Beverage packaging’s primary purpose originally was to protect the product inside. Over the years, packaging has also been known as a marketing tool — packaging design now plays a vital role in promoting consumers buying decisions.
This writing will explore the importance of beverage packaging, why it’s an amazing tool for marketing purposes, and what to consider to find the best beverage packaging for your product.
What is beverage packaging?
Beverage packaging is to protect the product inside
Beverage packaging is the outside packaging, and has main function is to hold and protect liquid inside. But in reality, packaging has more roles than that. Packaging designers are good at creating protective packaging and understand the packaging requirement for retail shelves, marketing, branding, and an enjoyable experience to the consumer.
Why does beverage packaging matter?
Standing out on the beverage market and catching the consumer’s attention is the challenge in this day and area of overwhelming product choices. Appealing to your consumer is just one factor to consider when deciding which package style to use. The package needs to achieve several roles. Let’s look at a few of the key roles or functions of packaging to understand why beverage packaging matters.
For you: Top 20 beverage packaging suppliers (and how to choose one)
Beverage packaging is used for promoting the purchase and communicating with consumers
● Protecting
The key role a package must carry is protecting the product inside. For beverage products, that means the product needs to be protected from leakage and contamination during transportation, storage and handling. Many beverage products need protection from the ingress of oxygen, sunlight exposure, loss of carbonation, and migration of material package components. All these things can change the taste and quality of the product. These things become even more important if a product declares something that must be substantiated for the product’s life.
● Promote
The beverage packaging should also promote the product. It should attract the consumer and make them proud to be using the product. The package design itself communicates something about the product and creates an impressive story of the brand in the consumer’s mind.
● Communicate
The packaging of beverages should communicate the required information to the consumer. This information includes a basic understanding of the product, including nutritional content, ingredients, place and date of manufacture, and shelf life information. Packaging can also be used to communicate brand stories regarding promotions, special holiday graphics, how the product is inspired, and more.
Read more: 7 simple steps to create a promising beverage packaging design
How beverage companies use packaging as marketing tools
Packaging is an effective tool to tell the story. With branding, you have to take advantage of all opportunities you have available. Using packaging as a tool for marketing is one of the best and most cost-efficient ways to expand your brand. Many underestimate it, but designing your product packaging for branding purposes can play a crucial role in a successful marketing strategy.
Packaging is an effective tool to tell the story
● Perfectly Design
Certain packaging features — like shape and color — can be spotted easily at a glance and can bring a perception of the product and brand’s name. You can find out several things from these features, like the target audience, whether they’re luxury or not, and what the brand’s story is. Brand packaging is also crucial as consumers can easily be aware of what products belong to what brand. There are various ways to make your beverage packaging stand out and appeal to a new audience.
● Color is key
Color is possibly the most powerful design factor — brands can be memorable because of a color scheme, and using the right color will reach their target audience. The research found that 93% of buyers are attracted by visual appearance, and almost 85% claim color is a primary factor when people make a purchase. This research indicates what an essential took color is when designing packaging.
The influence of color goes much deeper than simply choosing a color the brand prefers. There is a psychological secret behind why brands use specific colors. For instance, brighter colors are great for catching the attention of a younger audience because it makes the product appear less severe and more easy. Shades of brown or grey add masculinity and work great for men’s products like aftershave. On the other hand, black is such a sophisticated color, often used in more luxury and high-end products.
● How materials play a part
Some brands use glass bottles, which will feel more luxurious.
Materials aren’t as visual a role as the other elements, but they still play an essential role in representing the brand’s ideologies, especially how luxurious the brand is. Some high-end beverage brands use glass bottles for their products, while others use plastic or paper. The glass bottle will make consumers feel more luxurious and will likely cost more due to this.
As well as materials package providing a sense of luxury, it can also show what brand is environmentally friendly. As the world has raised awareness of the importance of looking after our environment, the materials package has also become a huge selling point for users. Choosing suitable materials can share a brand’s values. If the package claims to use recycled materials, it will be a plus point for the brand.
● The importance of logo
A logo is the key element to represent a brand
Having a logo is one of the first things a brand will think about and create, as it is the key element to representing a brand. Logos tend to appear on various platforms such as products, advertisement campaigns, packaging, social media, etc. It will take a lot of money to make the perfect logo.
Almost every brand has a unique logo. While brands will always use their logo on packaging, it can be utilized even more — unique logos can dictate your brand’s packaging design, using the right color and font in your logo to make a product more recognizable.
Each of the above aspects done well can guarantee your beverage packaging is utilized as an efficient marketing tool, gaining the attention of your target consumer, new customers, becoming recognizable, representing the brand’s spirit, and much more.
Read more: How to create your inspired drink logos (with step-by-step practical guide)
3 Considerations to choose beverage packaging
1. Type of beverage
In the first place, beverage packaging depends on the type of product.
People often forget that packaging plays an important function—for example, protection, storage, and transportation functions. Also, information functions such as ingredients, sugar content, date of use, or processing notification as well.
Beverage packaging depends on the type of product.
Whatever kind of drink is, each type has its packaging requirements. For example, milk beverage and beer suppliers can use dark packaging to keep products inside away from light since sunlight affects their taste and quality.
For drinks like beer, they have special packaging requirements in most cases. Because they contain carbon dioxide, none of these drinks can be fresh in a composite carton. Lemonade, as another compelling example, needs a stable size package to keep it carbonated.
2. Transportation flow
With PET bottles, there are disposable and recyclable products, and the wall of PET recyclable bottles is thicker and more robust than that of PET disposable bottles.
However, PET bottles have a better reputation for ecological balance. They’re lighter; therefore, they save resources in production and energy in transportation.
Thus, the length of the transport route is an essential aspect in deciding the sustainability of packaging.
If the transportation distance to the supermarket is not too long, reusable bottles are appropriate. For transportation distances over 200 km, on the other hand, pet disposable bottles are more friendly to the environment. The reason is that the carbon footprint in the exhaust gas is very long.
Besides, the recyclable bottles must be returned to the bottling plant, which means twice the distance. For a reusable bottle, the main factor of ecological balance is the transport route and the number of cycles it takes. For instance, a recyclable glass bottle that can serve 15 to 20 times is a good life cycle assessment.
Thus, the life cycle assessment of bottles with low cycle times is not ideal, even if they are reusable.
3. Weight and shape
The weight and shape of packaging need to be suitable and convenient for the consumer’s need
The weight and shape of beverage packaging are also other essential aspects to consider. They need to be suitable and convenient for the target consumers and meet the manufacturing and transportation requirements.
For instance, conical glass bottles require more space than cans or beverage boxes. The supplier has to think carefully about what volume is the best choice for consumer’s needs, the most efficient for saving resources and a safe transportation journey.
In conclusion
If you read until the end of this article, you must know deeper about beverage packaging and how beverage companies use it as a tool to expand their brand’s name. Packaging of beverages is not only for protecting the liquid inside; more than that, people also take advantage of it for bigger plans.
There are still many things behind the roles of beverage packaging that this piece of writing can hold fulfilled. If you are curious about topics like this, check out our website for more exciting ideas.
Tan Do is a global beverage ODM/OEM manufacturer and supplier located in Vietnam. Since 1996, we have built trust and credibility not only throughout Vietnam but also in many parts of the world. Leveraging state-of-the-art technology, we have crafted thousands of products that align with ISO, HACCP, HALAL, FDA, and many other standards.
