Design Insights Seasonal

Do Customers Love Your Festive Packaging?

Nov 30, 2023

Alex Ewing

Estimated reading time: 3 min

As we prepare for the festive season, it’s always worth considering whether your product packaging should have a festive feel. In this article, we’ll explore the answer to that question.

A Brief History Of Festive Packaging

Wrapping presents is a concept that has been around for hundreds of years. The process dates back to the 1600s in Japan. During this time, the Japanese used the furoshiki, a reusable wrapping cloth. Through the Victorian era, wrapping presents was a sign of wealth and prosperity. Rich individuals would use a wide selection of materials like silk.

Historians even believe the earliest historical record of wrapping presents could be 202 BCE. The date marks when paper was first invented.

Modern wrapping paper can contain non-paper additives like silver and gold colour shapes, glitter, or plastics. Today, there green alternatives made only from paper. Paper wrapping is easier to dispose of, recyclable, and biodegradable.

Festive packaging is also available in a fantastic variety of materials. Options include aluminium, tinplate, and cardboard. They all provide wonderful sustainable packaging benefits.

Do Customers Like Festive Packaging?

Yes! Research suggests customers love this type of packaging and may even be more likely to buy a product decorated to match the festive season.

One study by Designalytics explored the impact of festive packaging on brands Coke and Pepsi. The company found customers favoured festive variations of product packaging by a ratio of 2:1.

The study also revealed that festive packaging amplified brand messages including:

Treating yourself
Good for the whole family
Tastes great

The increased notion that Coke tastes great is perhaps due to the ads the company has used for years. These show Santa and even polar bears drinking the products.

Beyond Christmas

Companies can explore other festive celebrations when decorating their packaging through the winter season. The festival of Diwali often involves wearing bright, beautiful colours. According to experts such as Shashwat Das, founder of Almond Branding, the secret to success when creating packaging for Diwali is to tell a story and embrace the culture.

Are there issues to avoid?

There are certain design faux-pas you should dodge when creating festive packaging for your products. Pepsi decorated their cardboard boxes with money falling like snow to promote its ‘Gift it Forward’ campaign. Unfortunately, customers misconstrued this as showboating. It also reminded them of festive commercialisation. This mistake is a great example of why market research is always a fundamental step in the packaging design process. You need to know your target audience.

Conclusion

It’s clear that customers do love festive packaging and creative possibilities can even become collector’s items. Yet, as with anything with marketing, it’s important to be careful when designing product packaging like this. As Pepsi learnt, it’s all too easy for a creative marketing idea to be completely misconstrued.

Marketing Myths

Did Coca-Cola create Santa Claus? One of the most widespread marketing myths is that the Coca-Cola company created the modern interpretation of Santa Claus. People believe he’s dressed in red and white because Coke created a marketing campaign with him in these colours to match their brand.

The Truth

Historical records show that this isn’t the origin of the red and white suit. That said, the company did still play a massive part in forming the image of the jolly old man known and loved today.

In 1931 Coca-Cola was struggling with a slump in sales. The brand was desperate to conjure the image of not a man dressed as the legendary figure but the real deal. They commissioned illustrator Haddon Sundblom to bring this idea to life. Sundblom sought inspiration from the classic poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas” or “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement Park Moore. However, he made the figure more human and believable than the original description.

The work paid off. Since then, almost every media representation of the character takes inspiration from their creation. This includes films like: