How to Design Cosmetic Packaging That Appeals To The Younger Generation

Last Updated on January 29, 2023 by Packoi Team

The goal is to catch their attention and make them curious enough to purchase your product. In this article, you’ll learn more about designing your cosmetic packaging to target a specific audience – the Millennials and Gen Z market.

Why Your Packaging Design Should Consider The Younger Market

Why should your brand packaging focus on the Millennials and Gen Z? Because they are the future of the consumer market. They are the ones who’ll be buying your products more over the coming decades.

This is why you have to look at the latest trends they pay attention to. Use them as inspiration for your cosmetics packaging design. If your product packaging follows the directions, you’ll quickly get the attention of your target consumers.

Hopefully, your packaging will encourage them to buy your product.

Sure, there’s one other generation that has a higher buying capacity, the Gen Xers. But the two younger generations are catching up quickly.

Building your packaging design around a market that will soon cease to be the biggest spender doesn’t make sense. It’s better to shift your focus to the younger target audience.

After all, to make your business profitable, you need to focus on the most important markets.

Millennials Have The Biggest Share of The Market

The Millennials take the lead in having the most significant share. This means they have the most extensive consumer demand compared to the other generations.

Evidence of this is found in the way they’ve reshaped the way brands market their products. You see, Millennials want Instagram-worthy creations.

They prefer independent brands over traditional ones – as long as they support their values and advocacies.

If you look closely at recent packaging design trends – you’ll see efforts of companies to meet these preferences.

That’s how powerful this generation is right now.

You have to make your brand packaging resonate with them. Give your Millennial customers high-quality products that they can relate to.

The best way to start is by making your cosmetics packaging design appeal to their lifestyle aspirations, their personal preferences, and specific needs. Your packaging should exude the values that they hold dear.

If your product packaging calls out to them, they’ll be curious enough to stop and pick up your product.

Gen Zs are Increasing Their Spending on Power

Gen Z consumers aren’t the biggest spenders – yet. But a lot of businesses have seen them take up more and more percentage in their brand product sales.

This is a good sign. If you have a modern brand – you might want to make your packaging design stand out to this generation. Step up and make changes in your cosmetics packaging design so it can sway the purchasing decisions of this market.

In a few years, Gen Zs will be the biggest spenders. When that happens, you want to be one of the brands they’ve gotten used to buying from.

The ideal way to make that happen is to position your product packaging to capture their interest. Impress them enough so they can give your high-quality product a chance.

3 Important Strategies That Resonates With The Younger Crowd

Millennials and Gen Z customers are looking for specific things before they give brands in the beauty industry a chance.

Studies have shown that Millennials are pretty idealistic in their choices. But once they have found a brand they like, they’ll stick with it. As long as the company continues to have the same ideals as they do, Millennials will remain loyal – making them an ideal customer for recurring revenue potential.

The other generation, the Gen Zs, are pragmatic. They’re also more price-conscious. But despite that, they’re also quite demanding. They’re always looking for new trends and expect brands to constantly innovate their products and packaging designs.

Despite these differences, these two generations do have similarities when it comes to their preferences. So, consider these three strategies if you are still creating the best cosmetics packaging for your skincare, makeup, haircare, nail care, or fragrance products.

Authenticity

Brands that want to attract the younger generation should always strive to be authentic. That means they have to be honest about what their cosmetics brand represents.

For instance, if your packaging design is eco-friendly, but your products use materials that harm the environment, your customer won’t like that. When a consumer realizes that, they’ll see that as a deceitful way of riding the sustainability trend to increase sales.

Don’t do this. Your product packaging should stay true to your branding style. An excellent outer packaging would mean nothing if it’s deceptive. Cosmetic companies should package their products to promote who they are.

As long as your cosmetics packaging stays true to your brand, the younger generations will take notice.

Values

Customer loyalty is only possible if your business has the same values as your consumers. That doesn’t mean you should change your values to align with them.

As mentioned, authenticity is essential. So make sure your cosmetics brand knows what values you want to represent.

Let’s use sustainability as an example.

Sustainable packaging exploded in popularity even in the cosmetic industry. Millennials and Gen Z consumers want to support eco-friendly products to battle growing environmental issues.

If your cosmetic packaging can highlight the organic ingredients of your product, you can win these young generations over.

That’s the key.

Make sure your package design shows your support of essential values. Use eco-friendly packaging if that’s an important advocacy you want to promote. Find the balance between aligning your values with your target market and staying authentic.

Experience

Finally, your cosmetics brand should be all about the experience. The younger customers put value in their time. When they invest in something, it has to be worthwhile.

Your business should dig deeper into what your target consumer wants to experience. You can use this as your guide to designing your outer packaging.

While your packaging design should stay true to your branding, it has to meet the aspirations of your market on a whole new level. That’s how you can be sure that your product packaging can encourage them to look closer.

Use innovative packaging to engage them. Believe it or not, even opening your cosmetics packaging thrills them.

If you can give your audience the right experience, it’ll set you apart from other companies and encourage brand loyalty.

Cosmetic Packaging Trends to Consider for Young Consumers

When planning the packaging design of your skincare, makeup, or similar products in the cosmetics industry, you have to consider the trends that interest your consumers.

A good packaging design isn’t just about having an outstanding style. It has to resonate with the young Millennials and Gen Z customers that companies are trying to capture.

To help with your efforts to improve your packaging, here are some of the latest trends that are popular right now.

Sustainable Packaging

Sustainability isn’t new, but a trend that will probably stay for a long time in the cosmetics industry. Eco-friendly packaging isn’t just about making it look sustainable.

You must use suitable materials to show your consumers that you’re promoting sustainability. For instance, your cosmetic packaging for skincare can be made of a kraft box with minimal brand designs. That can be considered sustainable packaging.

Or it can contain information about how your product helps the environment. There are many ways to support Earth-friendly advocacies through your packaging. Just be creative about it.

Refillable and Recyclable

Have you seen companies that require their customers to bring their bottles and containers to buy their skincare or haircare products?

This is another way to show sustainability efforts.

Your packaging design choices should be made of durable materials so they can be recyclable. Millennials and Gen Z customers like product packaging that is reusable after they’ve consumed the contents.

Just make sure you create cosmetics labels that remind people to reuse the container of your product. Then encourage them to refill them to help reduce waste.

Airless Technology

Here’s a trend that’s modern and new – airless technology. It involves close packaging for skincare beauty products. It uses high-tech systems to create ergonomic pumps. It makes it easier to dispense products.

What’s great about this is it allows the cosmetics packaging to keep the potency of the active ingredients in the product. This innovative packaging can preserve the formulations to make them safe to use.

Check out the materials used in this product packaging. If other beauty brands use it, check if you can adapt this technology in your new packaging design – especially for your skincare and makeup product line.

Minimalist Design

Minimalism is one of the trends that will never go away. There’s something impressive about a simple beauty product packaging design. Even if the product packaging only has the brand name – it can be enough to make the product stand out among other brands.

Sometimes, if you use the right materials to create your cosmetics packaging, it’s enough to make it eye-catching without taking the focus away from the product you’re selling.

Bold Patterns

Packaging designs with bold patterns can easily attract anyone’s eye. It’s not just about illustrations or repetitive design elements.

Even unique fonts can create patterns in your cosmetic packaging and make it look attractive.

Be cautious about following the trend when using bold patterns for your product packaging. You might end up with something that no longer appeals to your market. Choose a design that still represents your brand.

Moody Colors

When you say moody colors, it’s not just about using bright colors to stand out. It’s about using a particular shade or hue that evokes emotion.

For instance, you can use black in your packaging design to create a powerful statement. Or you can use pink or purple on your makeup product packaging to attract the attention of the female market.

Whatever color you choose on your packaging design, make sure you understand the psychology behind them. Colors can convey messages. They are also powerful enough to attract the right customer to your cosmetic packaging.

Make Your Cosmetic Packaging Appealing To The Younger Generation. Packoi Printing Has The Expertise To Help.

As you can see, it’s not hard to impress today’s consumers – specifically the Millennials and Gen Z market. You have to come up with cosmetic packaging that has the power to attract their attention.

Creating the packaging doesn’t require professional designers or a complicated design process. It doesn’t even need state-of-the-art digital technology.

All you need is to create original product packaging, align it with your customer’s values, and give them a great experience while using your product.

If you’re ready to make that happen, get in touch with Packoi Printing. We have the best team to help you create the proper cosmetic packaging to attract the younger crowd.

Give us the details of your vision, and we’ll get back to you with a quotation as soon as possible.