How to Make Your Marketing More Experiential Through Unique Packaging

Nothing has upended or forced businesses to redefine their respective supply chains and operations more than COVID-19. Since the pandemic began early last year, companies were shuttered left and right while a significant number of employees were either furloughed or laid off and left unemployed. After a year of dealing with the coronavirus, people are growing restless and are looking for positive experiences that can keep their lives brighter despite all the social distancing, lockdowns, and fear.

Staying positive through experiential marketing

This 2021, business owners who run small to medium enterprises are shunning the ‘business as usual’ label and exploring new ideas to make their brand stand out in the market. For manufacturers, in particular, doing some experiential marketing proves to make significant changes in terms of profits, engagement, and loyalty.

In a nutshell, experiential marketing is a campaign strategy that used to be associated exclusively with live events. However, bringing positive experiences to your customers has expanded into tactics that range from unique product packaging to addressing customer pain points to create an impact. The main objective of experiential marketing is simply inspiring your customers in a way that they can be your brand’s walking ambassadors and spread positive word-of-mouth with their friends both on and offline.  

Experiential marketing in product packaging

Most micro-small-medium enterprises (MSMEs) today are adapting to a vertical model which means that they do away with most supply chains and push their products directly to a specific niche. These days, food producers are offering their goods via a home-to-home approach to keep their costs down and tap markets that are closer to them via social media marketing. 

Of course, they’ll still need to reach out to other businesses to do their deliveries and packaging to create higher quality in their services and products. These third-party partners are where experiential marketing campaigns can give businesses a big push.

Let’s take product packaging as an example. 

Most business owners focus on digital marketing to boost their online engagement via their websites or blogs and that’s fine. Your landing pages serve as important points of contact with your customers so they can learn more about your brand and the products you offer. Offline though, your product packaging is how you make yourself stand out as they serve as part of the product you are offering and the physical expression of your brand.

Remember those ‘unboxing videos' on YouTube? Ever noticed how premium items come in unique boxes that excite a lot of viewers that they don’t even skip to the part when the boxes are already set aside? That’s because unboxing a product is part of the experience. Every curve and compartment within a unique product box can awe your customers and the good thing nowadays is that you can customize your product packaging even in small orders with the right partner.    

How to make your product packaging a positive experience

Since every bit of your unique packaging will be based on your design, the best way you can achieve a successful experiential marketing campaign is by enjoying the design experience yourself. There are a few questions though– do you know who your customers are, how they behave when reviewing products online, or what their pain points are? If not, it would be best if you review the comments section on your brand’s social media page first to get to know them better before you plan on doing some experiential marketing.

For one, a lot of consumers today prefer green brands that go for recyclable raw materials while some are tickled by well-designed trendy boxes they can keep as they don't belong to the wastebasket. 

Be intuitive in what your customers would want to receive but make sure you still surprise them. Apple boxes are simple. So simple that their pristine white boxes with perfect-fitting compartments for packages are so satisfying to unbox. You can even repurpose them into lots of things like storage space for your business cards, jewelry, or coins.

How customizing your boxes makes you stand out

Many companies all over the world have already taken this unique product packaging approach and continue to enjoy higher ROI despite the pandemic. German apparel brand Görtz uses shoelaces for their shoebox handles to create appealing designs that most shoppers couldn’t say no to. U.S. baked goods brand Thelma’s Treats takes the catchphrase ‘straight from the oven’ literally by customizing their food boxes into cute little ovens that give off that warm and inviting feel.

But there’s a huge challenge at the homefront as MSMEs are having difficulties in finding the right partners to help them do their experiential marketing campaigns through customized food boxes. Fortunately for NCR businesses, one company is keen enough to address this marketing opportunity that they came up with logistical solutions to accept even smaller orders. 

Ezee Prints prides itself as the preferred printing partner of MSMEs in Metro Manila. But the company’s services don't end when the ink strikes the paper as it also offers custom-designed and standard boxes for their clients’ packaging needs. With over 24 years of experience in packaging, printing, and marketing, Ezee Prints is indeed one of those manufacturing entities that know how experiential marketing works by heart.

The Ezee Experience

What MSMEs get from Ezee Prints is a partnership they really couldn’t get from any other business. Imagine being a solopreneur who doesn’t know a thing or two about how to market your product offline. Sure, you can go to social media and tempt your friends and family with those sumptuous food delights but no matter how mouthwatering they may be in images, delivering them in a lousy, planet-unfriendly styrofoam box can greatly reduce its appeal. 

What this manufacturing and printing company offers MSMEs is the leverage to compete with bigger brands that can produce custom-printed brand boxes by the bulk. Through partnerships, Ezee Prints allow businesses to place minimal and rush orders on both standard and customized boxes and still deliver quality packaging made from eco-friendly raw materials. 

From custom lock boxes to work and study pods that are perfect for those ‘work from home’ hours to personalized stickers and labels that can introduce your brand to a new customer, Ezee Prints products can give your products premium elements that can make your customers smile. And all props to you as your ideas and designs are carefully reviewed by the company’s box specialists to produce exactly what you have in mind. In other words, your product packaging becomes an extension of your brand.

However you wish to design your unique boxes, keep in mind how your customers will react to them. One smile is enough to cause a ripple effect on social media where they can share your box ideas and get you better brand awareness. For your customers who choose to repurpose your boxes, remember that your brand will always be there as long as they aren’t thrown away.  Either way, unique boxes can always give your business a huge plus!