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Four Creative Packaging Tips For Small Businesses

Packaging gets people’s attention and it’s your product’s first impression! For the thousands of bland forms of packets available, there are always creative examples that stand out and add to the success of a company.

If you’re thinking about launching a new product or changing your current business’s packaging, having luxury packaging can grab you a good market share. Yes, not everyone can be creative all the time, so unless you’re working with a product coach,  here are some ideas for creative packaging designs.

creative packaging tips

1- Make The Packaging Look Handmade

When packages look personalized, they give the feeling that the product within is made by hand. The founder of Tea Forté in Concord, Mass., Peter Hewitt, understood this principle when he set out to make his tea bags stand out from the standard flat paper packets used by most tea bag manufacturers. Instead of going with the standard tea bag, he developed a package in a pyramid shape, when his company was founded in 2003. The tea bag on the side of the saucer was no longer a wet soggy thing.

handmade packaging

He gave the bag some personality. This was done by running a thin wire through the string that poked out from the teabag. He placed a small tea leaf at the string’s end. Finally, he understated the brand name by placing it on the package’s bottom. Instead of looking like a commercially made product, it looks more like art. Currently, Tea Forté is sold in 35 countries in department and food stores, restaurants, and hotels.

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2- Packaging Requires An Approach That Is Sustainable

When consumers make a purchase, they want to feel good about it. A positive, environmentally friendly brand message is sent when recyclable, fair-trade, and organic paper and other sustainable materials are used in the store or postal packaging. Of course, this type of packaging is absolutely necessary when the products themselves are fair trade or organic.

sustainable packaging

However, no matter what type of product is being sold, sustainable designs for packaging and customized boxes are in demand.

And, the most popular materials for sustainable packaging include hemp paper labels, mulberry paper, and wild grass paper.

3- Surprising Shapes And Materials Make Packaging Pop

When the Duchess County, NY owner of Madava Farms, Robb Turner, started selling maple syrup in 2011, he wanted the bottle’s shape to make his syrup look like it was an ingredient used in high end culinary cooking and not just as a condiment for breakfast. While most producers of syrup use maple leaf shaped or flat wide-bellied bottles, Turner chose the type of round bottle commonly used by makers of fine liquor.

mapple syrup creative packaging

He finished the look by choosing an elegant rectangular label and by selecting a black matte foil to wrap the neck of the bottle. Cohen states that people’s perception of value is strongly influenced by shape. Your product stands apart from the competition when it is packaged using nontraditional materials or a package that is distinctly shaped.

4- Functionality Should Be Added To Packaging

When packaging is functional, customers are attracted to your product due to the value that is added, says Professor and Associate Chairwoman of Fashion Institute of Technology’s Packaging Design Department Marianne Rosner Klimchuk. She cites a potato chip manufacturer in Dublin, Boxerchips Co., which used a package designed to open and act as a bowl for serving.

functional packaging

Klimchuk says that it is important to look at functionality and design in terms of competitive offerings. The owner of the South River, NJ chocolate shop, 2 Chicks, realized when she opened her shop in December that by starting a refill program, she could make her bon-bon boxes more functional. After paying $25 to $40 for their original box of chocolate, customers have the opportunity to get $15 refills on an unlimited basis by bringing in their empty boxes of chocolates.

A whole new function for the boxes was created by the refill program which has the added bonus of generating return visits.

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