Our first instalment of the Packaging Psychology series was about colour. About standing out, making a tailored and targeted impact, and choosing your hues with careful precision. This time around, we’re going to dive a little deeper into the world of brand identity and its influence on your packaging and labelling.
Let’s explore why brand identity matters. Why it’s worth defining clearly and effectively.
Then, let’s examine how we can reflect your company’s identity and branding—whatever the specifics—in your product labels…
What is ‘Brand Identity’?
Your ‘brand identity’ encompasses the visual elements of your business. Your logos, website design, packaging design, typography and colour palette are all a part of this identity—it’s everything the customer sees. Everything that will (or won’t) set your brand apart in their eyes.
When you’re defining this identity, you need to consider:
- The story and personality of your brand
- The communication style you’d like to put across
- The values and goals you’d like to prioritise
- The inverse of these (the things you don’t want to say, the stories you don’t want to tell)
It’s true what they say: You only get one chance at a first impression.
Without conducting market research, competitor analysis and general branding ideation, that first impression could be saying something entirely different from what you intend it to.
Once you have guidelines in place to work from, you’ll have a far easier time creating brand-aligned imagery.
And, of course, brand-aligned packaging…
Planning Your Packaging: 6 Crucial Branding Questions to Ask
- Does this align with customer expectations of the product? – Is this piece of packaging going to match up with what your target audience wants and what they anticipate seeing from your products? If it’s a label introducing a new variety of something, for instance, ensure it positions itself appropriately in the context of existing products for sale.
- Does this align with customer expectations of our brand? – Similar to the above, is this packaging aligned with what your audience recognises as your brand/appreciates from your brand? Does it offer more of a good thing, or is it a departure from expectation that won’t necessarily be welcomed?
- Does this communicate our ethos and brand voice? – Is there anything in how the packaging is designed, presented or worded that could contradict or run counter to established facets of brand identity? Maintain constant awareness of/respect for your business’s established core values and beliefs.
- Is this setting us apart from similar businesses/products? – Is this new? Even if the product itself has been done before to some level, the way it’s packaged and presented has enormous sway over how your market receives it. Have you considered this? Are you attentive to the efforts of your competitors and competitor products?
- Is this produced in a manner that chimes with our values? – As an extension of question three, are your business’s core values respected in how the packaging is being produced? If your brand identity prioritises environmental consciousness, for instance, you’ll want to ensure you’re using sustainable self-adhesive labels over a possible cheaper alternative.
- Will this serve its function and satisfy our customers? – If your brand identity places emphasis on your products’ reliability and trustworthiness, as is often the case, this is particularly important. (Though it always matters in the end.) Durability and utility must be ensured to maintain consumer trust and meet established expectations.
Support from Design to Production
The label production process contains many phases, and we’re proud to support our customers through each of these as required.
If you’re interested in benefiting from our label design services and deciding on a brand-aligned option together, get in touch with the Kingfisher team.
If you already have a design in mind and simply want to ensure that your labels are of the highest possible quality and functionality, get in touch with the Kingfisher team.
Whatever your needs, we’d love to have a conversation.