What is your brand? How does it reflect what your company values? How does it bring forth specific feelings for your customers?

Your CPG brand identity shapes your connection with your customers. Packaging design and brand identity are intertwined. Packaging design can reflect your brand’s feel and values.

What are the key elements to consider when creating standout branding and packaging?

• Values: reflecting your values in the colors, images, and packaging you choose.
• Integration: making your branding and packaging send the same message.
• Storytelling: telling a consistent and clear story with your brand.
• Research: your branding and packaging design should be informed by ongoing consumer research.

Creating an Impactful First Impression

Do you remember your favorite childhood toy? Perhaps you went to the store repeatedly to see if a new one had been released. Successful brands make an impactful first impression.

How can your brand make a high-impact first impression?

• Make your brand and logo highly visible.
• Use packaging that reflects your company’s values, such as recycled packaging.
• Choose and use a distinctive pattern, color, or image to enhance brand recognition.
• Consider the environmental impact of your packaging, and make this obvious to customers.

Telling Your Brand Story

CPG brand consistency creates comfort for consumers, letting them know that this is a product they know and trust. Studies on food packaging show that customers seek out visible branding to make their consumer choices.

How can your brand tell its story through packaging design?

• Speak to the customers’ needs. For example, SmashBrand notes that white backgrounds in food products feel like a healthier choice to consumers.
• Know your market: Who listens to your story, and how do you talk with them?
• Connect to reason and emotion in your storytelling.
• Make sure that your story is clear. Tell it in as few words as possible.

Utilizing Consumer Research

How can you tell whether your packaging design and branding strategy will succeed in the market before making a serious investment? Your customers should have a voice in your packaging design and branding choices.

How can you use consumer research to influence packaging and branding?

• Focus groups can give you insights into consumers’ reactions to your product.
• A/B consumer testing helps determine what version of your packaging to launch.
• Market testing will give you information on how the product is received.

Measuring Your Success

You’ve invested a lot of time, energy, and money into your packaging choices. Despite this, packaging choices don’t always hit the mark with consumers.

After your new strategy launches, how can you continue to monitor its effectiveness? Here are some metrics to monitor:

• Direct website traffic.
• Search popularity.
• Referral traffic.
• Social media coverage, particularly free media coverage.
• Engagement with targeted advertising.
• Results of customer surveys.

Standout packaging with well-targeted branding can make the difference between being noticed and being overlooked in the consumer marketplace. What is your branding strategy for your CPG brand identity? Work with us to discover how you can create a brand experience through packaging design. Subscribe to our blog today.