Tips for creative packaging for small businesses

Sustainability

It’s 2020 let’s stop killing our planet. We are at a point in time where we have so many other options other than plastic to package your product. Even by using less packaging, you are helping the environment and people appreciate it. Big brands are moving towards eco-friendly packaging so you need to swap the plastic for plant-based plastics. Do some research to help you move towards eco-friendly packaging, if people see you are trying to decrease the plastic you will stand out positively and you will attract more of an eco-conscious audience. 

Stand out 

This is obvious, you need to stand out from the crowd to increase your customer exposure. If your industry has set rules to try and break them, this often works out if it increases your customer’s experience. Having packaging which is more of experience can be seen as a gimmick but initially, you should see a spike in sales because people like feeling they are opening their items if its a fun and different. Think outside the box. 

Keep it simple

Don’t over complicate your design, oftentimes overthinking the design is a huge hindrance for the product’s appearance. Be straight to the point about what your product is, your audience will appreciate this clean and simple approach. By simplifying your design doesn’t mean to don’t add all relevant information. 

Use humour 

People love a good giggle so by using humour in your product design will be giving your audience a positive experience with your product, even if they don’t buy your product. Make sure it makes sense and is appropriate for your audience – there is no point having a reference from the 60s if you’re targeting to teenagers. Make sure it’s funny, do market research about your target audience and find out what generally makes them laugh. 

Colours

Use colours which are used with your brand, you shouldn’t go too far from your branding – customers won’t be able to recognise a product being your brands if you use completely different colours. Ensure the colours you use work well together so your product stands out on the shelf. Your audience should be able to identify your product from first glance – so by your colours. 

Transparency is key    

You don’t need to design your package if your packaging is transparent. The product your selling needs to be aesthetically pleasing and look good as is, this can’t work with every product so please be careful when adding transparent packaging. This is good for products you want to promote freshness and ‘you get what you see’.