Create a Personalized Experience With Label Design

This is Packaging World article discusses 5 ways packaging inserts can create a personalized experience for customers. With the growth of digital label printing, customization has grown. It’s time to think outside the box and offer a personal experience like no other. It’s easier than you think, but it also requires innovation and creativity.

Digital Label Printing Offers Packaging Customization

Coke changed the packaging game the first time it released names on their bottles. The rise of digital printing offers short runs of various designs to create a personalized feel when customers shop. More recently, this has been seen for LIFEWTR where the art used on the bottle is as unique as the person buying it.

For your products, digital labeling is an excellent way to create a unique experience for your customers. Create many, many different designs for your product. Also, consider the shipping location. Incorporate local culture into the design, or even, simply include the city name. Although this technique is not personal to your customers, it’s personal to their situation and will elicit warm and fuzzy feelings.

Create A Personalized Experience With Labeling Technology

Labeling technology refers to RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) or NFC (Near Field Communication) that connects to customers’ phones. While RFID is long range, NFC is short range. With NFC, the customer also needs to hold their phone up to the label for a pop-up window to appear. This also only goes into effect if they have the NFC capabilities turned on. This creates an easy way for brands to share custom content through their labels.

While QR codes link customers to digital content, they don’t involve labeling technology RFID and NFC do. QR codes are a simple, cheap way to share content. In this case, a secondary label with tech would not need to be added to your standard label, but it makes the design change from label to label.

Link To Location-Oriented Content

Location-oriented content is a one way to use the technology. Make personalized videos, blogs, or apps for each major city. Use the culture of the location to share relevant content. Here are some examples:

• Food
  • Recipes, or video tutorials, relevant to local cuisine
• Beauty & Personal Care
  • A quiz for finding the perfect night-out spot in the city, paired with a beauty routine suggestion featuring the product they purchased
• Wine, Beer & Spirits
  • Romantic day trips with food and beverage pairings
• Pharmaceutical
  • Show the customer various locations in the city where their medication is available for pick-up
• Household & Cleaning Products
  • Inspirational interior design boards featuring local sports teams, images of the city’s skyline, and local cultural references
• Horticulture
  • Information on how the plant needs to be cared for, based on local climate

When designing labels, consider how to link customers to your content. What format are your customers most responsive to? A/B testing is a fantastic way to see if they will use the technology offered, and their engagement levels (through studying test subjects or observing web page analytics).

Connect With a Bot

Many social media users find bots impersonal and annoying. That said, if used understanding the customers’ needs, it is a very useful tool for personalization. Instead of linking customers to videos or blog posts, the link connects them to a page where they can carry on a conversation with your bot. This is a much more interactive and engaging experience with your content. Now, they can access all the helpful information they’re looking for from your blog in easy to digest messaging. As the conversation flows, their understanding of the product and how to use it grows. So does their sense of connection and relationship with your brand.

A Quiz For Custom Recommendations

Connect customers to various quizzes you have specifically created for the product they bought. A simple QR code with a call to action by it is enough to catch their attention and their interest with this personalized experience. Through these quizzes, show them ways to use the product, and upsell other products in your line. For example, if you are a distributor of produce, create a quiz that leads the customer to their ideal meal match based on their time commitment, cravings and skill level. If accessing the quiz in store, the customer picks up the products they need to make the recipe. If accessed at home, the customer saves the link for next time. Either way, they are entertained with a personalized experience. This develops the relationship between them and your brand.

White Space For Gift Customization

Another tactic is to leave the customization up to your customers. With Valentine’s Day coming up, promotional gift packaging is the key to this technique. Provide customers with space to write notes, draw, and generally connect to the recipient. Make an ad-libs style poem, provide space for the “to” and “from” notations, or simply give them space.

Above is an empty Monrovia R&D design and pot. The label uses metallic stock to catch the customer’s attention and the white space provides them with room to customize. It’s simple, classic, and romantic. It also compliments the product.

A personalized experience should be a creative experience. To delight your customers, consider the problems you help them solve. Show them new and exciting ways to use your product. Most importantly, don’t be boring.