Custom Liquor Boxes: Elevate Your Brand with Unique Packaging
Visibility is the name of the game in liquor, as it is most often found on the middle shelves of a store. Custom packaging and labeling is widely recognised as one of the most notable strategies liquor brands can use in the market. Liquor boxes and bottles can be made unique and eyecatching and become highly recognizable brand assets that make a powerful first impression on customers.
It is Quite Profitable to Invest in Custom Packaging
It is believed that custom packaging is an extra cost that only big companies can afford to incorporate into their operations. However, with the development of digital printing technology, custom boxes, bags and other packing solutions are quite cheap even if the buyer wants a few thousands of them. The added benefits demonstrated by the enhancement of brand recognition and sales revenues are usually much higher than the costs that come with using customized packaging.
To liquor brands, the unboxing is an extension of the product since it creates a quasi-sensory experience that is often associated with the actual consumption of the product. The packaging, for its part, creates a perception that the consumer is handling a product of some sort of exclusivity. When you are selling a low involvement product such as alcohol, this emotional brand connection through packaging is priceless. This is why you find companies such as Crown Royal and Johnnie Walker still investing in packaging as a major aspect of their marketing strategies.
Creativity in the design makes the brands distinct
Go to any store selling alcohol and you are likely to be overwhelmed by the number of products that resemble each other in terms of size, color, cap, and packaging material. For this reason, Liquor packaging requires aspects that are distinctive, recognizable and embody brand character.
Custom designs offer near limitless possibilities to differentiate your brand:Custom designs offer near limitless possibilities to differentiate your brand:
- Other shapes which are specific to a certain type of bottle such as decanters.
- Wood or fabric label materials with a texture
- Sleek finishes e. g. foiling, embossing, or UV coatings to enhance shelf appeal
- Cut-out windows on the boxes to illustrate the bottles
- Additional inserts such as a recipe card or a guide
- Flexible packaging to make it portable in the bag-in-box type.
The choices are thus limited only by creativity and/or available funding. Consult your packaging designer or printer and find out if there are ways on how to make your packaging more appealing to the eye without compromising the company’s theme.
Individual Packaging Proclaims Brand Identity
While gaining attention, liquor packaging should also convey the message of what your brand is all about. Indeed, the shape and the material, graphics and even the opening mechanism of boxes and bottles can convey messages about quality, origin, values and personality of the product.
For instance, a curvilinear bottle that is made of light blue glass gives a different brand message than a flint glass with angular designs in a deeper hue of red. A brown kraft box that is tied with a piece of twine has a more sophisticated and organic feel to it. On the other hand, flashy foil application and a thick bottletop may point to the fact that a product is ultra-premium.
If you are designing completely unique liquor packaging, then it is worthwhile thinking about characteristics that consumers would like to connect with your brand. Subsequently, transform those theoretical concepts into functional packaging components that convey the intended image from the grocery store shelf to the dining table.
Consumers Respond Well to Sustainability Solutions
The current generation of customers enjoys the concept of associating with brands that embrace the environment and social issues. Very little can be done regarding packaging and its influence on people’s attitudes toward sustainability.
Craft distilleries can reinforce their small-batch authenticity through packaging that feels “green”:Craft distilleries can reinforce their small-batch authenticity through packaging that feels “green”:
- Locally sourced, recycled, FSC certified or biodegradable products
- Returnable/reusable packaging
- Specific labeling concerning sustainability activities
- Endorsement of environmentally-conscious initiatives on the boxes/bottles
Heritage brands should then make sure they pay homage to its heritage and craftsmanship in their packaging but without the use of any virgin material that negates sustainability efforts.
Purpose-driven branding through packaging is effective when there is commitment to the cause. Ensure that you have a clear sustainability strategy and that your packaging embodies those values.
Strategies to Enhance Packaging to Support Omnichannel Retailing
Pandemic enhanced the process of buying liquor online. In the current world, packaging is considered the first encounter that a shopper has with many brands. In web shelves, designs must be able to grab consumers’ attention as easily as in the physical store shelves.
Ecommerce also has those pragmatic considerations such as the necessity of protective shipping cartons. Optimizing liquor packaging requires considering new use cases:Optimizing liquor packaging requires considering new use cases:
- Photography incredibly well in all directions
- Share important brand attributes visibly
- Resist repeated handling and transport
- Permit optimization of packing or stacking to the vehicles used in shipping.
- Place required warnings like, safe handling, etc. in a conspicuous manner.
Packaging is an especially important for brands that operate across both physical stores and online channels. Consult with designers and fulfillment specialists to achieve the best combination of style, usability and company representation.
Launch New Packaging to Market Gradually
For major liquor brands, product changes, particularly packaging, involve a number of challenges such as stock status, production capabilities and limitations, distribution partnerships and the change-over timeline.
When planning a packaging redesign:When planning a packaging redesign:
- Time rollouts to reduce write offs from existing stock
- Evaluate how changes affect the bottling or production line News Flash!
- Ensure that distributors receive sell sheets and samples before the agreed-upon date.
- Formulate a PR plan that would help in gaining as much media attention once launched.
- Plan for two inventories during the transition period but only allow for the actual inventory to be funded.
- The company should prominently relay these changes to minimize confusion with the end consumers.
When major packaging changes are made appropriately, they increase consumer interest in products and brands that have been relaunched. Just as importantly, the rollout process can be viewed as an opportunity to remind the target audience about branding.
Create an Impact through Customized Liquor Packaging Boxes and Bottles
The pressure of the competition means that it is not a luxury for brand owners in the liquor sector to make their products stand out but rather a necessity. Speciality liquor packaging boxes, unique shaped bottles, superior and individualistic branding effectively and efficiently make products easily recognizable and attractive. This is because they fuel feelings that create brand loyalists out of first-time consumers. When firms are not willing to invest on appealing packaging, the chances of being outcompeted by better branded bottles increases exponentially. This is the opportune moment to turn traditional business strategies on their head.