Your Product’s Packaging: How To Tell Your Brand Story

Branding is at the core of building any great company. Creating a memorable and recognizable brand is a challenge for any company in any industry. It requires deliberate planning and dedicated effort to successfully build a brand. Many large brands like Coca-Cola and Nike have become iconic not just because they are found across the world, but because they have been successful and consistent with their product branding.

When it comes to product branding, packaging is fundamental for creating a connection to your brand and delivering on customer expectations. Branding encompasses a variety of elements. It’s not just a logo but it’s the overall image and promise to customers. What can they expect from you or your products?

Let’s explore the basic elements that contribute to a brand and how packaging influences a positive brand experience for consumers.

Brand Promise

When it comes to delivering on brand promise, packaging is one of the first interactions a consumer may have with your brand. Packaging designs should serve to reinforce your brand promise.

If your brand stands for healthy and natural, your packaging should also deliver the same message. If your brand stands for innovation and creativity, your packaging should reflect the same. Your brand promise is more than graphics and imagery. It’s the promise to consumers and what you stand for. Ensuring it’s accurately reflected in your packaging is critical for long-term success.

Brand Perceptions

Unlike the control you have over establishing your brand promise, brand perception established by consumers. Brand perception is developed by consumers based on past experiences with your brand. These can range from friends recommendations, reviews and marketing messages. Whether they perceive your brand as edgy, fun or classy, all past experiences with your brand fuel how people perceive your brand.

If your brand’s perception is well-defined, it should be incorporated into the design. From unique messaging to product descriptions, it’s important that your packaging live up to what consumers perceive your brand to be. By incorporating elements that align with brand perceptions, you are better able to reinforce and encourage purchase behavior.

Brand Expectations

Meeting brand expectations is more than just delivering on what your product is intended to do. It’s about delivering on both brand promise and perception. When developing packaging, it’s critical to ensure your new or updated packaging meets consumer expectations. Although packaging may just be one experience they have with your brand, failure to meet expectations can cause confusion or even disappointment in your brand.

Luxury brands, for example, have to live up to their expectation of being extravagant and upscale. In terms of packaging, that requires luxury brand managers to incorporate elements of luxury such as exotic substrates, specialty coatings or press and post-press effects that create the sense of luxury.

Regardless of the market or industry, meeting brand expectations is fundamental. Packaging can help brands meet consumer expectations through custom designs, structures and finishing effects.

Brand Personality

Oftentimes packaging designers and brand managers forget that their brand has a personality. With all the pressures of ensuring proper branding and adhering to specific branding guidelines, it’s sometimes challenging to insert personality into product packaging.

However, your brand, like a person, has a personality of its own. Your packaging, therefore, should reflect the same characteristics of your brand. Just like a person can be described as vivacious, mysterious or fun, your packaging should be a great vehicle to demonstrate your brand personality.

If your packaging cosmetics for young women, bright colors and unexpected flirty elements in your packaging can help strengthen your brand personality.

Branding Elements

Perhaps the most recognizable and easiest to implement, branding elements refer to specific visual associations of your brand. These include your logo and other graphic elements that make up your branding.

While incorporating these into your packaging is not a monumental challenge, how these are integrated with your packaging may make a huge difference. From materials chosen to finishes and press effects, your branding should be a core element and stand out. Placement and design are key to ensuring that your branding does not get lost in your packaging.

Your Packaging, Your Brand

Your brand is a critical component of your entire marketing and sales strategy. Every interaction a consumer has with your brand can lead to a positive or negative relationship with your brand. This relationship with your brand can begin with picking up your product off a store shelf.

Packaging, therefore, is key to upholding, reinforcing and delivering on what your brand stands for.

At JohnsByrne, we are committed to making your brand shine through every element of your packaging. Talk to a packaging specialist today to discuss how we can help you meet your brands’ needs.