How to choose the right packaging for your brand
Both the product offering and the packaging determine the success of a brand. Whether it's the shoe box, the glamorous make-up case, or the bronze-drawn dough package, the packaging of the products and the design make the difference.
A brand's packaging tells its story, communicating through a multisensory experience (sight, taste, hearing, etc.). All these details help to understand how the product is positioned, what it is for, to whom it is addressed, and, perhaps above all, if we should buy it or not.
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3 Questions to Ask About Brand Packaging
There are three questions to answer before you start designing packaging for a brand:
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What kind of product is it?
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Who is your target audience?
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What are the points of contact with buyers?
Let's take a closer look at these questions.
Type of product
It may seem trivial, but selling clothing, accessories, food, medicines, and others, implies a completely different brand presentation, content protection, pack storage, and transport.
Target audience
Is the product intended for use by adults or children? Which categories of users is the brand aimed at? Does the packaging have to be essential or premium and exclusive?
Sales channel
Can the product be purchased in physical stores or online stores? Are there other sales channels? If an item is placed on the shelf in competition with others, the packaging must be differentiating and the brand memorable. Products sold online must have solid and protective packaging, with special inserts and without empty spaces, so as not to be damaged during shipment.
Once these fundamental questions have been answered, we move on to the distinctive features of the brand to be transferred to the packaging.
Colors
For the packaging of a brand, it is essential to respect the correct color palette. If you already have CMYK or Pantone codes, report them faithfully as they are specific to printing.
Typefaces
Be sure to choose the correct fonts, including instructions on how to put them on the packaging (e.g. kerning and font thickness) and any distinctive brand images.
Logo
A brand stands out above all for its logo. Make sure you have the vector files ready to incorporate into your packaging design. The same applies to proprietary illustrations and images.
After getting a rough idea of packaging design for that brand, we must mark three crucial points:
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Model
What form should the packaging take? The choice varies depending on the size and features of the object. In the Pack.ly's endless library, you can find a selection of customizable models and sizes with billions of combinations for each brand.
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Material
Depending on the product to be boxed, you can opt for stretched, corrugated cardboard (a more robust material specific for shipments) or polythene, a cardboard resistant to grease and moisture.
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Prototyping and A/B testing
Packaging differentiates your brand from the competitors and communicates its core values to anyone who comes into contact with it. Thanks to an A/B test operation you can adapt the packaging design to the needs and expectations of the people who are likely to buy it. Make several prototypes (we recommend staying on 3 or 4 versions). Submitto the judgement of the target audience and collect qualitative and quantitative data on the preferences expressed. Only in this way will you besure to make the choice of winning packaging to maximize the success of your brand.