Consumers want to feel a connection to the brands they buy and the organizations they support. So, knowing that we gravitate towards those products and brands that resonate with us, think about using product personalization to create a feel-good bond with your brand.
Product personalization is on-trend. Why? Personalization is an effective way to improve the customer experience and drive brand loyalty. It’s become routine to receive personalized emails, website interactions, and digital ads—but personalization or versioning is also effective in print and packaging.
Here’s an example. It used to be that in the supermarket aisle, you saw the same branding on all Ritz cracker boxes. Today, you might see special-edition boxes that celebrate seasonal holidays or commemorate sporting events like the Super Bowl. While this is a big-brand example, you can create similar versioning on a smaller scale, thanks to digital printing.
Digital printing has changed product packaging rules. The evolution of digital print technology is moving us further away from one-size-fits-all product packaging and labeling. And it’s created a more personalized and intimate connection with the brands that we know and love.
By developing multiple versions of package and label designs, we can leverage the marketing power of packaging. Taking what used to be primary product branding, we can make it a more personal and impactful experience for customers and prospects.
What’s the best way to approach product personalization? Create a personalization strategy that identifies segments of customers with distinct preferences or needs. Next, create targeted experiences for them using custom versioning on labeling or packaging. The key is to protect your brand integrity. Knowing that consistent presentation of a brand has increased revenue by 33 percent (Lucidpress, 2019)—keep your core branding consistent while adding a personalized element or messaging.
Why should you personalize your product label or packaging?
It calls attention to what you want your customer to know.
It amplifies product benefits.
Adding benefits (think “heart healthy”) to original brand labels emphasizes your message to customers who want to make healthy food choices.
It creates product + brand differentiation.
Call out a statistic (over 1K 5-star reviews!) or highlight a product feature that makes you stand out above your competitors.
It allows message segmentation.
One CBD product might offer various health benefits such as improved sleep, anti-anxiety, and relaxation. Creating multiple versions of the product’s labels—each that emphasize only one of these benefits—allows you to segment your message and test which one drives sales.
It promotes seasonal or promotional purchases.
Starbucks’ annual holiday cups are a great example of specialty print design done right. The seasonal cups have their own social media hashtag.
I think we’ll continue to see more and more basic operational print cross over to personalized marketing print because it’s effective—and now, the cost is within reach for so many companies. Using efficient digital print technology is an intelligent solution for quickly creating more personal product connections without burning up the budget.
If you’re interested in seeing some of the personalized product labeling and packaging designs we’ve done for our clients, reach out at bdegarmo@shamrockcompanies.net.
