Consumers place a high value on consistency. A mismatch between a brand and its product packaging can spell trouble. This type of inconsistency sends the wrong message to consumers and can hinder an otherwise quality brand. So how can you avoid this? In this post, we’ll explain the importance of keeping your product packaging on-brand and how to do it. Ending with a dash of inspiration, we’ll highlight five companies who’ve found the secret sauce for maintaining product packaging consistency across their brands.
What Is Brand Packaging?
Brand packaging is the design of a product’s packaging and labeling that represents the company’s identity or brand. Most products come packaged in a folding carton box. A folding carton not only protects the product while on the shelf or in an e-commerce warehouse but is also an ideal medium for conveying your brand messaging. Folding cartons can be printed using custom colors, textures, and a finish that best reflects the look and feel of your brand.
Custom labels present another opportunity for branding. Applied directly to the product bottle or container, labels are the perfect place for product details, ingredients, and directions for use. They can be created from a wide range of materials from kraft paper to black vellum. Matching the look of your folding cartons and labels is arguably the most important part of keeping your product packaging on-brand, and partnering with a vendor that can custom print both cartons and labels will help maintain branding consistency.
Learn more: 7 Types of Folding Cartons
Why Is It Important To Maintain Branding Across Product Packaging?
Branding and packaging go hand-in-hand. Your product packaging is the first, and often only, thing potential customers see before making a purchasing decision. That’s why maintaining consistency across your brand is incredibly important. No one should ever have to wonder if a product is part of your brand or someone else’s. Although individual products don’t need identical packaging and labeling, the main design elements like logos, text, and the style of any graphics you use should remain uniform.
4 Tips for Branding Your Packaging
There’s quite a bit that goes into creating attractive, high-quality product packaging, but these four tips summarize the basics.
Clearly Define Your Brand Identity for Packaging
All successful brands have a story: their reason to exist. If you haven’t recorded your origin story, now’s the time. Without knowing what your brand is about and the type of customer you’re most likely to appeal to, it will be difficult to nail down exactly what your branding and packaging should look like. The best product packaging clearly conveys your brand’s identity to consumers in a way that’s creative and appealing.
Choose Product Packaging and Labeling That Reflects Your Brand Identity
Once you’ve established a brand identity, use that to guide your choice of product packaging and labeling materials. If your cosmetics brand is targeting young professionals, choosing kraft paper labels with a folksy font may not be the best choice — metallic plastic with an edgy, modern font may be better. Let your target audience guide you. Additionally, working with an industry professional who knows what product packaging and label materials are available can ensure your product packaging stays on-brand.
Learn more: How to Choose the Right Packaging for Your Products
Know When To Call In the Professionals
Logo creation, product carton and label design, font choices and layout, product carton and label printing — each component plays an important role in creating a quality brand that looks and feels professional. Especially in competitive markets like makeup and body care, essential oils, beverages, and CBD products, your products have to work overtime to catch the attention of consumers. Hiring a professional graphic designer and partnering with an established product packaging and label company can give you an important edge over competing brands.
Maintain Consistency Across the Brand
When you add new products to your lineup, it can be tempting to branch off from your original design aesthetic and try something new. Although it’s absolutely okay to branch out, customers should be able to easily recognize a thread of consistency running through all of your product packaging and labels. That thread might be a font choice, your logo displayed in a prominent place, or the same type of container. Whatever you choose, something needs to remain the same to provide a sense of grounding.
5 Examples of Great Brand Packaging
Ready to close out with some inspiration from brands who are using their product packaging to its full potential? Here are five of our favorite branding and packaging examples.
Lush Cosmetics
The handmade cosmetics brand from our neighbor to the north, Lush Cosmetics, is a solid product and branding example. Even though they’re committed to reducing their need for product packaging through eco-friendly practices, their creams, salves, and scrubs all find their way into one of their signature, matte black tubs. And although the containers’ size and shapes vary a bit, each one features their signature white font scribbled over the top of a jet-black product container.
Everyone
This botanical-based bodycare brand has made their mark in the industry with their essential oil-infused soaps and lotions. No matter if it’s for hand soap sitting next to the kitchen sink or hand lotion on the nightstand, Everyone uses a bold, blocky font and bright colors, and has their logo emblazoned at the top of each and every product label.
Public Goods
Committed to crafting a wide selection of personal care and food products that are good for their customers and the planet, Public Goods is a classic study in the less-is-more approach. Their essential oils are all packaged in simple, amber glass bottles. The product label contains just the logo, essential oil fragrance, size, and their “it’s all good” brand tagline. The font and layout are simple, straightforward, and incredibly effective from a design standpoint.
Learn more: How to Bottle and Sell Your Own Essential Oils
Farmacy Beauty
The branding and packaging from Farmacy Beauty proves it’s possible to have lots of variation in product packaging as long as there’s a single, defining element to tie it all together. This skincare and body brand has a distinctive logo that sits atop the product label of everything they sell. Although the product containers vary widely in color and style, the prominent place they give their logo creates a stylish splash of brand-wide consistency.
Canceled Plans
Canceled Plans is a boutique candle company that specializes in crafting candles that make you want to do just that: cancel your plans. Their clean-burning candles are made with a blend of coconut and apricot waxes, scented with unique blends of fragrances that are designed to evoke a whole range of relaxing moods. But their candles aren’t the only thing that stands out. Canceled Plans has created an ideal match between their product packaging and labels. Each coordinates perfectly with the other, as both feature a clean, simple layout.
Learn more: How and Why to Start Your Own Candle Business
Is Your Branding and Packaging Sending the Right Message About Your Brand?
The way your branding translates into your product packaging and labels sends a message to consumers. But is it sending the right one? At Sttark, we pride ourselves on making the best custom printed cartons and labels for a wide variety of industries. With years of experience in packaging and labeling, we’re ready to help you choose the right packaging and label materials to keep all of your products on-brand. We also offer a wide selection of product cartons and label materials to choose from. Give us a call today to see how we can help!
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