Packaging Categories-First, learn to evaluate two key packaging categories for your product and identify weaknesses.
Then, you will be ready to implement packaging solutions for each type of packaging.
3 Stages of Packaging
Primary Packaging
This packaging is in direct contact with the product you are selling. Primary packaging will be the medium that most customers will see when making a purchase decision. How does your product stand out on the shelf?
Secondary Packaging
Secondary packaging combines multiple units of a product together. It is usually not in direct contact with the product itself. Examples of secondary packaging are countertop displays or beer cases. They are designed to help deliver a large number of products to the consumer. Well-designed secondary packaging is very useful in drawing the consumer’s attention to your product because there is usually a larger available surface for printing.
Three-stage packaging
This holds the product together, making it easier to transport, distribute and store. A case of water bottles or granola for the primary shipper is considered tertiary packaging. This packaging needs to be balanced with useful branding to identify products with effective functionality. Poorly designed secondary packaging can really hurt a company by delivering a damaged product.
What are the principles of packaging design?
There are many details involved in the design of custom packaging. Companies should consider the entire process their products will go through to create effective packaging solutions. Like SK2’s cylinder round paper tubes.
Simplify things
B2B customers will be less concerned with flashy graphics and more concerned with graphics that clearly communicate what the product is about. A quick and easy explanation of what the product is should be provided.
Consider the impact of negative space. Negative space may seem like a waste, but it can go a long way to help draw attention to the most important parts of your brand. Effective spacing allows companies to easily identify the brand, the type of product and the benefits of the product. Too much text can detract from a product’s key identifiers.
Authentic Selling
Authenticity is very important for B2B sales. If a company resells your product, it becomes a reflection of their business, and B2B customers expect the product they are used to buying to be the same the next time they buy it. Any deviation from this will cause customers to lose trust in the brand.
Brand Consistency
Are you planning to expand your product line? Consistent package design is critical to maintaining a brand identity that really helps your shelf presence. Companies shouldn’t have to spend time trying to determine which brand or product line a new product fits into.
The best way to do this is with a strong logo that can be presented in a variety of ways and scaled down to a variety of sizes without losing brand recognition. The identity also includes a consistent font and tagline style. With a consistent style, the color scheme can be manipulated for different product lines without losing the brand identity.
Shipping and Receiving Arrangements
Custom packaging needs to be easy to ship and receive in order to establish a good B2B relationship. The media used to package your products should be quickly identifiable and easy to unload. Any work such as assembling displays needs to be simple and fast. If a company creates packaging that is not easy for companies to use, it could lead them to work with competitors who have streamlined the process.
Display
An important factor that companies will consider is package display. Competition for shelf space is becoming increasingly fierce, so custom packaging needs to be designed efficiently so that it does not take up unnecessary space.
Companies also need to consider the type of environment they will use to sell. Different companies will need to consider different shelf sizes, hanging space or counter space.
What should you look for when choosing packaging?
For example as CBD:
Light blocking containers (not just for oil)
Light is known to be CBD oil’s worst nemesis, so choose amber or dark blue bottles for your CBD oil. Keep in mind that many consumers will keep open containers in a place where they can be used easily on a daily basis – they may not store them in the pantry or medicine cabinet. Therefore, you need containers that provide as much shade as possible for your marketing environment. You don’t want oil droplets to degrade quickly, as they will remain on dressers and worktops.
Fudge looks very attractive in clear bottles and CBD may be more stable in a candy matrix, but it’s still a good idea to keep them in the dark. Consider using tinted bottles and high labels to block as much light as possible. For gel capsules and dry formula pills, opaque white bottles look clean and reputable. They will also block light and look attractive in your marketing materials. It’s also a good idea to print storage instructions on the label – something as simple as “Store at room temperature in a dark place” or “Avoid exposure to heat or light.”
Sealability
The second factor that affects the freshness of a CBD formula is air. The less atmosphere that penetrates your package, the better. Cardboard boxes are great for overwrapping, but glass, plastic and polyester film will help prevent open-air penetration. Even capsules retain their CBD content longer in the package, designed to keep the air away as much as possible. The use of desiccants helps to absorb moisture in certain bulk ingredients and finished products.
Expiration date
Customers and consumers will be pleased to know how long your product will remain effective. In general, CBD has a shelf life of approximately two years, but this depends greatly on the purity of the ingredients, the matrix of the product, the packaging and the storage environment. However, best practices mean that customers should never receive a product that is close to the one-year mark. Good business relations require that expiration dates, manufacturing dates or best before dates be printed on the label and that the product be shipped off the market as soon as possible.
Transparency is essential to CBD sourcing and compliance
In a world where CBD is rife with substandard, or worse, dirty oils, consumers want to know where their products are grown and processed. Cannabis products that are not grown in the United States and do not qualify for the Cannabis Pilot Program often avoid printing sourcing information on their labels.
While the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) and the Federal Trade Commission ( FTC ) may not impose CBD packaging requirements that require sourcing information, you may prefer to include it for true transparency and to highlight quality.
Link to Certificate of Analysis
Third-party testing for cannabinoid content and purity is the benchmark for industry best practices. Every brand should have this information readily available. By making certificates available on your website and linking them via a QR code or lot number on the label, you can give your customers and consumers peace of mind.
Label Compliance
How you describe your CBD products and what information to include on the label while complying with state, federal and international regulatory agencies will prove challenging. Since CBD is currently in a regulatory gray area, you need to know what information should be on the label and what information should not be on the label.
Conclusion
What makes for a good packaging design for B2B customers? Packaging can eliminate any problems in a buyer’s decision. Packaging can be an effective weapon to beat your competitors, and effective packaging can be the deciding factor.
