Experiential marketing is about making your consumers feel truly immersed in the experience of your product. An often-overlooked opportunity for experiential marketing is packaging.
Packaging provides companies with the opportunity to make their product even more interactive. By utilizing interactive elements in the opening experience and aesthetic of the packaging, you create a whole new realm of experiential opportunity. Let’s discuss how you can create an experience through packaging alone.
Define Your Experience Goals
Even before designing your packaging, you need to define the exact experience you hope to achieve with your packaging. The goal should clearly define the intended emotional experience you want consumers to have with your product’s packaging.
Whether you’re looking for excitement, surprise or anticipation, it’s important to have this defined from the beginning.
Start with the Opening Experience
Even before consumers can experience your product, they encounter your packaging. The opening experience alone can create a one-of-a-kind experience. Consider incorporating a unique opening experience for your product through innovative structural designs. The locking mechanism or type of structure itself can add to the experience that you want consumers to have.
Focus on Multi-sensory Experiences
There’s no better way to create a memorable experience than with the five senses. A huge trend in experiential marketing is incorporating every sense from touch to smell into packaging. This boosts the chances of a potential customer remembering and recognizing your brand.
For example, brands can design packaging utilizing specialty coatings to create a unique touch or feel for a distinctive tactile experience. Other techniques like embossing and foils can also create textures and visual effects that engage all the senses.
Design with Real-life Elements in Mind
Whether you’re designing packaging for a beach collection or a luxury collection, it’s important to be selective about design elements.
Looking to create an experiential packaging for an upcoming vacation fragrance collection? Think linen textures, palm trees and bright and airy colors. If you’re launch party is all about the tropics, make sure your packaging fits right into the event!
Looking to impress with a luxury design? Try leather-like textures or soft-touch coatings that mimic the feel of luxurious velvet. Incorporating elements that complement real-life experiences into your design will support overall branding and marketing efforts.
Think Multi-functional
By designing packaging to be multi-functional, you’ll not only create a memorable product, but your packaging will have an extended life. Packaging can be designed with gift-giving in mind to improve its allure and functionality.
Get creative with your design process and find a functional packaging design that suits your target audience perfectly.
Overall, experiential marketing is what will take your marketing efforts to the next level. By connecting with your target consumers and creating experiences, your customers will feel more connected to your brand than ever before.
