Social media has seen an incredible boom in usage over the last few years, (NO KIDDING!) with social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter dominating a substantial portion of our everyday online communications.

It’s not so much that practically everyone from all walks of life is on some kind of social media platform, but more about the depth of social media’s integration into our lives, reaching a level never seen before. And it will only continue to influence our lives more each day. Social media interactions have now become so intrinsically a part of day-to-day life, that it now seems completely normal and even essential to our lives.

In the context of marketing, many believe the rise of social media has effectively displaced many traditional marketing tactics. While there’s certainly some truth to this belief, traditional marketing and social media marketing (SMM) need not be mutually exclusive, not when there are many ways to make them feed off another.

Take for example, custom packaging materials, which offer several opportunities for bridging the gap between your offline and online marketing campaigns. Below are a few ideas to play around with.

1.      #Hashtag Your Package

One of your many new tools is the hashtag. Most notably used by Twitter for identifying and cataloguing tweets on specific topics, plenty other social media platforms followed suit, and have adopted the criss-cross symbol for similar purposes.

Coca Cola’s use of the hashtag is perhaps one of the most memorable of them all, what with the #ShareACoke hashtag quickly becoming a top trend worldwide – proving the #success of the social media gimmick.

Place a considerably-sized hashtag related to your product or brand on the face of your packaging. Make it creative, hip, and post-worthy (something we’ll get more into later). This will, most importantly, encourage your customers to post about your product online, raising awareness for it, and encouraging others to join in.

Be sure to make your brand’s social media page the most prevalent user of the hashtag, and these will practically indirectly “link” to your page.

2.      Place a QR Code

The QR code is a type of matrix barcode that can contain any type of electronic message, be it a URL, plain text, direct link, virtual purchase, and so on. These can come in the basic 1:1 form, or even stylized to taste as Snapchat and Messenger have done.

Having a QR code on your product package can serve a whole multitude of purposes. The simplest and most apparent among these is linking to your brand page (be it on social media or a standalone website). Most people are too lazy to type a whole URL to access a page and even if they aren’t, a QR code is just so much simpler and more inviting. You could also use a QR code for a referral system, banking on the symbol and its current users to extend your reach.

3.      Link to Your Product Pages

Specifically, your Facebook page. Using a direct URL may still be more advisable than a QR code given that not everyone knows how to scan one – or even what it is. Place links to your brand’s social media pages on your product packaging for quick reference – both for your customer and people they may want to share with.

4.      Make it Post-worthy

Social media is good for… well… socializing. That means people sharing with people – a vast resource with an even more vast potential for putting your brand out there. If you’ve ever witnessed anything go viral, you’d know that the now-popular material only became so because of its appeal to social media users.

Additionally, no matter how good something tastes, sounds, smells or feels to the touch – if it doesn’t look good, it’s just not going online.

Give your product packaging an appealing, striking, or witty design. Make your customers want to post about it and show it to their friends. Make them want to endorse your products for you, and you’ll make an advertising agent out of everyone who buys your product. This tactic, I might add, can only be made possible by custom product packaging.

5.      Personalized Packaging

One way to make your product package post-worthy is to offer personalization options. If there’s anything that Coke has taught us, it’s that people love posting about themselves. The sheer success of the #ShareACoke campaign proves that personalized packaging has a permanent place in strategy. Offer to personalize your product package – as in a custom shopping bag, or what not – with a name or statement, and expect your brand’s social media presence to soar.

6.      Collect Them All

Another tactic to get your product package on social media feeds is to gamify it—a.k.a make it collectible. You can do this by offering packaging in a variety of designs that click together. Using a bunch of identical shopping bags distinguished only by colour scheme could work.

7.      Vox Populi

An extension of previous tactics would be calling for a vote, with each of your product packages serving as a “ballot” of sorts. This tactic has proven to be extremely lucrative, with AKB48 – a 100-member Japanese girl group – employing a voting system through their physical records that lead to a revenue of US$226 million from Japan sales alone.

To do this, create a set of options for a customer to choose among, letting specific product packages represent the option they’ll be voting for. Every purchase of that particular package would be equivalent to one vote. Customers may be proud of their vote, or may want to call on others to cast their votes as well, leading them to post about your product package, the product itself, and your brand online. Employing previous tactics, you should associate each vote option with a hashtag.

Bank on the division and social groups that will necessarily form from the “election” by creating sub-communities that may want to discuss and express amongst themselves. You could create separate social media pages catering specifically to a voter group that links back to the original brand page.

What’s great is that none of these tactics have to be used in isolation. In fact, used together, they can form a formidable marketing strategy to boost your brand to all-new heights. If anything, just be sure to employ the single greatest take-away from this list – make it post-worthy.

Contact Smartbag today to discuss this article or your retail or wholesale bag needs.  1300 874 559

Trends come and go—that’s a fact.

And when it comes to product packaging and branding, some trends tend to stick around. As we’re now in the middle of 2019, now’s as good a time as any to look at the trends expected to make waves in the world of product packaging.

1. Sustainable packaging

Being more environment-friendly is on everyone’s to-do list—businesses included. So, it was only really a matter of time until retailers thought of ways to make their product packaging greener. We’ve already seen retailers transition to sustainable packaging last year, and we expect it to become a more prevalent practice in 2018, with companies using recyclable materials to reduce their carbon footprint and minimize the amount of plastic that makes it to the world’s landfills and water systems

• Minimalist Designs

Say goodbye to cluttered graphic designs in product packaging. This is the year for minimalists—a trend that also extends to product packaging. We live in a fast-paced world where people can’t be bothered to read unnecessary product information. And so, you can expect to see brands simplify their packaging, conveying the most important information in a way that’s quick and easy for customers to understand.

• Large Text

The transition to minimalist graphic design in product packaging will be accompanied by larger and bolder fonts. Again, the goal is the same: to save space and convey the message in a quick and concise manner. The attention span of the average consumer, combined with an increasing aversion to advertising, means that excessive product information will only turn your customers off. The fewer words you use to send a message, the better. And that often requires doing it with large, eye-catching text.

• Experimental Designs

Over the last few months, we’ve seen more and more companies play around with unusual product packaging, especially in the food industry. This is the year to embrace experimental and revolutionary product packaging designs.

We’re not saying that you should be unusual just for the sake of unusual. After all, if you’re going to experiment with your product packaging, whatever design you come up with should still make sense and not confuse the consumer.

• Feminine Aesthetic

Finally, expect a more feminine aesthetic to dominate product shelves in supermarkets and department stores. Alongside the minimalist designs that are expected to trend in the retail sector in 2018, soft edges and cool colours that are usually associated with women are going to make their presence felt.

Remember, product packaging is the last advertisement your customers will see before they make a final purchase decision. So, make your product packaging count. To learn more about packaging updates and insights, be sure to follow this blog. If you would like to learn more about our packaging solutions, get in touch with the Smartbag team by calling us at 1300 874 559.