Most people wouldn’t associate packaging with being exciting, but that isn’t to say that it isn’t an emotion you can bring out. By carefully choosing your packaging and trying to be innovative with the way it is being used, it could become another selling point of your product.
What makes packaging exciting?
This really is the million dollar question. What can you do that makes customers really enjoy your packaging and want to pick it up and buy it? Something that everyone always says is that your packaging needs to be unique – but what exactly is unique? Almost every type of packaging has been used and you’re hardly going to reinvent the block bottom bag, so what can you do?
- Be Sustainable – with more and more people becoming eco-warriors, being able to say that your packaging is made from sustainable products you can place yourself ahead of the competition. Not only that, but you actually are doing a good thing for the environment so you should feel pretty good about that too.
Why not tweak your design slightly to really emphasise the impact of choosing sustainable materials? Facts and figures can help to sway a customer into making a decision and if they think that buying your product is going to help save the planet then you’re onto a winner!
- Be on Trend – it is vital that you are aware of what everyone else in the industry is doing and putting your own stamp on it. For example, food packaging is becoming more and more minimalist while often utilising a shabby chic design in order to appeal to their customers.
With this approach, you will need to keep track of what’s happening and regularly update your packaging in order to stay modern. This can take a lot of planning and work, but customers typically respond well to changes in packaging when they’ve been done properly.
- Use Surprising Shapes – don’t be boring. Just because everyone in your industry typically uses cube shaped packaging, doesn’t mean you have to too. Be different and use shapes that people wouldn’t typically expect like spheres, pyramids or hexagons.
If you find that it simply isn’t practical to use different shapes then why not look into different types of packaging material? Using a distinct material that is unexpected for your product will make it really stand out and be appealing and exciting to your customers.
- Increased Functionality – packaging doesn’t just have to protect your product, in fact you can add functionality to add huge amounts of value to it. Giving your packaging a function makes it worthwhile regardless of the product. When thinking about the design, look at what you could offer to add to your product and find out the best way to include this feature.
- Tell A Story – people like to get to know the companies they are buying from, so why not make your packaging stand out from the crowd by showing your story. Alternatively, why not give all the info you need about how the product is made?If you have several different types of product then telling a story through the packaging is a great way to differentiate. This does take a lot of creativity to come up with ways to make each product stand out and be individual, but when done right it can be brilliant for your business.
- Be funny – people like to laugh and if your packaging can make them stop and crack a smile then you’re doing great! While this isn’t suitable for all products, if you feel as though it would appeal to your target audience then this is something that you have to do. This could be anything from interesting design that’s aimed to be humorous all the way down to having comics and one-liner jokes on the packaging.
If you’re looking at ways to create exciting food packaging then talk to Charlotte Packaging today. With over 40 years’ experience helping a wide range of companies get the best out of their packaging materials, we can maximise your potential and create something that will get your customer’s really excited.