The material of your packaging matters

According to an Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of the Paper and Packaging Board, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the material you use for your packaging matters. 

The material is a key part of packaging design, so it is important that you choose the right material for your products. 

Key findings of the survey include:

• 67% of those surveyed said the materials used to package a product often influence the decision to purchase.
• 67% also said paper and cardboard packaging is more attractive than other materials used for packaging.
• 63% said paper and cardboard packaging makes a product appear to be a high-quality premium product.
• 81% agreed that packaging design influences their purchasing decisions when buying gifts.

Premium packaging design matters

According to a survey by Dotcom Distribution, 61% of people surveyed said they are more likely to buy a luxury product more than once if it comes in premium-looking packaging. 

So, if you are selling high-end, luxury products like jewellery or perfume, ensuring your packaging design looks luxurious can help you attain more sales. 

On the other hand, if you package a premium product in the same packaging used for low-end products, it can drastically put off consumers.

Unique packaging can help to get your brand known

Packaging has become more important since the advent of social media because plenty of people now post photos or videos of them unwrapping newly arrived products, and those posts get a lot of views. 

In turn, that means the companies who sell the products get free exposure and are more likely to see a spike in sales. 

According to the Dotcom Distribution survey, 40% of consumers share images of their packaging on social media when the packaging design is unique or branded. 

So, by adding branding to your packaging or coming up with a unique and interesting design that will get people talking, you can enhance your brand reputation, get word-of-mouth exposure, and sell more products.

Transparency on labels matters

According to Catalpa, 74% of consumers report transparency and honesty in product labelling help them to gain trust in a brand. 

Being transparent about the information on your packaging labels is of the utmost importance in this era. If you want to build your brand, you have to build customer trust. Paying attention to your labelling is one sure-fire way of doing that. 

A product that is honestly and clearly messaged also helps consumers to determine which products they should buy based upon their specific personal needs and desires.

Think twice before you change your packaging designs

This last statistic is perhaps the most important. According to Westrock, 52% of consumers have changed the product brands they buy due to new packaging designs. 

So, if you do not think it is worth investing in an overhaul of your packaging design, think again. 

However, it is important that you research how customers feel about your existing packaging and how they respond to any new packaging design considerations before you launch your new packaging design. 

In addition to thinking about the material you use, whether your product is premium or not, how unique you can make your packaging, and how open and transparent your labelling is, you need to consider every aspect of your packaging to get it right, build more customer trust, and shift more products. 

That means you need to look at the visuals, colours, graphics, logos, fonts, information, and every bit of the design process to ensure you come up with an effective packaging design that your customers will love and shout about. 

Therefore, it can be helpful to learn graphic design basics before you proceed. You also need to consider the type of packaging you will use. For instance, you could use boxes, round containers, or pouches. 

Thankfully, it is easy to come up with customised designs for packaging pouches to ensure you create unique and memorable designs that are sure to get noticed by your customers.

Conclusion

Now you have an idea of what consumers want from packaging and how they respond to different packaging designs, you can take the first steps in creating customised packaging designs that will help you compete in the marketplace and sell more products. 

Though, you will also need to get the pricing right for your products.

Explore different packaging options, take your customers’ wants, needs, and expectations into account, and make sure your packaging design matches your branding well. You could then soon see your products flying off the shelf.

10 negative effects of micromanagement

The following examples will show you how micromanagement hurts not only the scrutinised employees but also the entire organisation. The sooner you stop micromanaging the better. Otherwise, you’re causing your own misfortune.

Affecting the morale

One of the most negative effects of micromanagement is the impact that it has on morale. Micromanagement signals that you do not trust your employee to do the job which takes a toll on engagement and often erodes confidence. 

The vast majority of people want to feel they are trusted and have the freedom to express their creativity within their role. Since micromanagement is the antithesis of this then it can lead to high employee turnover.

I have spent many years in Leadership Development and have observed two broad styles of management.

The first is managers who lead teams from a position of empowerment and then the polar opposite where they are micromanaged. The tangible work product/performance is always better with teams that are led from an empowerment style. You see much more creativity and innovation coming from the teams and overall much more happiness/engagement which comes as a result of having true psychological safety. 

Where the opposite is true you see so much more visible stress, burnout and an inability to take creative risks which is catastrophic for businesses. It also leads to very poor succession within those teams as development tends to be non-existent where a command and control style is prevalent.

Ginnette Harvey, Senior Vice President at Real Staffing

Smothering the supervised

Damon Nailer, CEO at Kitril

Affecting motivation

Micromanagement creates a vicious circle. Even the most talented and engaged employees might lose the motivation to overcome challenges by themselves and come with suggestions.

I once had an intern in my accounting team. It’s one of the brightest young professionals I’ve ever met. He had a perfect-match set of soft skills and was very successful with his academic studies. I wanted him to succeed in our organization by doing his first project error-free. I provided him with excessively detailed instructions and shadowed him to make him feel supported. Unfortunately, the outcome was the opposite of my expectations. This over-protection made him think he was expected to be a thoughtless doer rather than the project owner.

Mian Muneer ud din, Managing Partner at Beaufort Associates

Impacting work performance

Later, I found out that he usually does it to everyone to insert his authoritativeness since he was new to his role and wants everyone to acknowledge him. I had a one on one discussion with him and at least he understood where I was coming from. He finally adjusted himself on how to handle our team and found other tasks he can do rather than keep an eye on everything we do.”

Dexter Grima, Founder & CEO, VitaBright

Draining the confidence

While in substance, I believe daily meetings about tasks progress are beneficial when done right, I also thought spending one hour and a half per day was too much. Added to the overload of work, me and my colleagues spent considerable time detailing things that didn’t concern other participants. We were many to have little enthusiasm for this meeting. The feeling of having to justify every single decision to the manager was really draining me and my confidence.

Another effect it had on me was blocking my comprehension of the upper management’s decision. I was so stuck in this micromanagement bubble that I lost sight of my sense of purpose and my added-value as an engineer in the company.

Ludovic Chung-Sao, Zen Soundproof

Limiting creative development

Stefan Smulders, Founder & CEO of Expandi

Doubting oneself abilities

I had the unpleasant experience of being micromanaged in a former job and it negatively affected my confidence. My manager would pick over the tiniest aspects of my work and it led to me doubting my own abilities. Prior to him taking up the post, I had rarely received negative feedback about my performance.

Fortunately, he left the company within a few months and the manager who took over gave me breathing space to actually do my job. When I no longer felt under constant scrutiny my confidence returned.

Brandon Wachs, Eyewear Specialist at Shark Eyes Inc

Burning you out

Micromanagement is the recipe for your own burnout. Constantly looking over many shoulders daily will quickly burn you out. With burnouts, eventually, you’ll adjust to hating your job and maybe end up quitting. 

As Director of Marketing, I used to always look over my workers’ shoulders to make sure that everything is on the right track. In reality, everything was always right; I just added stress on myself trying to find something. But after a few months, I quickly got tired of having to stress out over other people’s jobs and not focus on my own. 

Chris Prasad, Director Of Marketing at JookSMS

Increasing staff turnover rate

Working in a startup business, I have closely observed this as there were only a few employees in the company, and it operated through micromanagement. The boss was always there and kept roaming around, keeping an eye on every individual and inquiring about every task. This demotivated not just me but all my colleagues too and from time to time we all switched our jobs.

Cale Loken, CEO at 301 Madison Consulting

Missing the big picture

Nick Chernets, CEO of Data for SEO

Conclusion

Now that we’ve understood how micromanagement hurts the business it’s time you stop breathing over your employees’ shoulders and let them breathe freely. The moment you stop micromanaging is the moment their full potential will take off your company will start flourishing. Don’t let the negative effects of micromanagement embed and create a toxic company culture.

16 branding mistakes you want to avoid

To save you the trouble of rebranding or becoming a memefied internet sensation (although if you’re smart enough you can turn the publicity to your advantage) we made a list of the worst branding mistakes businesses make.

Attaching the brand to the wrong products

Brands often make the mistake of attaching their name to products that don’t align with their perceived image. For instance, customized promotional items, such as customised lanyards, can be effective branding tools if they resonate with the brand’s identity and values. Ensuring these products are high-quality and reflective of the brand’s standards is crucial to avoid a negative impression.

We recently came across a prime example when we were approached by a technology firm to make custom perfume tubes that they would infuse with a scent and give to their clients. The foundation of the idea could easily lead to a negative representation of the company as the “thoughtful gift” could have a scent that caused their customer displeasure. 

Evan Rosenberg, Founder and CEO of Powerhouse Prints

Focusing only on visuals

As a green/social entrepreneurship profitability consultant, speaker, and author, I look at how branding can amplify regenerative businesses: I help develop and market profitable products/services that turn hunger/poverty into abundance, war into peace, racism and other kinds of othering into equity and catastrophic climate change into planetary balance.

Shel Horowitz, Transformpreneur at Going Beyond Sustainability

Not considering SEO when branding your business

It is bad branding not to consider SEO in the era of Google. You should always take into account how your brand and brand name will positively or negatively impact your business rankings online. Using major keywords in your business name or punch line will help you in the future rank better for important keywords. Keeping the impacts of your branding on your SEO will help you rise above your competition as this is frequently not considered.

James Watson – Owner and Director of Marketing at Omaha Homes For Cash

Jumping from plan to plan

You need to remember that most effective marketing plans require a long look. They take time before seeing the inevitable payoff. Test your marketing first and then build out the rest of your strategy based on the results of your testing. Each marketing campaign should be built upon the success of the previous campaign; and over time, you will see your results improve. Marketing builds on itself, so the more you market, the better results you’ll get.

Wendy Young, Marketing Assistant at Bootstrap Local

Inconsistency and conflicting messaging

One of the biggest branding mistakes that I see businesses make is that the messaging on all marketing materials and consumer touchpoints are inconsistent or conflicting. Incongruent messaging leads to consumer confusion and can negatively impact sales.

Kristin Marquet, Owner at Marquet Media

An example of bad branding I see most commonly, especially from new and fast-scaling businesses, is a lack of consistency. Consistency is everything. Your brand messaging, logo, tone of voice, color schemes, straplines – everything needs to be rock solid and consistent for a long period of time to build equity around the brand.

Consider the most significant brands in the world right now. McDonald’s has used the same golden arches for nearly 60 years; it’s it’s impossible to use the word swoosh without thinking of Nike and most adults in the world would be able to identify Apple’s advertisements even without the brand name being used because of its logo and signature use of white space.

Matt Caspell, Founder of Lumo Digital

Not being specific

The opposite is actually true, and the more specific you get with your branding, the more your ideal audience will feel you created your product specifically for them, making them more likely to buy. Then, once you have traction, even people outside your ideal branded audience will start to buy, so being specific in branding won’t hold you back long-term and it will help you get ahead when starting out.

 Stacy Caprio, Marketing at Renuw Skincare

The biggest branding mistake I see businesses make is that there’s often a disconnect between who the brands think they are, and who the audiences think the brands are because of poor communication. 

Brands and businesses aren’t typically crystal clear on who their target audience is, and they market and brand in a way that doesn’t necessarily translate to the audience, so a millennial product Brand, for example, thinks they’re talking to their ideal target when in reality they’re reaching 50-somethings instead who aren’t buying. 

The best way to avoid this is to research, listen to your audience and before being clever in your content, to get to know your audience’s pain points, understand their language and THEN speak to them in a way that’ll resonate. Your message won’t get lost in translation and what you want to transmit will align with what they understand about your business. When in doubt, be clear rather than clever.

Sabrina Scholkowski, Owner at Sociouse

Dismissing the importance of trademarks

Another related mistake is inconsistent use of registered marks in consumer markets, or a complete non-use of the registered mark. This may happen more often if the business owns a family of trademarks. Trademarks can be cancelled for non-use, thereby impacting the brand’s reputation. How to avoid this mistake: Ensure that there is a market for and actual sales for the product/service that bears the registered mark; have a foolproof branding strategy at play – don’t register marks that you will likely not lose.

Marsha S. Cadogan, Lawyer and Consultant at MSC Intellectual Property

Being company-centric

The secret of success of small brands is their closeness to the voice of the consumer. When deciding the value proposition or branding strategy, keeping the requirements of the customer is essential. A brand should have a clear and consistent character on different social media platforms. If a customer meets a different persona on different social media platforms, there is a good chance that they can get confused and back out.

Avinash Chandra, Founder and CEO at BrandLoom

Overlooking the internal team view of the brand

Abhishek Agarwal, Founder of Design’N’Buy

Failing to build brand advocates from within is definitely a bad branding move.

While it is important to know how the business’ product/service is valuable to consumers, failure to train and empower employees to live out the essence of the brand will lead to a weak brand presence.

A salesperson solely motivated by meeting a quota will not effectively convey to a consumer how the transaction is more than an exchange of money for a product and/or services. That consumer will end up looking for a cheaper or better solution somewhere else.

Business owners/leaders need to help their employees understand why what the company is doing matters. They need to empower team members to flesh out that vision through their own individuality, going beyond fulfilling a job description and selling a product/service.

Vincent Lee, Owner of Can You Brand Me

Getting a cheap logo

Emily Messing, Owner of EJM Design

Spending on fancy print marketing

Getting your URL/website up and running is key. I created online stationery for proposals/invoices, ordered my cards online and made downloadable materials as leave-behinds for people looking for more information to help me find clients more quickly. You need to look professional and have a website to be taken seriously but embossed paper/watermarks/heavy card stock is not going to accelerate your sales cycle. 

I know many business owners who spent thousands of dollars on these things and found it was a waste of money. Find reference customers quickly, use them to get testimonials/referrals. There’s plenty of time later to dress things up!

Paige Arnof-Fenn, Founder and CEO at Mavens and Moguls

Associating with the wrong brand

After 3 months of asking for sponsorship, they only received about $100,000, and 3 weeks later is the event date. A few days later, a cigarette company offered them a million-dollar sponsorship, to have their brand banner up during the event all the time.

The event company owners were tempted as the event’s date draws near. But they decided not to go ahead as it would hurt their company brand. Just less than a week before the event, another company decided to sponsor $150,000 for the event.

The owners did not give up till the end and did not associate with the wrong brand.

Cyrus Yung, Director of Ascelade

Greenwashing

This is especially rampant in industries of fashion, food, and traveling, which are big contributors to pollution and waste. If the company undergoes a green “rebrand,” displays vague facts and figures about their sustainability performance, and continues unethical employment and operational practices, these are red flags that display they don’t mean any of the words they advocate.

Sharon van Donkelaar, CMO at Expandi

Buying stock photos

For instance, using images that show offices and environments different from where a business is operating would signal dishonesty and may result in losing business. If the branding image is as essential to the business as the quality of their service or product then the business should hire a professional photographer who would give a more honest and creative image of the business brand.

Sam Fatima, Lead Photographer at Sam Headshots

Not understanding the meaning of branding

For instance, Eddie Bauer’s brand used to be comfortable and rugged outdoor gear and clothing. The quality was so good, they even had a lifetime warranty. Unfortunately, they destroyed their brand by removing the quality. Patagonia has not done this, which is why their brand remains intact and Eddie Bauer has been losing market share for years.

Another great example is Microsoft versus Apple. Microsoft was known for Windows and Office, but these were not what made the Microsoft brand. Microsoft has name recognition and a solid product line, but they lack a brand. Apple, on the other hand, has name recognition and customers know what to expect when they buy an Apple product. The products will be cutting edge and integrate various design elements that make them pleasing to look at, touch, and use. Apple’s brand has allowed them to build a loyal customer base. Microsoft never fully established a brand and had to switch to SaaS billing to create a steady cash flow.

Another great example is Walmart versus Target. Walk into any Walmart and you never know what you will get. Some look old and decrepit, even if they have implemented the latest signage. Worker uniforms at some are neat and clean, but old and worn at others. Shelves will be organized at some and messy at others – bad branding! Target, on the other hand, provides the same experience regardless of the store you visit.

Your brand lets your customers know who you are as a company and what they can expect every time. There is uniformity, regardless of the number of locations. For instance, Nike will not make cheap shoes, because that would undermine their brand. Nike wants to be the Lexus of athletic wear, so they won’t make a crappy shoe. Compare that to what other retailers like Eddie Bauer have done to their brands.

The number of times I have to talk executives out of accidentally destroying their brand would amaze you

Anthony Babbitt, MS, MCSE, Founder of Babbitt Consulting

Conclusion

We know it’s easier to pull off bad branding than it is to avoid making any of the branding mistakes listed above. However, that doesn’t give you the right to make a disaster of your brand. If you don’t know how to build a brand you better hire a professional who knows what is doing. It will be an investment in the long run.