Holiday Packaging Guide

During the holiday season, most stores explode into festive colors, and we owe much of that to holiday packaging. Limited-edition packaging can add a fun, exclusive touch to your product and appeal to seasonal sentiments, like the joy of spending time with family or the excitement of special peppermint flavors. Setting up holiday packaging can offer exceptional advantages with little risk, but only if you do it right. Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of this technique and how to customize packaging for the holidays.

Benefits of Holiday Packaging

From red-and-white Christmas bottles to pastel-packed Easter boxes, holiday packaging adds a special flair to just about any kind of product. Some of the advantages of holiday packaging include:

• Visibility: Even if it’s surrounded by other holiday-themed products, festive packaging is eye-catching. It stands out on a shelf and attracts attention, especially if your design is aesthetically pleasing. Some elements, like sparkles or unique shapes, are particularly good at drawing people in.
• Brand recognition: Many brands use their seasonal packaging as an opportunity to stand out and solidify their brand. Starbucks, for example, is well-known for its holiday cups, which feature a new design every year. People said the 2021 version made them want to buy seasonal drinks, but it was also highly consistent with the Starbucks brand and appropriate for the holiday.
• Festivity: Holidays often invoke feelings of celebration and togetherness, so a festive container can help put your customers in a positive mindset. They might be in the mood to treat themselves or add your product to their celebrations.
• Connecting with customers: Holidays can be a significant part of your customers’ lives. By appealing to holidays, you can build connections on a deeper level, especially if your competitors aren’t doing it. Consider what your audience values, too. A design focused on family time might perform best with an audience of parents rather than teenagers.
• Promoting gift-giving: Seasonal packaging can put your buyers in the gift-giving mood. Your design might invoke the warm, fuzzy feelings of the holiday, or it could simply remind buyers that they still need to get a gift for a special someone. Either way, it promotes a purchase and helps spread some holiday cheer.

Tips for Holiday Packaging

Designing holiday packaging isn’t too different from designing regular packaging, but you should keep a few things in mind. Here are some of our best holiday packaging tips:

• Don’t go overboard: It’s easy to get lost in the bright, bold colors of holiday designs, but keep things simple. Your design shouldn’t be overwhelming or interfere with the package’s usability. If your buyer can’t find product details or doesn’t understand your main selling points, your holiday packaging could be causing problems. Make sure your designs are tasteful and aesthetically pleasing.
• Keep your packaging on-brand: Similarly, your holiday packaging should still be reflective of your brand. If you have a mature, simplistic brand, a gaudy, bright design might give customers the wrong impression of your image. Instead, keep your seasonal packaging consistent with your normal brand image. They should still be able to spot your brand on a crowded shelf.
• Make it personal: Don’t be afraid to connect with your customers in a personal way. Dive into your audience persona and figure out what it is they like about the holidays and your product. Maybe you sell to a lot of men who depend on their partners for picking out gifts, leaving them without any ideas on what to get their spouse. Your product could be the perfect solution, complete with a clever holiday tagline about finding the perfect gift.

Remember, you can lean into many different aspects of the holidays, from gift-giving and hot chocolate to togetherness and Santa Claus. Find the angles that match your product and audience.

 Different Variations of Holiday Packaging

Holiday packaging can come in a few different varieties, and the right kind for you will depend on your product, customers, goals and design. Some popular approaches to seasonal packaging are as follows.

1. Printed Boxes

Printed holiday boxes are perhaps one of the easier strategies to pull off. Being festive might be as simple as sending a new design to the printer. You could update your tried-and-true image to include a bright red bow or a Christmas tree. This solution is relatively straightforward, and your longtime customers probably won’t have a hard time identifying your product. Printed boxes also have the benefit of being easy to transport and stack.

2. Custom Shapes

Customized shapes are particularly eye-catching and great for products that your buyers might give as gifts. For example, a tree-shaped container can be extra festive. If you sell stocking stuffers, a unique shape could be the difference between someone buying your product and your competitor who uses the same packaging year-round.

These shapes can be a little harder to pull off, since they may not stack as easily as simple shapes and they may require some engineering expertise. However, if they work well with your product, they often provide big dividends.

3. Multi-Print Versions

The multi-print approach offers a convenient way to print different designs and even test new products. Multiple print packaging allows you to create variations of your normal packaging. You could use it for selling different products, such as varying flavors of a food item, but multi-printing is also ideal for holiday runs. You can create different versions of your designs and order smaller package quantities to last for the season without creating excess packaging when January comes around.

4. Bundle Packaging

The holidays are perfect for drawing in new customers, and bundled gift sets can give them everything they need to get started while making decisions easier for the buyer. For example, a makeup company might use promotional packaging to bundle together several of their top-selling products, like a brush, foundation and concealer. This approach can simplify shopping for the buyer with an all-in-one option, and it allows the recipient to dive right in without any additional purchases required.

When paired with holiday packaging, bundles can effectively incorporate seasonal themes into your product and promote their purchase as a convenient, perhaps cost-saving product.

Get Started on Holiday Packaging Prep With Great Northern Packaging

It’s never too early to start preparing for the packaging demands of the holiday season. At Great Northern Packaging, we specialize in helping brands build the perfect packaging solutions with sustainable materials and affordable prices. We’re your one-stop shop for packaging, with a long list of services that includes design, manufacturing, printing, testing and supply chain management.

Whether you have an idea for holiday packaging or don’t know where to start, our knowledgeable team is ready to help. Reach out today to learn more about how Great Northern Packaging can help you stand out this holiday season!