What Your Packaging Is Really Made Of

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what packaging is really made of

The Whole Package

In the highly challenging world of marketing, there is a need to try to make your product stand out from your competitors. Many organisations will focus on the quality and consistency of their product to ensure that they are going to be providing consumers with a desirable item. This is, of course, a very important part of any process for getting a quality product out into the market. But what is happening is that some of these companies are so focused on this aspect that they forget to invest time, effort, and money into their packaging.

You can have an excellent product, but if it is not packaged well it can get lost amongst all the other items that are available. You can spend a massive amount of time and money in the meticulous preparation of your product, but unless it is going to attract attention on the shelves it will be difficult to move. Without spending enough time and effort in developing quality packaging, all of that effort could have gone to waste.

The Importance Of Packaging

Successful brands fully understand how important packaging is to the success of their products. Packaging plays a very important role in ensuring that the product is kept clean, secure, fresh, and uncontaminated. It also plays a vital role as part of the branding and marketing activity. Packaging is the brand signature that you leave everywhere. It has the power to influence and to attract modern consumers in ways that are much more effective than traditional sales and advertising methods.

Previously people were focused mainly on the price and standard promotion methods for products. But the packaging plays a very important role in building brand recognition. With supermarkets often offering multiple products, creating quick and easy recognition is valuable. Part of this is in deciding on the design of your packaging as well as the materials you want to use.

Paper Packaging

Most retail focused packaging is made of plastics, paper, and aluminium. The paper can be laminated, printed, or have a plastic film added to it for labelling. It can be given a special coating that then provides a durable base for adding designs and graphics. There are many types of paper packaging that are able to be recycled although there are some limitations to the use of plastic films on paper making these items very difficult to recycle.

Set of paper bagsPlastic Packaging

Plastics have become a very common part of packaging. They are versatile and lightweight. Plastic film is very easy for printing designs. There are also many different plastic containers that are able to be recycled. If you go to your supermarket, you will see plastic being used in every aisle. It has become one of the most commonly used materials for packaging and many companies have been very innovative in how they present themselves through the use of their packaging.

Glass Packaging

Glass is recyclable, but it is quite heavy. It is still used for a range of food products, such as spices, spreads, and sauces, and also for some drinks, particularly wine and beer. It is very good for keeping products fresh and clear bottles allow the consumer to clearly see the contents.

Aluminium Packaging

Aluminium is also recyclable, and it is used as it provides an effective barrier to light, moisture, bacteria, and oxygen. It is very thin and when it is combined with flexible plastic films it can create very lightweight packages.

Considerations For Marketing Your Products

It is important to remember that packaging is not just about holding and transporting your product, it is one of the best marketing and branding tools that you have.

As part of the process in deciding on the most appropriate packaging for your product, you need to focus not only on the right materials but also on selecting the best size, shape, and design of the packaging.

When you are considering your marketing approach, you need to look at a range of factors that will help you in making the right decisions to boost the success of sales of your product. It is important that the product is able to satisfy a customer’s needs and desires.

You can create the product that you think is the best, but unless your customers agree it is not going to sell. Your marketing strategy needs to understand what those needs and desires are and support the promotion of your product based on this.

The Costs

The cost of producing, packaging, and transporting a product will influence the price. It is best to understand what your client will accept and ensure that you are not spending too little on the materials you use, but at the same time you should also be careful you are not spending money unnecessarily.

Any adjustments to your packaging will affect the price and potentially the demand for your product, so marketing needs to ensure customers understand the benefits to them of the product and the packaging needs to be able to reinforce that. The packaging style, materials, and presentation will influence the consumers’ perception of your product and must be part of your strategy.

Determining the price of a product requires research, which provides insight and understanding of consumer dynamics. There can then be some limited adjustments made after monitoring results. Selling goods effectively is a fundamental marketing requirement. The type of packaging influences decisions made by the company as well as the selection by the purchaser. The choice of packaging materials, the type of packaging, and the design work that goes with it should help in providing clear reasons for your targeted customers to buy your product.

product marketing

The Presentation Of Your Products

Packaging plays a vital role in getting your product out there on the shelves while at the same time it is a highly effective and creative way to attract customers. Ultimately you are trying to generate a positive emotional response. It is important to use your product packaging to play a major role in the promotion of both the company and its goods. Many consumers are now educating themselves about products. This then impacts on their purchase decisions.

Product packaging needs to be not only eye-catching, intuitive, and functional, but it needs to use clear language and provide relevant information to quickly inform potential customers of the quality and suitability of your product.

Making sure that your products are being sold in the right environment and presented or displayed in the best way possible is important as well. The type of packaging you use and how it looks on the shelves will often influence how well it sells. So, at all times, packaging is going to be an important element in your marketing strategy.

How Your Products Are Packaged

Even if your product is the best in the market, without good packaging your customers may not even realise this. When your product is on the shelf, the packaging is often the first thing they see and you have a very small window of opportunity to attract their attention. This is why you should make sure that packaging is not just something you do at the end of creating a product. It needs to be an important part of your product development work. You should be paying close attention to your packaging and working with a trusted packaging producer and supplier to present your product in the best possible light.

The Rise Of Sustainable Packaging

The choice of materials will be a part of your packaging design activity. It is important to be realistic about what is going to be the best. It will be a balance between choosing materials based on cost and also on what will appeal to your targeted consumers. There has been a shift in how many people perceive packaging with more information becoming available about the impact of plastics on the environment. The shift away from plastics has started and there are some consumers who would be happy to pay a higher price if they thought the packaging was more environmentally sound.

Recycled Plastic

Sustainable packaging may include using paper and aluminium as well as recycled plastic products. Currently, it is cheaper to manufacture new plastic and a lot of plastic is being used once and then goes into a landfill. But as technology develops and better systems for recycling are developed, there will be a greater opportunity to use recycled plastics as part of normal manufacturing. There are already a number of companies using recycled plastics in their packaging including the use of beach plastics, which is rigid plastic collected during beach cleanups by NGOs and charities.

Alternatives To Plastic

Other approaches to sustainable packaging include the use of plastic alternatives. In the Netherlands, a company has introduced a plastic-free grocery aisle. It does include the use of bio-plastics, but has substantially reduced the amount of plastic used.

The main alternatives that are being used are glass, paper, and aluminium. Both glass and aluminium are able to be recycled an infinite number of times. There are also other types of bio-materials made from natural fibres, wood pulps, cellulose, and milk by-products. Some of the materials still look and feel like plastic but they are not.

Conclusion

There will continue to be development in the types of materials available for use in packaging and the cost of these materials will decrease as they develop and become more commonly used. Working closely with a quality packaging company will ensure that you stay up to date with developments in the industry and have quality packaging that will meet the expectations of your customers.

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