Branded packaging

Amaze Your Customers With Branded Packaging

As man has evolved, so has the art of printing, and packaging. In fact, packaging has been around since early humanity. Early man was nomadic, a hunter-gatherer. Historians believe man’s basic need to store and transport food saw the birth of packaging, using animal skins, gourds, and leaves.

The creation of flexible packaging is credited to China. Historians believe that mulberry bark was used to wrap foods, and with the development of paper-making techniques, paper was soon used for packaging tea, and medicines.

By the Middle Ages, wooden boxes, crates, and barrels were being used for storage and transportation, often across oceans. Jute, wool and linen bags and sacks; baskets woven from reeds and twigs; and clay jars, pots, and pitchers contained everything from tools to tallow.

The Industrial Revolution heralded great technical advancement, but packaging remained expensive, and was usually reserved for storing and transporting luxury goods. In the early 1800s, an English merchant named Peter Durand, received the first patent for the idea of preserving food using tin cans. The patent (No 3372) was granted on August 25, 1810, by King George III. The use of tins increased in popularity over the next 20 years, and were a common household storage item for food and tobacco.

Cardboard boxes were created in 1817, by British Industrialist Sir Malcolm Thornhill. Paper bags were next, in 1844, although they looked more like our modern-day mailing envelopes. The modern carton was developed, by accident, by Brooklyn printer Robert Gair. Cellophane, bubblewrap, PET bottles… as product availability increased, so did the packaging options.

Get inspired with Galloways branded packaging solutions. Learn how we help brands create unique designs that stand out and make an impact.

Pack it up, pack it in

Generally, packaging may be separated into three main types: primary; secondary; and tertiary. Let’s unpack each type!

Primary packaging is also sometimes referred to as sales packaging, or consumption packaging. This form of packaging is in direct contact with the usable, or consumable, product you are selling. Its task is to keep the product in prime condition, from the moment it’s packaged, until it’s removed for use, or consumption. It plays a significant role – sometimes subconscious – in a consumer’s decision to make a purchase,

Primary packaging serves several, important functions. It identifies the product, and its contents. It communicates how to use and store the product (some items require additional, separate, instructions). It details use-by and shelf-life expiry dates.

Primary packaging comes in many forms, to accommodate the many, many products on the market. Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) are often packaged in a tin, a can, a bottle, pouch, bag, or jar. White goods, electronic products, and similar usually come in primary packaging in the form of a cardboard box. Although, packaging pundits might argue that the plastic bag around the item is the primary, and the box is in fact, secondary packaging.

Secondary packaging is the packaging that pulls together all the primary packaged forms into a single group, such as a box, bag, carton or crate (think fruit and vegetables, and bottles). It’s commonly used to make moving products together an economic process. It makes it easier for the products to be stacked and protects the products during transportation.

Secondary packaging needs to keep the contents of the packaging safe and secure, from despatch to delivery.

Tertiary packaging is what secondary products are gathered in, allowing them to be handled and moved at scale. It does for secondary, what secondary does for primary packaging, just bigger. Tertiary packaging has to remain stable, protecting the products, and able to withstand any machinery used to move it. Examples include wooden or plastic pallets, and even shipping containers and other transportation vehicles.

Primary packaging: vital for ensuring the quality of your product, as well as branding
Secondary packaging: adds protection during last-mile transit
Tertiary packaging: helps leverage economies of scale and keep costs down

No names, no pack drill

Your packaging explains a lot about your business priorities, values, and what you think of your product. These messages don’t have to be communicated on all forms of packaging you use, but there must be visual consistency and coherency between them all. And that requires branded packaging.

What is the receiving point of your product? What is the point of sale? It may be a shelf in a shop, a bespoke end-cap or gondola display, or even directly into the hands of your customer.

In retail, primary and secondary packaging has to perform. It needs to capture the attention of customers, better than its competitors. It needs to communicate.

Your packaging implies a lot about your priorities too. Perception is real, even when it’s not reality. Plastic packaging may be a cheap option, but it can be a turn-off for consumers. Environmental awareness and positive action, not greenwashing, is an effective strategy to gain trust, sustain loyalty, and increase your customer base. The UK’s Plastic Packaging Tax rate increased on 1 April 2023. It’s more important than ever that packaging is reduced, reused, and recycled, and we make a concerted effort to use paper packaging.

So, what are the packaging solutions out there? Brace yourself, because the possibilities, and combinations, are plentiful.

Box Clever

When we say boxes, we mean boxes. Shipping boxes, mailing boxes, eco-boxes, wine boxes, sleeved boxes, gift boxes, delivery boxes. They don’t have to be just, well, box shaped either. Tubes, triangles, circles, ovals, spheres: fold-out, cut-out: when it comes to custom branded boxes, think outside the box!

It’s in the Bag

Paper bags, retail bags, mailing bags; shopping bags, pouches and doypacks. Draw-string, cotton or jute, bags are an excellent marketing tool. It’s not just bags either: envelopes, polymailers, and Kraft mailers, are all customisable. Let your customers advertise your business for you with a branded bag.

Tags Team

It’s the little things that matter, and that’s why the trimmings are important. Whether you’re using ribbons, tags or labels, Kraft tape, giftcards or stickers, even the packaging accessories you use can be branded, and beautiful.

A Great Lay[ering]

We’ve already mentioned the importance packaging plays in product protection. Take your product security to another level, with layering materials. Packing paper, paper bubble wrap, honeycomb wrap, wrapping paper, and tissue paper, our layering materials maintain the integrity of your product, from production to consumer. Personalised packaging undeniably lends a layer of luxury.

Leaders of the Pack

When it comes to bespoke packaging solutions, Galloways really are at the cutting edge of print technology. Quite literally, with die cutting and lamination services in-house. We’re not just print specialists, we’re print packaging specialists too. And with all these packaging services under one roof, we’re beating the very long lead times typically required for custom print packaging.

 

Show and Telly

If you need short run packaging printing services, look no further than Galloways. We can help with all your mock-up and make-up needs in-house, producing beautiful bespoke short run printed packaging in house and at great value.

We’ve been producing fantastic print work from our Manchester base since 1870, around the same time that the first lithographic press was created. Litho printing provides excellent value for high volume quantities and high-end finishes. The lithographic process can be used to print on paper, cardboard but it’s also suitable for creative papers such as GF Smith, and a range of unusual surfaces, including wood, metal and plastic.

Multifunctional,  reusable, or just beautiful, our branded packaging solutions will help your brand make an impact in its market. Call us today, on 01625 870000, and pull away from the rest of the pack.