Packaging Branding: How Does it Increase Trust and Credibility?

Packaging branding has long been influential over the buying decisions of consumers. Over half (52%) are reported to have changed the brands they buy from due to new packaging designs, with 72% saying their purchasing decisions have been influenced by the design of a product’s packaging.

Though these stats refer to end-consumers, we can apply them to the buying habits of wholesalers and retailers involved in product supply chains. At the end of the day, it’s a person choosing whether to place your brand (or another’s) products on a retailer’s shelves or ecommerce site!

So, what exactly is it about packaging branding that makes a person veer to a product, and what do you need to know to ensure this gravitation is towards your brand?

Simple Branding, Complex Reasoning

From a practical perspective, protective yet cost-effective packaging designs are core to a product’s reputation and overall commercial success. From a sales perspective, eye-catching packaging that sparks a relationship between the customer or end-consumer and the brand is core to bringing in new custom – and keeping current ones returning.

Though slapping your brand’s logo, tagline, or social handles onto the outer of a box seems like an obvious awareness-boosting move, its influence is far more complex. Branded and bespoke packaging tightly aligns with the psychology of buying behaviours, and why customers are likely to trust your brand more than others.

How Influential is Packaging Branding?

1. What differentiates similar products of similar standards on a physical shop shelf or online store?
2. How can the way in which a product is packaged justify a higher price than the competing one next to it?
3. What associations are made along the supply chain when moving goods that have been boxed and branded up?
4. What is it about packaging branding that influences the public to make an impulse purchase?
5. How does packaging design keep retailers and wholesalers returning for more?

All five questions can be linked back to one thing: the strength and familiarity of your brand. Whether it’s a business forming part of your product’s operational chain or a consumer browsing the shelves for your type of product, people tend to be drawn towards brands they already know. And if that knowledge is off the back of a positive personal experience or the result of a recommendation, then you’re already a step closer to strengthening that all-important trust.

But both branded and bespoke packaging stretches further than what we see – they represent your business’s values, too. From wherever your brand’s logo is recognised across logistical operations to the addition of your business’s sustainability mission on your products’ boxes, there’s so much more to branding’s influence over customer perception than meets the eye.

Branded Packaging: The Psychology

Thought-provoking, right? The psychology of packaging is a fascinating area of study, and incredibly advantageous for brands looking to increase sentiments of trust and credibility.

It’s also a vast field of research, far too much to cover in a single blog! So, we’ve gathered three key pieces of insight you can start to consider today to make tomorrow’s packaging more influential.

3 Packaging Psychology Insights You Need to Know

1. Materials consideration

63% of people said paper and cardboard packaging make products appear to be high-quality and premium! And that’s not only the material of your outer package – paper and cardboard can be used to create bespoke fitments that hold any delicate or fiddly items in place within the box, too.

2. Colour control

From the typography printed directly onto the package to the eco-tape stamped with your brand’s slogan and used to seal it, we’re subconsciously associating colours with feelings and emotions all the time.

For instance, what colour comes to mind when you see the word ‘serenity’? We’d say pastel colours, those baby blues and dusty pinks that evoke a sense of calm. They’re often the ones you’ll see front-and-centre of the boxed products in the ‘luxury bathing’ aisles at Boots!

On the other hand, what colours do you picture when you read the phrase ‘cutting-edge’? We bet bold, loud colours (like your reds and blacks) and/or textured, metallic colours (like silvers and golds), spring to mind. Keep your eye out next time you’re shopping for the latest electronics gadget in Currys!

3. Size

Did you know people tend to associate larger packages with better value? Whilst we might be attuned to seeing a bigger box and thinking it’s the better deal (than the smaller one with the ‘same’ product next to it), this psychological trait is one we’re intrigued to see play out.

Retailers, wholesalers, transport and logistics providers, and the end-consumer are all becoming more involved with the move towards more sustainable packaging. Excessive waste, one-size-fits-all designs, and unnecessary fitments are out (elements that are likely to be found within boxes that are insensibly large for the products inside), and practical, minimalist packaging is in.

Whilst we may initially think bigger means better, we’re now more inclined to pause and actively think about it. Watch this space as this psychological trait evolves with changing consumer values and behaviours!

Boost Trust with Branded Packaging

There you have it – the influence of branded packaging isn’t to be underestimated, it’s to be harnessed! Some of the simplest tweaks to what customers see and feel can have some of the biggest impacts. And we’re here for it!

Boost trust and credibility in your brand with bespoke packaging that resonates with your target audience. Get in touch with our team to get started.