continue to keep their packaging even when they’ve run out of the product. It makes for a visually appealing reminder for them to repurchase. iPhone packaging is an obvious example.
Making packaging reusable is a great way to create an emotional attachment. Skincare brand Aesop creates packaging customers display even when the product is over. Their minimalist apothecary-style glass bottles help them create brand authority and attach a luxury label to their products. Customers are known to keep their empty Aesop handwash bottles on their bathroom counter purely for the luxury look it provides. A reminder to buy more Aesop, an easy advertisement to houseguests, and an incentive to reuse for a sustainable future.
6. Make it Functional
Functionality goes beyond keeping the product safe and conveying product information. It matters that the packaging is easy to use. Convenience can make or break a product.
A ziplock closure for certain food products creates convenience, maintains your product’s integrity, and encourages repurchase. Oyster pail boxes are used by restaurants for takeaway. They offer functionality through ease of opening and closing back up for storage and microwaving. A cup sleeve can display branding while making the drink easier to handle. Small changes can go a long way in making packaging functional.
Consider the above tips to create good quality packaging that reflects your brand ideals. Consult the best packaging company in the UAE for professional, good-quality packaging solutions that’ll impress your customers and solidify your brand’s identity.
