Christmas is an absolute gift for the food and beverage industry. The entire season, from the very first advent calendar door being ripped open to the final selection box being disposed of in the recycling bin – food and drink is the focus.
In the UK, 5.7 billion units of alcohol are consumed over the Christmas week (that’s Christmas Eve to New Year’s Day). That doesn’t take into account the weeks of merriment leading up to Christmas or the bottles that are bought as gifts and left under the tree or distributed to grateful employees and much-loved clients.
The benefits of making personalised Xmas bottle boxes and Christmas advent boxes for wholesale and retail distribution can make a significant improvement to your bottom-line year after year. Still, more importantly, it can help to emphasise your overall brand – providing it doesn’t distract from it.
A study done by the Department of Packaging at the Cracow University of Economics analysed consumer behaviour around seasonal packaging. The key finding highlighted that any seasonal branding should emphasise and complement the main brand rather than detract from it.
EMOTIONAL CONNECTION
Of significant importance to creating a Christmas theme for your packaging is the emotional connections we all have around the festive season.
For individuals and families, Christmas can be an emotional time. Food and drink are symbolic of time spent with loved ones, some of whom may no longer be around. It is a time for remembering those who have gone and appreciating those who are still around.
Christmas is a time when so many of us have the time to spend with families without rushing off to work – when you are all compelled to sit around a table and break bread with each other, as opposed to eating on the hoof or grabbing a bit between obligations.
Gifting a Christmas advent box containing samples of your favourite tipple can evoke memories and laughter and subconsciously links your brand to that positive emotion.
REPURPOSING EXISTING PRODUCTS
The beauty of Christmas is that you don’t have to be too clever or sophisticated with your designs. In fact, the simpler, the better. Xmas bottle boxes should be a simple uplift of your standard bottle boxes overlaid with a standard Christmas motif, such as a reindeer, snowman, or caricature of Santa Claus.
It has already been established that the more successful Christmas packaging should not detract from your main brand. This means that you don’t have to re-theme your entire product range, but rather just the packaging. This means that you can create a Christmas theme in a much more cost-effective way, and anything that is left over can be packed away and stored until the following year.
So, when thinking about your Christmas range, consider how your existing products can be repurposed as advent gift boxes, for example, or as potential gifts for individuals or groups of people such as company employees or clients.
REPACKAGING FOR EASE OF GIFTING
The design of the packaging is the easy bit – what you need to think about in more detail is how to repackage your food and beverage products into potential gifts.
Think about your perfect client and what would make their life easier. Creating the ‘perfect’ gift solution will save them precious time trawling through the internet trying to find that perfect gift.
For the food and beverage company, adding value to products simply by repackaging and repurposing existing product lines is the most cost-effective way of improving profit margins and increasing sales. It also solidifies your brand values and improves the commercial connection between supplier and customer, underpinning a more collaborative relationship for the future.
DON’T REINVENT THE WHEEL – RED AND GREEN ALL THE WAY
Research has highlighted that when it comes to Christmas, tradition always wins out. Going avant-garde around the festive season does not make commercial sense and sticking to the main traditional Christmas icons and symbols reaps the most rewards.
Being creative around how you package your products, such as developing a Christmas advent box containing a can of beer from different regions of the UK, for example, will give you improved routes to market. However, trying to be too clever with the Christmas message and design will put more people off than it will entice them.
Don’t reinvent the Christmas wheel – Christmas itself will do the selling for you. Instead, make a nod towards the emotional connection that we all have with Christmas, and spend your time creating the perfect gift box combinations.
Packaging for Retail has a fine selection for you to choose from here. If you would like something more bespoke for your own unique product lines, then contact us for more information.
