If your product is the star of the show, its packaging is an essential supporting actor. Without packaging, most products wouldn’t make it to market. In some cases, packaging is relegated to a less important player, but optimized packaging adds true value, and its importance shouldn’t be dismissed.
Corrugated board, colloquially known as cardboard, no longer has to be the boring brown box it once was. Various thicknesses, coatings, printing options, and flexibility in design can transform it into, dare we say, a work of art. Not to eschew the brown box as it has an important role, but a few well-crafted brand elements and graphics will ensure your brand is recognized before your product is removed.
Let’s dive into five ways that corrugated packaging adds value.
1. Informs and Educates
From providing critical safety information to telling your brand story, corrugated packaging provides the real estate for regulatory, informational, and marketing copy that can inform and educate your customers. Primary packaging and even secondary packaging provides a blank slate for telling your customers everything they need to know.
2. Provides Protection
What is the cost of damaged products? Not just the cost to make the product, but additional costs associated with shipping, managing returns, and unhappy customers - customers who may go elsewhere the next time they need a similar product or may use the internet and social media to let the world know before you have a chance to make it right. Optimized packaging will ensure your products make it to their destination (as intended and) safely. Optimized packaging also ensures the minimum amount of materials is used, saving money and providing environmental advantages.
3. Reusable and Recyclable
Corrugated packaging is reusable – just ask a cat or a child, who will get hours of enjoyment from it. Moving, storing items, crafting, weed control - the internet is abuzz with ways to reuse corrugated. The fact that it is easily recyclable appeals to many, making it the preferred choice for packaging.
4. Unlimited Personalization
Shape, size, color, and design can all be personalized to fit your unique brand. The Tiffany blue box and the Amazon smile on a brown box are two of the most recognizable packages in the world. Using design elements unique to your brand will ensure it stands out in a crowded marketplace and help to drive sales. Color and graphics should be consistent throughout all runs of all packaging. Choosing a corrugated packaging manufacturer with G7 Master Facility Colorspace certification will ensure you will receive absolute color consistency.
5. Unique Unboxing Experience
Make your packaging part of the experience. If you’ve spent any time on YouTube, you know iPhone is known for the unboxing experience it provides to its customers. Plain brown boxes stuffed with bubble wrap just don’t cut it anymore, particularly for subscription services and luxury products. You don’t have to spend a lot to provide a great unboxing experience.