What is Secondary Packaging Design?

Product packaging is one of the best branding vehicles available to market a brand. Unlike primary packaging that is basically a product, secondary packaging is a blank slate to package design teams, creative teams, and brand managers to send powerful messages to consumers. Secondary packaging is an advertisement for your product. Just like an ad, your packaging must attract attention, provide information and sell your product simultaneously.

Designing engaging secondary packaging seems straightforward but requires the right balance between, images, structural design and the perfect finish to connect with today’s savvy consumer. The question is, how can you make your packaging an excellent advertisement for your product?

Secondary packaging provides you with the opportunity to advertise your brand and marketing messages concurrently. These three factors can help you create packaging that doubles as an advertisement for your product and brand.

• Vivid Photography or Imagery While not all product packaging use photography or imagery, vivid and sharp digital photography or imagery is an integral component to eye-catching packaging.  The right photograph or image can instantly create an emotional connection with your brand and draw in the consumer. In sectors like cosmetic packaging, high-quality digital photography and imagery create an emotional connection with the consumer, associating your product and brand with attractiveness and health. Packaging with compelling photography and imaging can help customers visualize your products worth and subconsciously reinforce they are making the right purchasing decision when purchasing your product and brand.
• Structural Design
  Similar to photography, bold structural design is another opportunity to stand out in the marketplace and to highlight what is unique about your product or your brand. Take inspiration from your brand’s DNA and use structural design to your advantage. Working with an experienced packaging provider like Rex 3, your structural design options are virtually limitless. Whether you need classic packaging design or are a looking for a more daring structural design like a hexagon, structural design can subliminally and visually create a packaging design that gets found on the shelf!

• Press Effects and Post-Press Finishes
  While powerful visual signals are critical to becoming found in a retail setting, today’s consumer does not just select your product or brand by sight alone. The customer engages in a haptic experience with your product through packaging. They are evaluating your packaging; holding it, feeling it, and turning it.

  Adding a post-press finish enhances your packaging design in the eye of the consumer. Post-press finishes like cutting creates unique cutouts and eye-catching patterns but their real magic is that it can focus the customer’s attention on a particular characteristic of your packaging and product. 

  This secondary interaction means your packaging has to go beyond just looking good. Adding physical characteristics like embossing, debossing or diecut create a fresh and stimulating experience for consumers as they interact with your merchandise.

Secondary Packaging that Sells

When a customer finds themselves with your product in their hands, your packaging makes or breaks the sale. By utilizing your packaging as an advertisement for your product, you will ensure your packaging delivers your visual and tactile messages on your terms.