From Manufacturer to Consumer: Beauty Can Be for Both

The health and beauty industry is competitive, plain and simple. We're aware of how the level of competition makes it challenging as a manufacturer to find ways to differentiate your products from your competitors. Health and beauty products can be found in various packaging styles, from bottles and jars to vials and plastic tubes. However, do these materials cater to the immediate needs and desires of today's consumers? Flexible packaging not only offers benefits for the manufacturer and consumer but opens the door for eye-catching designs without convenience and product integrity being pushed aside.

Where to Start

Creating a well-rounded, flexible packaging design can be challenging and time-consuming – especially if you haven't taken the time to recognize a few key factors. Whether you're in the health and beauty industry or something different, it's incredibly helpful to go through the following steps when you begin developing your packaging design.

• Identify your customers. As a health and beauty product manufacturer, it's vital that you recognize your target audience. Accounting for specific demographics will help you create a flexible packaging design that will draw potential and existing customers in. For example, if you're targeting preteen girls, you may create a packaging design with glitter or vibrant neon colors, so it catches their attention.
  
  
• Dial-in on your brand personality. Sharing your brand's personality will help you establish a presence in the condensed health and beauty industry. Like how identifying your customers is essential, so is dialing in on your brand personality, tone, and story. Each of these factors paints a picture for potential and existing customers while creating a lasting connection.
  
  
• Consider how customers are buying. Whether you're new to the health and beauty industry or have been established for some time, it's worthwhile to study how your target audiences are purchasing your products. You may have a brick-and-mortar location, sell online, or both, but identifying which drives the most sales will help you fine-tune your design strategy accordingly.
  
  
• Strategize and get creative. Once you've solidified the details above, it's time to start creating your flexible packaging design. It's helpful to collect colors, images, text, and whatever else you feel speaks to your brand's personality to get the wheels turning. You might even find benefit in looking at what some of your competitors are doing.

Reach a Larger Audience

Health and beauty products are available in a variety of forms, from single-serving and samples to pouches and bulk. While there are many materials that you can use for packaging these products, flexible packaging has slowly climbed to the top. But why? Many manufacturers are drawn to flexible packaging as it has proven to be the ideal packaging format for every type of product – no matter the size. Today's consumers are attracted to brands that offer choices or a "try before you buy" mentality, whether that's catering to convenience or attempting to draw a potential customer in. Because of this, health and beauty brands that offer a range of sizes of a product are more likely to be recognized. Manufacturers that utilize flexible packaging have access to lightweight, unbreakable materials that can even have resealable features incorporated. By transitioning to flexible packaging for your health and beauty products, you're catering to consumer convenience, which helps show potential and existing customers that you are invested in your products and your following.

Guaranteed Product Integrity

Potential and existing customers expect your health or beauty products to be fresh and sealed until it leaves the shelves at the place of purchase. Flexible packaging allows products to have an airtight seal which helps guarantee product integrity and prevent unwanted contamination. There are varying styles when it comes to flexible packaging, but stand-up and lay-flat pouches are the most popular. Each pouch style is designed with an airtight seal, tamper-resistant features, and resealable capabilities to preserve the active ingredients found in health and beauty products. In today's consumer market, integrity is just as important as convenience, and flexible packaging allows manufacturers to create an eye-catching design while catering to different consumer needs. From offering multiple sizes and preserving product integrity to an easy-to-use design and on-the-go convenience, flexible packaging has proven to be worthwhile for both manufacturers and consumers.

Design Versatility

While expanding your audience reach and guaranteeing product integrity will benefit your sales, many manufacturers choose flexible packaging for its remarkable design versatility. Other packaging materials available to manufacturers today have design limitations such as the size of graphics, space requirements, finishes, and more. Flexible packaging is an excellent option if you're seeking an alternative that offers more space for branding, product descriptions, your logo, usage instructions, and graphics. The printable area on flexible packaging designs is also much larger than traditional packaging options. Flexible packaging is also incredibly cost-effective when it comes to design because there is no need for additional labels or shrink sleeves since all printing is applied directly to the packaging material.

Enhance Your Product Packaging

Flexible packaging will never replace semi-rigid and rigid packaging materials, but that’s not to say flexible materials aren’t paving their own way as the packaging industry continues to evolve. Whether you're a manufacturer in the health and beauty industry or a different market, it's worthwhile to begin considering making the transition to flexible packaging. Aside from its many benefits for both the manufacturer and consumer, flexible packaging materials allow for eye-catching designs that also cater to consumer convenience and product freshness. It's a given; by enhancing your product packaging for health and beauty products, you'll have the opportunity to extend your audience reach and bring in higher profit, so start today.