How to Use Custom Packaging as a Marketing Tool

Last Updated on March 7, 2024 by Packoi Team

Your unique packaging is a powerful marketing tool. But it doesn’t just happen. You have to turn it that way. Your packaging must be creative in its design so it can market your brand and business effectively.

In this article, you learn why your product packaging is a great marketing strategy and how you can implement it.

Why Use Custom Packaging as an Effective Marketing Strategy?

Using your product packaging as a marketing strategy is a clever move. After all, it’s the first contact that your customers will have with your brand. It’s the first representation of your brand and company. 

So if you customize your packaging design, ensure it gives the recipient the right message.

If you choose the right design, you can use your packaging as a marketing strategy. It can help you through the following:

1. Immediate Brand Recognition

Think of Louis Vuitton. If you see the letters LV, you immediately recognize the brand. When you see two interlaced letters C, you’ll already know that’s Chanel.

Why are these luxury brands easily recognizable by consumers—even by those who don’t buy them? It’s because they put their brand on everything, including their packaging. So the repetition made their brands household names.

If you put your branding on your packaging, you can slowly get the same results. By looking at the logo, design, or sometimes even the colors alone, your loyal customers already know it’s your brand.

2. Never-Ending Advertising

If you can make your packaging reusable, it doesn’t just become eco-friendly. It also becomes a never-ending advertising tool for you. If the customer uses it to carry stuff around, you’ll get free advertising whenever they bring it out.

That’s an incredible way of maximizing the investment in your packaging. Imagine if many people carry your packaging around, the repetition will increase your brand’s popularity.

3. Memorable Product Experience

Beautiful packaging is worth talking about. It can help make the product experience memorable from the very start.

If you are creative enough with your packaging solution, people will notice. People will post it online. Your customers will be proud to associate with your brand, even if they’re just using your packaging repeatedly.

This pride can even lead your customers to promote your brand through word-of-mouth, one of the most influential and cheapest modes of advertisement.

5 Techniques for Your Product Packaging into a Marketing Tool

There are many options to design your custom packaging. You can follow the latest trends. You can keep it simple, so the focus is on your product. Or you can make your design so unique and special that it creates excitement during the unboxing process.

But if you want to turn your packaging into a powerful marketing tool, here are 5 ways you can do it.

1. Be Coherent with the Brand

The simplest way to turn your packaging into an advertising tool is to simply put your brand in it. When there’s a coherent design that ties your brand to your packaging, familiarity happens. There’s instant brand recognition.

That’s what you get when your messaging is synergized.

This isn’t just about branded packaging through text but also the colors, shapes, and other artistic elements that customers can associate with your brand. If you have a luxury brand, your packaging should also feel luxurious.

If you can incorporate these into the packaging design, it’ll have the promotional elements to make it an effective advertising machine.

2. Think Out of the Box

A great marketing tool is something that catches the attention of your target market. If you want your packaging to market your brand, you must make it stand out.

Crank the creativity level of the design to the maximum. Don’t just have a dull square or rectangular box. Make it a stackable container. This is a great way to encourage customers to buy more than one.

You can also have fun with the design. Use ostentatious graphics and colors. Make it scream your brand identity so people will stop to look, even after a glimpse from afar.

If you get that type of reaction, you know you’ve succeeded.

3. Make It Reusable

Now here’s an idea. Create reusable packaging that your customer can carry around for years. You get free advertising as long as the packaging is still intact.

Apart from that, your customers will think they’re getting a great bargain because they get a free container or bag they can use as they wish. This will also reinforce your efforts for more environment-friendly packaging – something you know will endear your brand to many customers.

4. Let It Communicate

Don’t waste all the space in your product packaging. Think of it as a blank canvas. Use packaging to communicate a powerful message to your customers.

You can use text to tell your story, brand tagline, or other motivational pieces. Or you can use entertaining graphic designs and illustrations to narrate your message.

Do you have advocacies you want to promote? Use your packaging to encourage your customers to join your brand.

You can also use your packaging for advertising campaigns, loyalty programs, QR codes, web ads, social media accounts, and other special offers. It’s certainly a unique way to communicate what’s happening with your brand.

5. Have Fun with Themes

Deviate from your original packaging design to incorporate themes. Have a different design for various seasons, holidays, and regional or national events. 

Or if you’re trying to celebrate something in your brand, like an anniversary – take advantage of that to create special packaging.

It doesn’t have to be massive changes to the design. You can just use different colors that represent your new theme. The excellent packaging variations can be a refreshing sight for your customers.

Not only that, but if you create a great design, your customers can already use your packaging as a gift option. That means the marketing reach of your unique packaging will be wider. That’ll make it an even better marketing initiative.

Tips for Marketing Your Brand Through Your Packaging

Turning your unique packaging into a marketing tool can be integral to promoting your product. Believe it, your customers can connect with you through your product’s packaging.

However, it will only be effective if you do it properly. To help you succeed, here are a couple of tips that you can follow:

1. Know Your Brand and Customers

To choose the right design for your packaging, you have to start by understanding your brand and customers.

First, your knowledge of your customers would let you know what appeals to them. It’ll give you clues on what they find visually attractive. Or what packaging elements will impress them. Do they want complex designs or simple ones?

As for your brand, although you want to impress your customers, you should never deviate from what you’re representing. So always stay true to the core values that define your brand. 

2. Make It Social Media-Worthy

If you use your packaging to help increase sales, make it social media-worthy. That means it should be unique or creative enough to encourage sharing online.

This will also give you free advertising. When your customers share it online, more people will see it. This is on top of the people who’ll see your reusable packaging when your customer decides to use it outside their homes.

3. Encourage Sharing

This isn’t about sharing online anymore. Incorporate materials and elements in your packaging design that will encourage your customers to share them with others.

Maybe you can put stickers, notepads, or other stationary items in the packaging that the customer can give away. Of course, you want to make sure these have your brand in them.

4. Place Information to Encourage More Sales

You can direct your intent to make the customer buy more of your product. For example, you can give instructions on how to claim a prize if the customer buys more. Maybe use coupon codes.

You can even provide information on how to refer another person to buy it and how to get an incentive for it.

Feel free to use all the blank spaces in the custom packaging, so it promotes the business.

Do You Need Help Creating a Marketing Tool Packaging? Packoi Printing Can Help

Your brand’s packaging is an incredible way to boost your marketing efforts. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to combine high-quality packaging with your marketing strategy. If done right, this can efficiently encourage customer loyalty.

If you’re not sure where to begin, Packoi Printing can help. We can help you create custom packaging in cost-efficient ways.

Give us the details of your design, and we’ll give you a fair quote as soon as possible. Get in touch with us to learn more.