Custom packaging is a simple, visual and tactile way to ensure your customers have an experience that connects them with your brand in a meaningful way at the moment that they hold your product in their hands. It’s designed to express the personality (and values) of your brand, attract attention to and enhance your products, and to give your customers an experience they want to share. It’s a valuable part of a consistent branding strategy.
But why is consistent brand messaging – from the first point to delivery – so critical?
You own your branding
The best branding doesn’t need a logo, a price or even a product. Think about a small Tiffany blue box. Or when you only catch a glimpse of an ad on TV, and you know before you see a certain bottle that it’s a Coca Cola ad. Or what about a jingle like ‘Happy Little Vegemites’? It’s consistent branding that means a particular look, or sound, or packaging reminds your customers of your brand, without having to be hit over the head with it.
When your style is so much a part of what your brand means to people, your customers will be thinking about your brand even before they need to make their next purchase.
Your brand is predictable
This sounds like it may be a bad thing. It’s boring, right?
But think about it – there’s a reason that your customers choose you over a competitor, and that’s their expectations based on what your branding and presentation says about your business. Their experience with your business needs to reinforce this. So be consistent! Don’t send mixed signals and confuse your customers. If you’re an online boutique and your Instagram page is quirky and unique, don’t send your products in Ziploc bags with a generic thank you card. The expectation of your brand that is set by your website should translate all the way through to when they unwrap the parcel and hold your product in their hands.
Your customer should expect and receive a consistent (and fabulous!) experience every time.
Your customers trust you.
Brand messaging is not just about building awareness of your brand. It’s a major way for you to develop trust and loyalty by managing your customers’ perception of your business.
A consistent brand projects confidence, reducing confusion and uncertainly about who you are and what your business stands for. If you don’t set the standard for your customers’ experience, then the customer will base their perception only on the parts they happen to see.
If your brand promises a high-end, luxurious experience, then having that message reinforced across your branding makes it easy to deliver on that promise and wow your customer rather than disappoint them or leave a bad taste. A customer who is impressed by their experience with your business will want to share that with others (branding that is Instagram-able is especially desirable!).
Protect your brand
You’ve invested time and money in developing your business and your brand. What’s the point in doing that if you don’t use it? It’s valuable – not just because you paid good money to have someone design your logo or corporate colours – but because of the inherent value of a brand that is recognisable and represents all the great things your customer associates with it.
If the application of your branding is haphazard or ad hoc, and customers are confused or disappointed by an aspect of the experience, then it can devalue your brand.
The more consistent your message, the less likely it is for perception of your brand to be changed, distorted, or challenged. Protect your brand by developing consistent branding and you are in control of messages your customer receives from your interactions.
If you’d like to discuss how custom printed ribbon or tissue paper can enhance your customers’ experiences of your brand, please get in touch.
Leave A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.