7 Packaging Mistakes That Are Costing You Money

It is a fact that the packaging of a product can decide the verdict of the product. While good package designs and packaging choices can enhance the sales of the product, certain packaging designs can backfire and cause significant damage to businesses.

If you are a business with consumer goods, industrial products, or anything else, you should know the mistakes that can affect your revenue as well as your business’s reputation.

You can find several hundreds of examples around the globe where packaging mistakes cost businesses millions.

What happened for Tropicana in 2009 is a lesson for every business. The American fruit juice company made a redesign for all its cartons with a new image of orange juice, instead of the usual orange fruit. Additionally, it redesigned the cap to make it look like an orange.

However, the redesign didn’t appeal to the customers, and the firm reported a drop of 20 per cent of its sales within two months. Finally, Tropicana was forced to bring back the original package design as part of their desperate damage control mission.

Do you know what caused Tropicana’spackage design debacle? It failed to understand the fact that the customer is always right. According to Neil Campbell, the president of Tropicana North America, the customers had “a deep emotional bond” with the original packaging design with the fruit, rather than juice in the glass in their new packaging, which the firm didn’t realise until the debacle happened.

It is one of many stories of how packaging mistakes damage sales and business.
Let’s discuss some of the packaging mistakes you may make that cost you money. This list of mistakes can help you to avoid costly business faults and safeguard your products and brand.

Lack Of Package Testing

Many businesses make the mistake of not conducting proper package testing before putting it on the market. Have you ever received a package with the product broken or damaged inside it?

It can be due to a manufacturing error of the product or lack of proper packaging to protect the product from incurring damage. Today, due to the growth of online shopping, all product packaging should meet shipping and handling requirements.

In addition to manufacturing and returning costs for the damaged products, businesses lose their customers due to the lack of proper packaging. What is the solution to address these issues?

Create samples by consulting with a packaging manufacturer, design proper testing procedures, test the packaging with products, and ensure ideal packaging performance.
You can do the testing for your packaging periodically to ensure that both the product and the packaging provide durable results.

Packages That Are Inconvenient To Retailers And Customers

In many cases, packages become less convenient to handle for retailers as well as for customers. Without analysing the distribution network requirements of the product, businesses often design packages without including the right features to make it portable in the distribution network.

Your product packaging should be made to be suitable for the various stages of product distribution that begins from you and ending in the hands of the customers. Does your packaging have features based on the products you pack in it?

Including handles for your packages can make them easier to carry in the distribution network, and customers will find such products to be versatile. Today, many brands include carriers, along with handles, to appeal to their customers and make the jobs of retailers effortless.

Do you think that portability is the only major issue in a distribution network? Your packages should be compact to pack in large corrugated boxes for transport. Again, retailers should find it easy to put these packages on their shelves.

Stand-up pouches and box bottom bags are ideal for placing on store shelves. These packages also help customers to easily find the product they want. If you’re not considering these factors while designing the packages, you may end up making a mistake that costs you time and money.

Using The Same Package Design For Long

Businesses should consider redesigning their package design every few years to appeal to existing customers and attract new customers. While doing so, you should ensure that the new design aligns with your brand messaging and strategies. It should also look impressive to appeal to customers.

You should always be keeping up with the Joneses and include the latest trends and consumer behaviour into your product packaging. It is also a way to say that you’re up to date and accept changes positively.

However, you should make an analysis and find out the package design elements that make your products close to the heart of your customers. Retain those elements and innovate with other aspects to appeal to customers. Got it? Avoid the mistakes of Tropicana who failed to understand the strong bond the image of the orange – from the original design – created with its customers.

Not Using Automation Strategies

Manual packaging is always a time-consuming and costly affair for businesses. Especially if you want to produce products in large numbers, entry-level automation in packaging can help you to improve the efficiency of your business while cutting down the operating expenses.

Manually branding your juice bottles or food product boxes can take hours when you want to produce hundreds of products. With a device that can stamp your brand logo onto the labels and boxes, you can improve the efficiency of your packaging process.

You can also use devices to pack the products into packaging bags and move to the distribution network.

Businesses around the globe prefer automation for various reasons, from the growth of their production line to the increasing labour costs.

Find ways to automate the packaging process that improves your overall business performance.

Not Branding The Packaging

If you’re producing and marketing consumer goods, you’ll find hundreds of similar products on the market from different brands. How do your customers choose your product from those hundreds of other products? This is where package branding is crucial for every business.

Today, competition is much fiercer than you think, and you should always stand out from the crowd to sell your products. Branding is the easiest, cheapest, and the most effective way to achieve this.

With a custom label and a logo, you can brand your product packaging and benefit from the power of branding. If you are ready to put in some extra bucks, you can create some custom design packaging bags for your products.

Such packaging bags not only increase the sales of your products but the brand value and brand awareness as well. Technological innovations such as gravure printing and digital printing made high-quality package printing possible at highly affordable prices.

Using Excessive Packaging Materials

For various reasons, many companies prefer to pack their products with endless wraps and metres of packaging tape. It could be to increase the shelf life of the product, to prevent the product from being damaged during transit, or to convey to customers that your company values their business.

Regardless of the reason, excessive packaging can lead to additional expenses, and the customers may not be happy with the package. Think of using a ½” bubble cushion for protecting a memory card or putting a reinforced water-activated tape for a mailer envelope. Does that seem strange to you? Some businesses follow similar types of packaging methods.

Analyse and find out whether your product needs such extra protection. If not, use packages without excessive materials. Always choose an appropriately-sized container or box, use the right amount of void fill, and seal the package with just enough packaging tape. Your customer will be happier.

Ignoring Sustainable Packaging Options

Today, the whole world is behind eco-friendly and sustainable solutions in every sector. This includes the packaging sector, and businesses can get multiple benefits from choosing sustainable packaging for their products.

With eco-friendly packaging, you decrease your carbon footprint and contribute your part to a sustainable earth. Sustainable packaging is highly versatile and can meet the packaging needs of various industries from cosmetics to automotive parts. Importantly, it helps you to improve the brand image of your business.

Your clients will appreciate the way you care for the planet and be proud and loyal to your brand.

Recyclable plastic is a great choice for packaging various products. Compared to corrugated boxes, low-density polyethene (LDPE) conserves natural resources and reduces material costs while being 100 per cent recyclable. It also needs less energy compared to several other material options for packaging.

Using sustainable packaging solutions also help businesses to get an advantage over their competitors while enjoying overall cost savings.

Conclusion

Packaging is a great tool that can give a significant advantage to your product and make it popular among several hundreds of similar products available on the market. While mistakes can be costlier, it is always great to choose the assistance of reputed packaging bag suppliers.

At Fine Pack, we know how to improve the value of your product with quality packaging solutions with our decades of expertise in designing packaging bags for various industries. Browse through our range of packaging bags and design solutions that can fit the packing needs of various food, agricultural, and agrochemical products.

Have specific questions? Connect with the packaging specialists at Fine Pack online, or by calling us on (02) 9476 8588, and they will guide you to get the best packaging option for your products.