Going from cartonbored to adored!

We love cartonboard!

That’s why it kills us to see so many brands wasting its amazing potential, filling shelves with bland boxes. And that’s… you know, fine. Good enough. Ok.

But it’s not going to get your customer’s pulse racing, is it?

Cartonboard packaging has so much more to offer when it’s allowed to. Now, you might be wondering just how a few layers of wood pulp pressed into a sheet of cartonboard can get anyone excited. If you are, that’s probably because you haven’t worked with New Vision Packaging before!

Let us explain where we’re coming from on this.

Cartonboard has the power to make your product more than the sum of its parts. It is an integral part of the experience of consuming your product. Even if you’re an everyday brand, you still want the consumer to feel fulfilled and satisfied when they tear open the packaging and get a glimpse of its contents.

This is true no matter what industry you are in, whether it’s beauty, food, or high-end electronics – the product means little, but how it makes your customers feel means everything. Quality cartonboard packaging is a key part of making your customers feel something when they think of your brand or product. In fact, the memory of great packaging lives on long after the product is defunct. If you were lucky enough to own a first-generation iPod back in 2001, you might have vivid memories of cracking open its cube-shaped box and peeling away the layers of snugly packed accessory envelopes until you revealed the sleek white treasure within. Complete with a whopping 5GB storage, no less!

You don’t need to have the marketing budget of Apple to make this experience that memorable, either. Just spend some time thinking about how your packaging can occupy all the senses as it’s opened up. The vivid colours that bring your brand to life, the contrasting texture of tactile varnishes and embossed foil details, the rustle and rattle of the products within… and, of course, that satisfying new product smell when you finally tear open the pack.

The best part about all this is, as a brand, you can choose to engineer your packaging design to get the response you want. You’re in control! It takes a lot of attention to detail, some outside-the-box thinking, and a lot of experience to know how to pull it off. But, if you get it right, you can hold your customer’s feelings in the palm of your hand like a rockstar performing for an adoring audience.

That kind of reaction doesn’t just happen. To get that carton-adoring response, you need to think about every step of a customer’s purchasing journey, which often starts when they first set their eyes on your packaging. Do you want a unique silhouette that stands out as they scan the shelves? Do you want embossing and debossing features, or a few visually striking apertures to create depth? Usually, you’ll want to reveal the product through a window, but do you want to create a sense of mystery by hiding it away? How about foil? Everyone loves an eye-catching shiny thing, after all.

The reason we’ve put all of that in the form of a series of questions is that a lot of it depends on your brand identity. If you have a luxury fashion brand like Ted Baker, who we worked with on the packaging for its EST 88 fragrance, elegant simplicity is the order of the day. We used a printed pale pink carton, colour matched inside and out for a premium opening experience (more on this later). This carton was finished with embossed rose gold lettering and a delicate aperture, holding a fluted, foiled rose gold panel. This gave it depth while still maintaining an overall minimalist look for an eye-catching impact.

It looks so simple, but the thought that went into its design was anything but! And that kind of effortlessly elegant cool minimalism doesn’t necessarily work for every brand. If you have a mismatch between your brand identity and the first impression your packaging gives off, you’ll leave your consumer confused, and they will simply pass you buy. That’s a potentially loyal, lifetime repeat customer lost because your packaging wasn’t on point, and your competitor’s was.

Your brand identity might be brash and disruptive, it could be techy, cute, flirty, fun… you know your brand better than anyone. It is important to work with a packaging partner who really gets you, who can quickly pick up what you’re putting down and can express that identity through all the many details of your packaging.

And when we say “all the many details,” that includes details on the inside of the box. The exterior is what you use to get new customers, but what’s inside is how you keep them coming back.

Cartonboard gives you the freedom and flexibility to create an unforgettable opening experience. One that will flood your customer’s brain with feel-good endorphins and a rush of fulfilment before they’ve even got to your product. So why not take advantage of it? In today’s world, the consumer is bombarded with an endless stream of digital and physical messaging. It’s a lot for any brand to compete with. But showing the consumer you value them enough to craft a pack that’s frustration-free and designed to be delightful is one message that is sure to get through.

We mentioned both sides printing, which can be used to create cohesion between the inside and outside of the carton for a high-end feel. This technique can also be used to print messages inside the carton. It’s a little touch that many packaging companies overlook – but not us. That’s because the possibilities it throws up are endless.

Easy opening guides for complex, multi-part packaging solutions? Sure. Hashtags and social handles to get social media buzzing? Go for it. How about some brand messages, just to really drive home whatever point you want to make? Feel free – the customer literally can’t miss it.

Cartonboard also offers incredible flexibility when it comes to structure, too. You can create sturdy clamshells and panels to hold products tightly, podiums to turn each carton into an exquisite display case or use an intricate series of folds – as we did for our Mr Filbert’s packs – to build the customer’s anticipation as they slowly unfurl their purchase, bit by bit.

And this is just scratching the surface of what is possible. As with everything when it comes to cartonboard, it’s only limited by your imagination. Or, when you partner with New Vision Packaging, it’s only limited by our imagination. And we can imagine quite a bit!

We are passionate about packaging. We think outside the box about everything that goes in the box – every Pantone colour, every fold, every exquisite detail. And we supply it all – if you need an rPET vac formed tray (great for holding heavier items like bottles), a ribbon, a swing ticket to augment your carton, or anything else, we can provide it.

And that’s why cartonboard is worth getting passionate about – it can be anything you want it to be, in whatever form, and whichever colour you need, all with the luxurious details you can imagine.

And if, after reading all that, cartonboard is still just a box to you… it’s time to give us a call.