The New Year always brings with it the concept of new and fresh beginnings. This is true both in our personal lives and in our business lives. This is a great time to take an unbiased look at your product’s packaging and determine whether or not it lives up to your standards, your desires, and the consumers’ interests. This is the time to make plans to upgrade and update your packaging.
Resolution #1: Assess Color and Design
Does your packaging look like it belongs in the last century, or is it fresh and up-to-date? Unless your product is 50s memorabilia, or some other retro product, you should be sure that your packaging reflects 21st-century tastes, colors, and designs. If you need some new ideas, shop around, both on the Internet and in brick-and-mortar stores. See what other packaging looks like, both on products similar to yours, and packaging in general. Choose colors that fit your product. Choose a pleasing yet easily readable typeface for the product name and information.
Resolution #2: Improve Sturdiness
Does your current packaging hold up during shipment? Does your product arrive at the retailer in good condition, or are the boxes crushed, the plastic bagging opened, or any part of the packaging damaged? How about when the product is sitting on the shelf? Does any part of it open or come apart when handled? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, it’s time to improve your packaging.
Resolution #3: Redesign the Shape or Size
Does your current packaging fit the product easily? You’ve probably purchased a bottle of vitamins and opened them to discover that barely half the bottle is filled, and wondered why the vitamin manufacturer didn’t either make the bottle smaller, or fill it up with vitamin pills. Are there any ways that you can redesign your packaging to make it fit the product better? You certainly need to have sufficient room for the product itself, and any instruction pamphlet that may be inserted, but the packaging might be bigger than it needs to be.
Resolution #4: Make Packaging Reusable or Recyclable
Is your product the type of thing that won’t be used up all at once? For instance, breakfast cereal. Will the packaging have to be opened, closed, and opened again several times before the product is gone? This will necessitate a package design that is sturdy yet flexible. Or is the package such that it can be repurposed when the original product is used up? Sometimes popcorn treats are packaged in pretty tins that can be reused for many years. If your packaging is of this type, consider how you will design it so it is both attractive and a long-lasting advertisement for your product.
On the other hand, if your packaging is a one-use-only-type package, consider what materials you can make it from so it is recyclable. Many glass and plastic bottles are recyclable. Anything you can do to reduce waste in our landfills will be a New Year’s resolution worth making … and keeping.
