3 Ways to Maximize Sales with Packaging

 

Packaging serves many purposes, from providing protection to conveying one’s brand and marketing message. Unique and distinctive packaging can be a powerful tool allowing you to differentiate your product, increase sales and create an emotional connection with customers.

Fazio’s Chocolate uses this custom gondola-inspired box to represent the founder’s Italian heritage.

Pique Interest
Creative packaging provides an engaging visual experience that can help to pique shopper interest and make them more likely to purchase the product. Unique packaging can also act as a form of advertising, drawing attention to the product and helping it stand out from the competition.

 

Peterbrooke Chocolatier’s bold brand colors are used with consistency in their packaging, stickers, bags and bows leaving little doubt that customers know they’re in for a treat when they see bright pink and blue packaging.

Brand Recognition
Distinctive packaging can also help to increase brand recognition. Customers are more likely to remember and recognize a product if it has an attention-grabbing packaging design. By utilizing clear and consistent branding, customers will be more likely to recall your product when looking to make a purchase.

Reid Candy & Nut Shop’s strong local ties are evident in their use of imagery that represents the community they've been a part of since 1971. 

Emotional Connection
Finally, packaging can be used to create an emotional connection between customers and the product. By using packaging that evokes a feeling or sentiment, it can help you create an emotional bond with customers, which can lead to increased sales and build customer loyalty.

Looking to level up your packaging? Check out RCI’s Buyer’s Guide for a list of trusted confectionery packaging suppliers. RCI members must login for direct contact information. If you’re not a member of RCI and you would like to request contact information for RCI’s packaging supplier members, contact our office at 417-883-2775.

Crave more? Click here to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business.

Create a Branded Souvenir Chocolate Collection Showcasing Your Community

Showcase your local community by developing a branded souvenir chocolate collection using custom cocoa butter transfer sheets.

Susan Truax with Bruce’s Candy Kitchen teamed up with American Chocolate Designs to create a branded souvenir collection representing their tourist town of Cannon Beach, Oregon. To make the idea a reality, Susan and her team was, first, tasked with identifying four landmarks or events that could be translated into simple line-art designs and applied to chocolate-covered sandwich cookies.

Design mock-up from American Chocolate Designs

"It was easy to settle on the first two designs—Haystack Rock is a very recognizable and popular monolith in Cannon Beach and the cute tufted puffins that inhabit the area seemed like natural fits,” recalled Susan. She ran into a snag when the line drawing of the area's well-known Tillamook Rock Lighthouse didn’t turn out as expected. “Lesson learned, not every idea translates to a good design,” Susan reflected. “I replaced the lighthouse design with a sand castle to represent our Annual Sand Castle Contest, as well as memories made playing on the beach.” The fourth and final design was an outline of the state of Oregon with a heart.

Photo credit: Bruce's Candy Kitchen

In just four easy steps, American Chocolate Designs created their custom transfer sheets which were ready to be applied to chocolate. The finished products are displayed individually in Bruce's candy case as well as part of a four-piece boxed collection. The branded souvenir sandwich cookies have proven to be very popular, but not just with tourists. “The success of these branded products has even led several other businesses in our local community to order their own custom transfer sheets that we now use for their special chocolate pieces,” Susan added.

As in the case of Bruce's Candy Kitchen, custom cocoa butter transfer designs can help create unique and sweet opportunities for your business to highlight what makes your community special for a small financial investment. Your out-of-town customers will love the sweet souvenir of their visit and locals will take pride in sharing gifts that represent what makes your community special. 

Crave more? Click here to subscribe and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business.

3 Expert Packaging Tips to Rule Retail Sales

Want packaging that will help you rule the retail scene?! Keep reading for 3 fresh tips from CEO of Pearl Resourcing, Emily Page, to help your brand capture consumer attention and gain more sales.

Define Your Brand and Stick to it
Higher margins and customer loyalty is about defining your business as different and valuable among the competition through your product and the visual cues in stores and on packaging that help a customer identify you.

It’s important to utilize a brand guide, so every year and season your packaging stays within the visual guidelines. A brand guide will also make your brand recognizable over time and build brand equity. Don’t design in a vacuum on a computer without considering the existing line-up, and don’t design a single product alone. If you do, you may not realize its compromise on your brand image or store aesthetic.

Brand value comes when customers recognize your brand quickly through visuals, so you must be consistent to increase your value. Consistent color pallets in a store are soothing and attractive to the eye, yet contrast attracts attention. It’s a delicate art form, best advised on by a talented brand director to set the tone. Ask your art director to create a brand guide for all packaging design and store merchandising to follow. Then your whole team will be clear how to keep consistent in their independent projects.

Photo credit: Lolli and Pops

Design with In-Store Merchandising in Mind

When selecting packaging, consider how it will all display in store before you buy. People buy gifts for themselves or others to feel special—packaging adds to their “special” experience. Take customers on a journey by curating the in-store display with themed colors and shapes. When consumers are in your store, contrasting colors grab more attention than you realize, so even contrasting colors must be in harmony within a similar color family.

Take the time before you embark on a new design and consider what is working in your store. What items sell out? What do your employees say your customers are always asking for? Design with customer requests in mind. Pick complimentary and contrasting colors to use across your entire product line to create consistency. Display products to create visual variety, with a focus on unique shapes or colors, for giftable items to result in higher perceived value and acceptable price.

Photo credit: Pearl Resourcing

Drive Customers Back to Your Online Community
You want every first-time buyer to not only love your product, but also buy from you again. Make it easy for them to find you by including your website and exact social media handles on your packaging (don’t just use the social media icons, this creates opportunities for spelling errors). Focus on a maximum of two or three social media platforms for customers to engage with you. They can learn more on your website.

Recapturing existing customers is always less expensive than acquiring new ones. Offer a coupon code to first-time buyers to encourage return online orders, allow them to familiarize themselves with your products and memorize their favorites. One sale can easily turn into two with very little investment.

Be sure to curate your e-commerce and social media experiences, so the brand story continues to impact their minds and hearts. You don’t need to post a lot, but it should be professional. The easiest and least expensive way to curate great content is to re-post fan content on social media. Encourage high-quality photo sharing by giving a discount code or free product to fans with the best photos. Or send free samples to influencers with an already clear fan following in your region, in exchange for a set number of high-quality photos you can use to get the best both diversity and social proof.

Understanding the unique elements of the retail shopping experience will help you make better branding decisions when ordering or designing packaging for your products. By utilizing these tips, you can make a difference in how consumers view and engage with your products, allowing you to achieve even better sales.

Crave more? If you like what you read here, look for the "Subscribe now" box on the right to enter your email address and start receiving weekly tips, like this, delivered straight to your email inbox. RCI's blog is just one of the many resources we offer to help candy makers refine their craft and build upon their business and marketing practices. Follow us on Facebook for even more sweet inspiration.

Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business.

About Emily Page: Emily has managed and launched multiple 7-figure product brands in Costco, Williams-Sonoma, Kroger, and Amazon as a Business Growth Consultant and CEO of Pearl Resourcing. She’s bringing you the expertise, resources, and mentors you need so that you can develop products and make them sell in her blog articles and her START TO SOLD YouTube channel and blog.

http://emilyannepage.com

http://pearlresourcing.net   

http://youtube.com/c/starttosold/

Tip # 203:Create Eye-Catching Graphics Without Hiring A Graphic Designer

So, you’ve got a Facebook page. You may even keep pretty active at posting photos, but you don’t have a graphic designer on staff to design interesting and engaging graphics to make your social space really pop. Don’t break the piggy bank to hire a designer just yet!

There are plenty of FREE tools available that allow you to create the very images you’ve been dreaming of, and with no graphic design degree required. All you need to get started is a stock image or a photo shot from your smart phone and a little creativity. Read on for reviews of three recommended design tools and a graphic for National Lollipop Day - each graphic was created in less than five minutes.

Graphic created using Canva

#1: Canva

This free tool helps non-designers create social media graphics in minutes by adding text, filters and your own color scheme. Their library of over 100 professionally designed layouts for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and more makes it quick and easy to design elaborate graphics in just a few clicks. Upload your own photos or choose from over 1 million stock images (most only $1 each).

In addition to templates for social media graphics, Canva also has design templates for flyers, infographics, photo collages, letterheads, gift certificates, business cards and more.

#2: Adobe Spark

Graphic created using Adobe Spark

Adobe Spark is a free tool for creating beautiful graphics for social media as well as various printed materials. Like Canva, Adobe Spark Post has many professional design themes making design quick and easy, however, it also has a fun, time-saving feature which allows you to use a cursor to preview multiple pre-designed text, design and color themes all at once. Stuck on creating the perfect color scheme? Adobe Spark also offers a feature where you can browse hundreds of suggested color palettes to polish off your look.

What really stands out about Adobe Spark is the ability to animate your graphic from the iPhone or iPad app version, Adobe Spark Post, (Click here  to view a tutorial from Beth Ziesenis of YourNerdyBestFriend.com).

#3: PicMonkey

Graphic created using PicMonkey

If you like to share photos of your products and the day-to-day operations of your business, PicMonkey is a great option for you! Another free option to create attractive social media graphics, its capabilities are more focused on the photos and, currently, doesn't offer design templates. The free version equips you with basic photo editing tools and a large selection of frames, collage templates and other special effects, including fonts and overlays. Or for just $3.33/month annually, you can take advantage of some pretty impressive upgrades, like advanced photo editing tools (say goodbye to unwanted wrinkles or blemishes), over 1,000 graphics, double the effects and filters and premium fonts through PicMonkey Royale.

In summary, each of these tools will save you the cost of hiring another employee or taking up design courses yourself just to create graphics for your social media posts. Depending on your time and skill level, it is recommended that you test each one to determine which best fits your needs. You may even discover that you like to use more than one tool for different purposes. 

Stay connected with RCI through Facebook for more tips and inspiration dedicated to the retail candy maker. Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business.

Tip # 202: 5 Tips for Creating a Memorable Promotional Event

Hosting a promotional event is a great way to develop new customers and increase traffic from existing customers. RCI member, Randy Good of Good’s Candy Shop, instructed attendees at RCI’s Merchandising Essentials course on how to execute a successful promotional experience. Here you will find five tips for building your business through effective promotional events.

Abbott's Candies demonstrates hand tempering for tour guests.

#1: Design an Event Around What You Do Best

For candy makers, this is the perfect opportunity to illustrate the care and attention that goes into your confections through candy-making demonstrations. Open your production facility for tours and allow guests to watch and sample your products.

We recommend complying with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), by requiring guests entering your production space to wear hair/beard nets and closed-toe shoes, to remove jewelry and abide by any other regulations made by Federal and State government. With clear communication of your guidelines, your guests will understand and appreciate the steps you’ve taken to ensure for the quality of your products and for their individual safety – plus, who doesn’t love taking a selfie in a hairnet?!

#2: Create a “Sticky” Event Name

When creating a name for your event, think of names that will “stick” or stand out in peoples’ minds. A memorable event name will help with the promotion of your event by capturing the attention of possible attendees, as well as the local media. If you host the event on an annual basis, this will also increase the chances of attendees to remember the previous events and the great time they had!

Goodstock is just one of many events Good's Candy Shop hosts to draw traffic to their retail store.

Staff at Good's Candy Shop take pride in representing their brand.

 #3: Represent Your Brand at its Best

Before you welcome new visitors into your business, keep in mind you only have one chance to make a first impression. Make sure all aspects of your business represent what your brand is or hopes to be. Not only should your store sparkle from front to back (even the area behind the counter that “no one” sees), your staff’s appearance should also reflect your brand. If your associates have a uniform or dress code, before an event is a good time to evaluate whether or not they need new aprons, name tags, branded apparel, etc. and to remind all staff of any guidelines pertaining to their attire. If you don’t have a dress code, consider creating an event t-shirt for your staff to wear – this will not only create a more cohesive look for your team, but help customers better identify staff if they have questions.

#4: Train Your Staff to Give

Successful events are about giving to the community. Train your staff on how to give information, courtesy, smiles and samples. Providing basic talking points or key phrases can help staff feel confident and better prepared to offer exception customer service to guests.

Samples are served with a smile at Rebecca-Ruth Candies.

Donaldson's Finer Chocolates is prepared to handle a crowd.

#5: Plan the Logistical Flow of Guests

Creating a plan for the flow of traffic through your facility can make a significant impact on the guest experience. Determine a plan to gently guide guests within your space by assigning specific staff to various touch points. Starting (most importantly) with a welcome greeting at the entrance, plan for three to four touch points (or more depending on the size of your store). At each touch point, station staff to offer product samples and even the chance to win a prize for signing up to receive promotional emails or joining your birthday club.  By planning ahead, you can prevent potential bottle necks and ensure your guests get the most out of their experience.

Stay connected with RCI through Facebook for more tips and inspiration dedicated to the retail candy maker. Not a member? Click here to learn how RCI can help you build your sweet business.

Tip # 187: Apply the 80/20 Rule to your Marketing Messaging

The Pareto principle is a common rule of thumb in business that suggests 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customer base, as one example. This principle can be applied to many facets of business and marketing, but today we’re going to focus on content marketing that will compel consumers versus repel them.

It may be easy to lean on platforms like email blasts and social media to push product, promote the sale or urge online ordering! Be careful not to inundate your followers with messaging that is purely focused on making the sale. This approach can actually cause followers to lose interest and, perhaps, even mistrust your brand.

You will have better success at building a loyal following of consumers who are genuinely interested in your company, the products you sell and the people who make them, if 80% of your content is devoted to sharing valuable and useful information that helps to weave your brand’s story. Leave the remaining 20% to the sales pitch.

Here’s a few ideas to spark your imagination:

• Sharing interesting facts about your company history is always a win, especially when paired with a photo.
• A peek behind the scenes can convey a sense of transparency and makes your company more trustworthy.
• Add a personal touch by congratulating staff on important milestones, such as employment anniversaries, birthdays, babies, graduations, weddings and etc.

Stay connected with RCI through Facebook for more tips and inspiration dedicated to the retail candy maker. Not a member of RCI? Click here to learn more about how RCI can help your build your sweet business.

Tip #175: Share Customer Success Stories

Thanks to the evolution of technology and social media, advertising is everywhere. Aggressive advertisers have created an over-saturated world of ads in print, on television, the radio and especially online. We, as consumers, have also evolved to become more turned off by advertising, making it nearly impossible to get our attention.

That’s where content marketing comes into the picture. Although it has recently become a popular buzzword, the concept of content marketing has been around for over 100 years. The trouble with content marketing can be simply coming up with topics that aren’t perceived as “salesy,” but are relatable and interesting. Here’s one for your toolbox… customer success stories.

Not to be confused with testimonials, which can feel generic and contrived, customer success stories are weaved around a customer solving a problem using your product (e.g., finding the perfect corporate gift for clients) or an outstanding customer service experience. In some cases, customer success stories may require a little more leg work to find, but are more believable when sourced from individuals who shared their positive experience organically. By keeping a pulse on what people are saying about you online, or what's happening in your store, you can identify people who are doing interesting things with your products – a company that thanks clients with your chocolate bars emblazoned with their company logo, a bride who made a dessert tower with your truffles or a teenager who raises money to purchase a dozen boxes of chocolates to give senior citizens who live in the local nursing home. Seek these people out and ask them if they would be interested in filling out a questionnaire about your company. Their stories could prove to be a valuable asset to your brand.

Tip #160: Become the Talk of Town/State/Region/Country/Globe/Galaxy

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) published findings in 2014 indicating 13percent of commercial sales are driven by word of mouth both online or offline. Statistics, like this and others, point to word of mouth as the strongest form of recommendation. Thanks to social media, word of mouth recommendations spread like wildfire. “Being the talk of the town” can easily morph into “the talk of the state/region/country/globe/galaxy,” and if that talk is about your business and its positive (heck, it doesn’t even have to be positive…ever heard of cicada ice cream? Google it.), you can pretty much bank on a significant spike in sales from new customers.  According to a study done by AdAge word of mouth can increase marketing effectiveness by 54%.

Source: Word of Mouth Marketing Association

So how do you get people to talk about you? Besides the obvious, offer exception customer service and quality products, Suzanne Fanning, president of WOMMA, suggests identifying your influencers. Good news for your marketing budget, Fanning says “The most sought-after influencers used to be celebrities, before the days of social media. Now just about anyone can be an influencer, but the best may be the ones who find you, or your star supporters who actively engage [with your brand].”

Zach Fagan, with StoreYa.com, recommends converting customers into brand advocates by making them feel like insiders, “let them be the first to know about and try new products and services,” writes Fagan. “By making the insiders feel special, you will make them feel more connected on a personal level to your company, so that they will be not only willing, but excited to test out your product and write reviews.”

Knowing your influencers and creating a group of brand advocates is great, but don’t expect to see fireworks if you’re not putting yourself out there. There are plenty of avenues for sharing information, photos and videos about your product and services (many of them free, e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest). Even if you’ve got an arsenal of social media accounts, make sure you understand what topics are of interest to your followers. If you don’t know, gauging your audience can be as easy as tracking responses to targeted questions, such as “Who’s got kids going back to school?” “Do you celebrate your pet’s birthday?” If you get a lot of responses from parents/grandparents with kids going back to school or followers who really love their pets, try posting messages that tailor to your audience. Here's some examples, “Make your child the teacher’s pet with a gift of chocolates from…” or “Did you know we handcraft pet-safe treats for your furry family members? The first person to share a photo of their pet will receive a gift certificate for a free doggie/kitty treat.” 

Has your business been “the talk of the state/region/country/globe/galaxy?” If so, tell us about your experience and what triggered the conversation.