When launching a new brand in custom flexible packaging – food or other consumer packaged goods – it is not uncommon for small brand owners to use a pressure-sensitive label on a stock bag or pouch for package graphics and product information.
As the brand grows and volume increases, a tipping point occurs when the labeling of stock pouches is no longer a viable decorating and product information vehicle. Savvy brand owners aspire to package their product in a printed pouch but the signs that point to the time being right aren’t always clear. Small companies, always mindful of their expenses, find this key decision point in their brand’s growth to be fraught with uncertainty.
So how do you determine when it makes the most sense to transition from using labels to printed bags or pouches? Based on our experience with national, North American and global consumer brands we’ve worked with, from their entrepreneurial beginnings through mass commercialization, here are five tipping points that illustrate the time is right.
1. THE PRODUCT HAS BEEN DEEMED “PERFECTED” OR WELL REFINED BY BRAND MANAGEMENT.
Most small brands are highly cost conscious and choose to invest as much as possible in the quality of the raw ingredients or the manufacturing process to build the brand rather than allocate cost to a printed pouch. While the quality of the product is of primary importance, package quality runs a very close second. The two are foundationally linked in a symbiotic relationship, and both influence consumer trial, purchase and ultimately preference.
2. THERE ARE CLEAR INDICATIONS OF MARKET PENETRATION AND SUCCESS.
10,000 units. 25,000 units. Even 100,000. The number ranges. Your product is embraced by the market and more and more orders start to arrive. As your sales curve heads north, that’s a good time to think about making the transition. . . for a few reasons. First and foremost, it makes the most professiona