With so many products on the market, having unique product packaging will ensure your products stand out among the rest. Whether you sell fun food products or want to promote your beauty line, the best packaging designs are unique and help to enhance your product. Explore how you can use packaging to catch a customer’s eye.
News
Requirements for Medical Device Packaging
Medical devices are essential pieces of equipment necessary for completing surgeries and evaluating patient symptoms. There are strict regulations for these items, as they must be sterile and in top-functioning condition for medical professionals to use them safely. These requirements make proper packaging essential.
How to Reduce Packaging Waste
Sustainable packaging has much to offer everyone — including your consumers, your company and the planet. If your packaging is wasteful, you aren’t doing anyone any favors. Still, reducing packaging waste can be challenging. After all, you need to protect your product and accommodate marketing materials. Fortunately, you now have extensive options for efficient, sustainable packaging. Let’s take a look at how you can reduce waste in packaging and better meet your sustainability goals.
How Is Club Store Packaging Different?
Before a product hits the shelves of a club store like Costco, Sam’s Club or BJ’s Wholesale Club, it goes through a unique journey. Club stores have specific packaging requirements, and their customers are shopping in a distinct environment. Packaging designers must keep these factors in mind as they prepare to work with club stores. Let’s explore what you need to know about designing club store packaging.
Packaging Trends of 2023
Packaging that communicates your brand’s image, mission and products or services comes in various shapes and sizes. You’re already offering your target audience exactly what they need — now, you need to grab their attention through trending marketing strategies. Your product packaging choices can speak to your audience, making a lasting impression and promoting your brand through visual appeal.
The new year is the perfect time to revamp your brand’s packaging and get a head start on reimagining how you market your products. Trends come and go over time, so it’s essential to reevaluate what your packaging says to your consumers. Consider whether upcoming trends fit your brand’s image or spark an idea for your business’s future marketing.
WEBINAR: Paper vs Plastic: Which Solution Is More Sustainable?
It’s no secret that consumers today are more environmentally aware than ever before, and that includes the packaging of your product. Product protection and print capabilities are important when developing a package, but what kind of effect does package sustainability have on the consumer’s purchasing decision?
Our recorded Paper or Plastic: Which Solution Is More Sustainable? webinar reviews:
- Consumer’s impact on sustainable packaging
- Consumer’s impact on retailer sustainability programs
- The sustainability of paper vs plastic in each stage of the packaging life cycle
Great Northern Packaging Claims Two PPC Excellence Awards
This year marked the 79th annual North American Paperboard Packaging Competition for carton manufacturers involved in the concept, design, print, performance, and shelf appeal of paperboard packaging. Each and every year the best paperboard package designs from across North America are submitted and judged by a jury of packaging professionals, industry experts, and professors and Great Northern Packaging is pleased to announce it received two Excellence Awards!
Great Northern Packaging – Oshkosh Earns Safe Quality Food Certification
Great Northern Packaging – Oshkosh is pleased to announce its renewal of the Safe Quality Food (SQF) Certification. This certification validates that Great Northern has robust food safety control systems effectively implemented in its manufacturing process. SQF is recognized by retailers and food service providers around the world who require a rigorous, credible food safety management system.
When the general manager of Great Northern Oshkosh, Galen Killam, was asked what the significance of this achievement means, he said, “Our team at Oshkosh has worked hard to recertify our SQF certification this year, allowing us to provide top quality, food safe folding cartons to our customers.” The Great Northern Packaging – Oshkosh facility has maintained this certification since 2019.
To learn more about Great Northern’s printed paperboard packaging capabilities, click here.
WEBINAR: PROTECTIVE PACKAGING SOLUTIONS FOR E-COMMERCE
In the e-commerce marketplace, it is not just your products you are protecting, it is also the reputation of your brand and the potential for future purchases. That is why package integrity is so important through the last mile.
Our recorded Protective Packaging Solutions for E-Commerce webinar covers:
- E-commerce and protective packaging trends
- Amazon’s requirements for Frustration Free Packaging
- Best practices to ensure your package integrity
WEBINAR: INNOVATIVE SHELF-READY PACKAGING FOR PRODUCE
With brick-and-mortar retailers requiring shelf-ready packaging in their stores and consumers paying more attention to packaging sustainability, the shelf-ready packaging market is soaring. Not only can this style of packaging benefit the retailer, but it can also benefit your brand on the shelf!
Our recorded Innovative Shelf-Ready Packaging for Produce webinar covers:
- Trends in produce snack and shelf-ready packaging
- Benefits for brands and retailers
- What qualities you should consider when choosing a vendor
WEBINAR: TARGETED PACKAGING TO MEET CHANGING MARKET NEEDS
The retail landscape continues to change dramatically. Learn how you can be responsive, flexible, and adapt to changes in the marketplace from a packaging perspective. We also shared case studies that show examples of how to lower packaging costs and optimize packaging inventory.
This webinar covers:
- Trends – The rapidly changing face of retail from shopper, consumer brands, and retailer perspectives
- How you can be responsive, flexible, and adapt to changes in the marketplace
- Case studies that show examples of how to lower packaging costs and optimize inventory
WEBINAR: BEER PACKAGING SECRETS TO GET YOUR PRODUCT TO MARKET QUICKLY
The demand for craft brews continues to rise at retail. To keep up with demand, how can you get your products to market more quickly?
We recorded our webinar which discussed what you need to know about packaging to shorten your lead time and get your products to market faster. The webinar covers:
- Trends that are driving the need for speed to market
- Packaging structure options that are available to you
- Package graphic designs and things to look for in the design element
WEBINAR: BEVERAGE PACKAGING SOLUTIONS
The alcoholic beverage market is more competitive than ever due to the emergence and growth of new segments. That is why getting your product to market quickly is critical to your brands success.
Our recorded Beverage Packaging Solutions webinar covers:
- Current trends that are affecting the alcoholic beverage market
- How to choose the package structure that is right for your timeline
- Package graphic design and printing options that are available to you
- What qualities you should consider when choosing a vendor
Great Northern Packaging – Oshkosh Facility Earns G7 Targeted Certification
Great Northern Packaging is pleased to announce that the Oshkosh and Twin Cities facilities have both been recertified as a G7 Master Facility. The Twin Cities facility also received a G7 Targeted designation for its offset press while the Oshkosh facility received a G7 Targeted designation for both its digital and off-set print presses. This certification verifies that Great Northern’s digital and off-set presses meet G7 Targeted color specifications for grayscale colors, as well as primary and secondary colors (CMY and RGB).
First Year of Collaborative Course Produces Sustainable Packaging Designs
Introduction
At the beginning of the 2021 fall semester at UW-Stout, the Great Northern Corporation Collaboration Experience kicked off. Six teams of packaging and graphic design students in the course were tasked with creating new, sustainable packaging for Reckitt, a client that makes Air Wick plug-in scented oils and diffusers. When the fall semester wrapped up, the students presented their final projects to not only the class, but also to industry professionals.
Each team was to design a single sustainable package that meets club store and Amazon packaging requirements for in-store display and online retail, while improving customer experience. During their research, the teams found Air Wick’s packaging to be unsustainable, difficult to open, and it didn’t have storage for oil refills once opened.
4 Ways Digital Printing Can Add Value to Retailers
Retailers are always looking for new ways in which they can differentiate themselves from their competition and draw more shoppers to their store. Digital printing provides retailers with new opportunities to interact with shoppers, be that through retail customization, local and channel promotions, or market segmentation. The use of digital printing on packaging also offers opportunities for you to help retailers accomplish their goal in the following ways.
4 Ways Digital Printing Can Add Value to Your Brand
Standing out on a crowded shelf has never been more important, or more difficult. As competition increases, so must your brand’s marketing strategy and ability to grab the shopper’s attention. Being able to stop the shopper at the shelf and convert them into a sale is made even more challenging by the depth of our shoppers’ omni-channel experience. With messaging coming from all different directions, how do you get YOUR brand noticed by the shopper and make them pay attention to your message? Digital printing is expanding the ways retail packaging can communicate your message to shoppers. Here are four ways digital printing can help your brand.
Great Northern Corporation Collaboration Experience is Underway
Earlier this fall, University of Wisconsin-Stout and Great Northern Corporation kicked off a four-year pilot project called the Great Northern Corporation Collaboration Experience. This sponsored course is an advanced design selective for graphic design students and a senior capstone for packaging students. The course is to be held four times over four years and is co-taught by packaging and graphic design faculty.
The inaugural collaborative experience has 24 students working together in cross-disciplinary teams. “It’s an opportunity for students to better understand and grow in appreciation of each other’s majors, skills and methodologies. It’s a chance for them to challenge each other and compromise in order to develop a package that meets the needs of the customer, just like in the industry,” said Robert Meisner, packaging program director.
Millennials Impact on Sustainable Packaging
It’s no secret that shoppers are more environmentally aware now than ever before, and the millennial generation is helping drive this trend. In fact, one of the main factors affecting the Millennials purchasing decisions is packaging, especially when it comes to the food and beverages they consume daily.
Findings from the EcoFocus Worlwide 2019 U.S. Trends Survey suggest that millennials are rewarding brands that align their packaging with eco-friendly needs more than any generation before them and they expect brand owners to follow their lead. Here are five examples of how millennials will change the packaging aspect of businesses for years to come.
Great Northern Packaging – Oshkosh Facility Wins Excellence Award for Packaging Design
The annual North American Paperboard Packaging Competition is a premier competition for carton manufacturers involved in the concept, design, print, performance, and shelf appeal of paperboard packaging. Every year the best paperboard package designs from across North America are submitted and judged by a jury of packaging professionals, industry experts and professors. This year marked the 78th year of competition and our Great Northern Packaging – Oshkosh facility is pleased to announce it has received an Excellence Award.