Designing For Millennials – Tips For Making Your Packaging Resonate

The millennial generation is different from prior generations. They have different expectations and catering to their demands is a special challenge for brands in any industry. Winning over millennials and retaining them as loyal customers requires a concentrated effort. The process of building loyalty starts with designing a product that communicates and resonates with this younger generation. Unlike the “junk” mail that comes in all forms, packaging is the one thing that cannot be made electronic. At the end of the line, there still has to be a physical package that millennials can put their hands around. This is where brands can set themselves apart from the competition.

How do you set your brand apart and create packaging that resonates with millennials?

Offer an Experience

The younger generation seeks to create experiences and memories. With this goal in mind, it is important for packaging to do the same. Millennials crave culture, travel, variety, and uniqueness. If your packaging communicates this message, you are more likely to win their loyalty. It is not unusual for millennials to “trade up” to companies that create a unique and fun experience with their packaging. Unusual structures, value added packaging, reveal packaging or special closures can create an experience that millennials can get behind. Get creative with the structural and print effects to create an unforgettable experience for your millennial audience.

Need for Instant Gratification

Even though this younger generation is full of “wanderlusts” who desire travel, they live in the moment and desire the individuality of the instant experience. This generation wants to experience the product your product as much as possible before committing to it. They want to hold the product in their hands as quickly as possible, feel its energy, and embrace the journey on which the product takes them. With this goal in mind, it is important to have packaging that emits a sense of individuality. Whether windowing allows a sneak peek at the product inside or showcases a unique feature, features like these excite millennials.

Rely on Uniqueness and Individuality

More often than ever before, social media is a cornerstone of every brand. This generation is more educated and consumer-savvy than ever before. With an endless array of information available at their fingertips, this generation is interconnected in an infinite number of ways. Before deciding to buy an item, millennials have already done product research, compared prices, and read through a host of peer reviews. With this in mind, your product needs to be one that is worthy of being shared on social media platforms. Unique packaging designs create a following and build influencers on social media that can help brands maximize reach. When choosing your packaging’s design, study what has made other products go viral and what works well for consumer brands on social platforms. It may just be the key to getting noticed.

Be Green and Responsible

The millennial generation is very environmentally conscious. They have grown up thinking about the planet and how to preserve it for not only their generation but also all future ones. Brands that are willing to embrace a sustainable packaging are more likely to win over the loyalty of this generation. Try to create a packaging model that embraces both diversity and equality in a way that communicates political activism. Ultimately, this generation is more likely to stick with a brand that makes them feel like a “good person.” Therefore, try to find a way to make your packaging sustainable or eco-friendly or support a cause or charity.

Creating Packaging That Speaks to the Millennial Generation

Ultimately, these are only a few of the ways that brands can build packaging that speaks to the millennial generation. For your product to resonate with millennials, it’s important speak directly to them and their beliefs. At JohnsByrne, our innovative, and award-winning approach to packaging can help you communicate with the millennial generation in a new, creative way that builds loyalty and trust.