Branded packaging, is it really worth it?

Is branded packaging worth it?

When deciding on your brand’s packaging, there are many things to consider, lots of options to choose from, and decisions to make. Often, people struggle to decide whether the cost of having branded packaging is worth it or not, particularly for ecommerce businesses. For many businesses, they wouldn’t dream of missing out on the opportunity for the branding but for others the cost seems unnecessary and not worth it. So, is branded packaging really worth it? This article explores the reasons how branded packaging can make an impact on your marketing and whether or not it might be worth it for your business.

It’s an opportunity for ecommerce businesses

Ecommerce is a huge industry as most people now prefer to shop online rather than instore. Without physical stores, brands have to rely on other ways to ‘space’ their products and make a good ‘first impression’. Packaging is one of the ways that ecommerce businesses make a good and lasting impression on their customers and branding is one of the ways that ecommerce businesses can improve this impression.

In fact, 50% of people say that branded packaging makes them more likely to recommend the brand to their friends and 61% say that branded packaging makes them more excited about receiving the product. This is quite an astonishing amount of people that are paying attention to the branding and feel that it makes a positive impact on their impressions of the brand. Think about anything you’ve received recently, did you care about the packaging? Was it branded and did you notice?

Think about the impact on your target audience

It’s also important to think about your target audience and whether it will matter to them. If, for example, your target audience are avid social media users and are likely to post images of their packages online you probably want to make sure that it’s branded. Or, if your product is quite practical and has a distinct purpose, branding may be less important than getting the practical side of things right. It’s worth having this discussion with your marketing team and working out what might appeal best to your target audience before making any big decisions.

Quality comes first

People often look for high quality in their packaging as it gives the impression that the product inside is going to be high quality too. This comes back to the idea of making a positive impact on your customer’s first impression. Imagine receiving a really horrible and crumbled bag with a high quality, expensive item in, wouldn’t it change your mind about the product inside? Branding your packaging can be an easy, simple way of making your packaging appear higher quality.

Set yourself apart from the crowd

Something extremely important about branded packaging is that it has the power to set you apart from the competition in a big way. Say you add a personal message or a creative sticker to the outside box and you make a customer smile, you’ve improved your packaging by making your customer feel more positive about the product (and in general!).

(Budget) branded packaging ideas

Sometimes, people avoid branding their packaging because of the (potential) cost of doing so. Obviously, there are some really cool and innovative ways you can add branding to your packaging if you’re willing to spend lots and lots of money on it (and sometimes this is definitely worth it). However, there are plenty ways that you can add a little touch of branding and get all the benefits of doing so without breaking the bank.

Stickers

Stickers are a great way of adding a touch of your brand without printing on the packaging or changing the whole thing. If your product is wrapped in tissue paper for example, adding a branded sticker to keep the paper together can be a cute, effective touch. Or, sticking a branded sticker on the outside of your carboard box can also make a simple bit of packaging come to life.

Printed packaging

Printed packaging is not as expensive as you might think and is a very effective way of making a standard carboard box look much more impressive and interesting for your customers.

Colours

If you want to keep the packaging itself quite plain you can easily change the colours to fit with your branding. Sometimes this is all a bit of packaging needs to bring it to life. Brand consistency is extremely important for any marketing material, including your packaging.

Inserts

Alternatively, you can easily add an insert to your package to give it a personal touch from your brand. This could be a thank you note, a business card, or something else branded to add a little something special into the parcel. The branding doesn’t have to be in your face and massive, but something subtle can make a huge impact.

So should YOU brand your packaging?

Most of the time, branded packaging is beneficial to a brand or company for all the reasons we’ve discussed. In our opinion, branded packaging has many benefits that are definitely worth it should you be able to afford the cost. However, if budget is an option, we would suggest going for quality over extra branded elements. Poor quality packaging will have a much more negative impact on a customer than non-branded packaging so sometimes it’s not worth it.

Want to know more about how you can add branding to your packaging? Get in touch with Complete Packaging today to find out how we can help you.