Photo by Victoria Priessnitz on Unsplash
The cosmetics, beauty, lifestyle, and healthcare industries have never been as strong as they are today. While business is booming in this ever-growing sector, it’s also getting more competitive than ever. Companies are exploiting new media marketing methods in innovative ways to gain brand exposure and reach new customers. Most of these new marketing methods are highly visual — unboxing videos, Instagram “influencer” accounts, and e-commerce stores, for example. So, to succeed in the cosmetics industry these days, you must pull out all the stops to design cosmetics packaging that stands out from the crowd. In this post, we show you how.
Consumers want not only high-quality products. They’re looking for a brand which represents their lifestyle and aspirations, which speaks to their hopes and dreams. They don’t just want to buy a face cream, a perfume spray, or a makeup set — they want a complete image, an identity, a statement about who they are, what they value, and how they feel. So, branding is everything in today’s market.
That means packaging your cosmetic products in custom-made, branded boxes that speak to the consumer’s aspirations. They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but everybody does. It’s the same with other products we buy. Whether shopping online, in-store, or browsing a catalog, the first thing any potential customers sees is usually the box, not the product it contains. That box has a lot of work to do. The right packaging leads to sales; the wrong packaging leads to returns, discounts, and wastage. It’s no exaggeration to say that your box alone can be the difference between profit and loss.
4 questions to answer before you design your cosmetic boxes
Effective cosmetic box design begins with branding and identity. To design a box that sells, you need to get certain fundamentals in place first: your brand definition; your target market; your unique offer; and how you’ll reach your target consumers. You must clarify all these things before you design your boxes and other packaging.
1. Your brand definition
Can you sum up in a single sentence the essence of your brand identity? Once you think about it, it can get quite difficult! Especially if you have a broad focus and a wide range of products across several lines. You may need to define your overall brand identity and then analyze sub-categories that will inform each product. But in whatever way you approach the issue, you must be clear about your message before you can decide on packaging options, styles, colors, and more.
2. What does your brand offer?
Every brand must make a unique offer to the potential consumer. Do you focus on everyday consumables or luxury items? Are your goods aimed at people of a specific age group or social status? Do consumers buy your products for their personal use or as gifts for friends, family, and colleagues? Do you have an environmental policy, sustainably sourced ingredients, or a commitment to cruelty-free production? Your brand and your products must have an unequivocal selling point. You must make a distinct offer to the consumer, which distinguishes your brand from others in a crowded marketplace. These factors have an important role to play when you choose your box design, your packaging materials, and your printing options.
3. Who are your target customers?
When targeting your products, don’t make the mistake of working from assumptions or what you may consider obvious. Effective consumer targeting always involves thorough market research. Don’t guess who might buy your products — find out! While extensive market research, brand testing, and so on needs an investment of both time and money — whether you do it all in-house or outsource the effort to a reputable third-party market research agency — it’s a necessary expense which will save you money down the line.
4. How do consumers find your products?
The last question to ask yourself is, where do your target consumers shop? You may wonder how this could influence your custom printed box design. Well, if you distribute goods mainly through large-scale retailers such as supermarkets and out-of-town megastores, you’ll need to make your product packaging stand out from the dozens or even hundreds of other similar products on the shelves. If you sell cosmetics through a pharmacy chain, you’ll need a certain “clinical” feel to be in keeping with consumer expectations. In the same way, if your primary outlets are independent, boutique stores, that will change the way you develop and design your boxes. And if you sell online, your goods must look good even when reduced to a tiny thumbnail on a computer screen or smartphone.
Preparing to design your custom cosmetics boxes
Once you’re clear about your brand, it’s time to check out the competition. Why? So your cosmetic box design is enough in keeping with current trends to be instantly recognizable to the consumer and individual enough to be eye-catching. Examine the printed boxes of, say, half a dozen of your core competitors in the marketplace. Look at the box size; the shapes of the packages; whether they have inserts, tags, or leaflets; the color schemes; text font, size, and placing. Ask yourself, “What does this box say about the brand and the product? What promise does it make to the consumer?” You can then use these data to inform your own custom printed box style.
5 essentials of custom cosmetics box design
Now that you’ve completed your research and analysis, you can design your own boxes. Make sure that you consider the following five essentials of custom cosmetic box design. They’ll help you create a standout packaging solution that sells.
Size
Despite the common saying, with box design, size matters! Will your product fit snugly into the box, or will you include a custom insert, a leaflet, a booklet, a discount card, or other offer? Will your product nestle in a box with room to spare? How will the size of your box change the way the consumer perceives the product? These are all questions worth thinking about when designing the perfect packaging for your products.
Style
We do not make all boxes equal. They can be cubes, rectangular, pillow-shaped, lidded, circular, rigid, flexible, and more. The style of your box must reflect your brand and appeal to the customer’s tastes and values. It must also be practical — square boxes are easier to stack, for example, than pillow boxes, but the latter may have more impact on the eye.
Materials
Don’t assume that we make all boxes of some generic “cardboard” material. You can choose from a vast range of card stocks, paper covers, textures, and coatings. The look and feel of your product packaging is vital to your success, and it depends on the material substrate of the box as much as on the printed design.
Colors
Colors have a powerful effect on the effectiveness and the clarity of your marketing messages. Check out luxury goods, for example, which tend toward ivory whites, lacquered blacks, velvet or silk insets, and gold or purple lettering; while eco-friendly products may be better served with earthy pigments such as moss green, ochres, and burnt umber.
Fonts and lettering
The choice of fonts, the number and positioning of the words, and other factors related to the lettering that’s printed on your custom cosmetic box are also important design considerations. They may be bold or discreet, stylized or classic in form, in bright colors, black-and-white, or embossed, or stamped in metallic foil. So long as the result is in keeping with your brand, expresses the essence of the product, and appeals to your target customer, your creativity is the only limit.
Design your custom cosmetics box in-house or outsource?
Whether you design your custom packaging solutions in-house or outsource to a qualified third-party designer depends on whether you have the skills, technical capacity, and time to do it yourself and if not, the budget to pay a professional designer to do it for you. But rather than trying to do it all without help — unless you have experience and training — we recommend you work with a designer. In either case, talk to us first. We have a lot of experience under our collective belt and can support and advise you and your designer every step of the way. We even have ready-make templates which may be useful to you, and we can check all your files for errors as part of the service we offer — no extra fees.
Talk to us!
If you’re ready to take your cosmetics packaging to the next level with a custom printed box design, it’s never too soon to get in touch. You can contact us by telephone, email, on Skype, or via our contact form. One of our enthusiastic and knowledgeable team will be happy to answer questions and advise you. We’ll also give you a no-obligation quote as soon as you’re ready. We look forward to working with you to make your brand and products really stand out from the crowd!
