Ways to Use Packaging as a Marketing Tool

Using packaging as a marketing strategy is a unique way to show your customers exactly who you are and what you are about as a brand. It is your opportunity to tell your customers a story, and it’s one of the most cost-efficient ways to do so. No matter your company’s status, using packaging as a marketing tool is a great way to speak directly to your customers.

Custom Packaging Solutions

High-quality packaging solutions provide you with a unique opportunity to market your brand. When your customers receive your product, whether in the mail or after purchasing it from the store, they will see your voice on display in the way you package your product. 

Custom packaging supplies and products can take on a variety of looks. With colors, graphics, logos, photography and other design elements, custom packaging can make you stand out to existing and potential customers — and set you apart from your competition.

Some specific benefits of using custom packaging include brand recognition and 24/7 advertising. Additionally, high-quality packaging can help you build:  

Brand recognition: Once your custom packaging has been established, your customers and others who see it consistently will grow to recognize your brand simply by the color, logo or design of the packaging.
Constant advertising: If your packaging is built to last, customers can reuse it for other purposes and think of your brand every time they see it.
A brand following: If your marketing is aesthetically pleasing, customers are more likely to tell others about it. This word-of-mouth advertising can be of great value to your marketing strategy. 

There are specific routes you can take when creating your custom packaging solutions. Here are seven of them: 

1. Match Advertising Campaigns

To bring your business to a new level, it is important to have a comprehensive advertising campaign that includes web ads, commercials, billboards and social media posts that all have the same feel and become easily distinguishable as your brand by those who see it. Having custom packaging that matches your ad campaign can help you increase your brand recognition.

This can be something as simple as making your packaging the same color and the text the same font as your post on Instagram, with the goal of making all pieces of your marketing strategy feel cohesive.

2. Create Special Packaging

It can be helpful to use special days like holidays, special events and limited-time products to create special packaging that will refresh your brand. Even if it is a special event within your company, bringing your customers in on it can help them feel like part of the family. 

You might also consider celebrating customers themselves by creating packaging that’s specific to your customers on their birthday or an anniversary of membership.

If your budget doesn’t allow for you to redo all your packaging for a special occasion, there are also options like festive tape, labels and stickers. 

3. Utilize Social Media

Getting your customers to interact with you on social media is one of the best ways to increase your brand recognition and put your brand in their minds more often. Connecting your social media with your packaging is simple. You can list your social media accounts on the packaging itself in a sleek way, write your hashtags on your packaging or provide incentives for your customers to share your packaging on their own social media pages. While it is okay to include this information through text, it is important to make sure your packaging is still as visual as possible.

4. Add Surprise Promotional Material

Your packaging is completely unique to you and opens up a world of opportunities to show your customers something they’ve never seen before. Promotional tools such as coupon codes, hidden URLs, QR codes and contest elements can make them linger on your packaging longer than they may otherwise because it gives them the ability to interact with it. They likely picked up your packaging for your product, but adding promotional material will leave them surprised.

5. Custom Gifts

Similar to the promotional material idea, you can also incorporate custom gifts into your packaging that will further increase the chances of a customer buying from you again. The gifts can be as simple or complex as you want or as your budget allows for. Thank you cards, especially handwritten ones, are a great way to show your customers you care. You could also include product-specific add-ons, samples or simple gifts like stickers with your packaging.

6. Reusable Packaging

In today’s society, your customer is looking beyond the benefit your product has for them. They are also looking at the impact your product — and packaging — has on the environment. To accommodate the environmentally conscious, consider making your packaging recyclable or reusable. 

It is important to make it clear that your brand is doing what it can to reduce its negative impact on the environment. Whatever that looks like for your brand, your customers will likely appreciate the option of reducing waste. 

7. Tell Your Brand Story

Your company has a story — and storytelling is an amazing way for customers to connect to you and your mission as they will feel they can relate to you. Though your product tells part of your story, your packaging and entire marketing strategy tell the rest of it. You can make your story be something your customers want to buy into even further than just buying your product.

Let Innovative Packaging Co. Create Your Custom Packaging

At Innovative Packaging Co., we revolutionize the world of packaging by helping you package your passion and make your product an experience for your customer. We strive to create a package that is effortlessly simple to open and tells your brand’s story with just a glance from your customer.

IPC is a full-service packaging company that allows you to be involved in the process of designing a custom packaging solution that is perfect for your brand and product. There are certain areas of the packaging process that we hone in on and strive to improve:

Increased production and through-rate
Fresher products and longer shelf lives
More consistent and professional packaging
Lower labor and packaging supply costs

Choosing IPC gives you the right packaging solution for your products. Our manufacturing service means you’ll never have to put a project on hold while waiting for supplies. You’ll have access to all our design and manufacturing resources, which will decrease your supply and labor costs and increase your efficiency and productivity.

Ready to see exactly what IPC can do for your business? Request a quote online or contact us by phone at 360-397-0373.