A design to call your own: the importance of customized packages

You know when you find a product that seems made just for you? Admit it: it feels great, right? To brands, that’s also positive: after all, the odds of creating a strong connection with the customer and generating loyalty increase.

Of course, it’s still unfeasible for companies to invest in customization to produce each item in the market individually. But still, it’s not impossible to offer packages like that to people and, in that regard, design has a fundamental role.

Want to know more about why customization is one of the main trends in package design? Read on!

What are we calling customization?

To customize is to deliver content or functionality in accordance with the preferences, needs and characteristics of a person or a specific group. In the case of packaging, customization can be applied in different ways: from a design that generates recognition from a segment of consumers to one that is totally exclusive and made in line with a customer’s interests.

An interesting example of customized package – and which also has everything to do with defending causes – comes from Skol. The brand launched a special edition of their cans in five different colors, as a way of celebrating diversity and the beauty of all skin tones. The strategy made clear that a change in design can be very effective in generating even more identification with a product.

For me only, please!

One of the great advantages of customization is that it meets a big need of people: to be noticed and appreciated. In several situations, customers show that the feeling of exclusiveness is more interesting than that of massification – even if the product is not in fact “exclusive”.

Certain customized products are considered of “higher value” when compared to the “not customized” ones. An example? The famous Coca-Cola cans and bottles that came with names were a hit and, to this day, people save them in their homes. The main reason is that initiatives such as that one are able to create the feeling of exclusiveness that we mentioned earlier – the feeling that “this product was made for me!”.

Customization strategies like that allow customers to engage in a more intimate way with brands, making the relationship even richer and longer-lasting. Seeing a trait of one’s own identity in a product (like your name or a message in support of your sexual orientation) makes the purchasing experience more special and, therefore, more memorable.

Technology as a tool for customization

With technological advancements, creating a customization strategy can be even easier and more efficient, for two main reasons: the first one is that the new tools allow brands to understand, in a more detailed way, the interests and behaviors of a specific audience at the time of developing a project of this kind. The second is that people are already very used to the online world, which greatly facilitates customized campaigns.

Lacta, for example, allows customers to place a name, a message and an emoji on chocolate packages, to gift someone. All one needs to do is visit the company’s website, enter the information and order the product, which is then shipped.

Coca-Cola has a similar service for customizing packages. In the company’s website it’s possible to buy little soda bottles with messages picked by the customers themselves.

When creating packages to increase the public’s engagement with your brand, investing in a customized design can be a great solution. New technological tools are already being developed to speed up the process of printing packages, which facilitates (a lot) the execution of strategies in that vein. Therefore, if that which is exclusive attracts people’s attentions more, why not offer them that experience?