Expert tips for Effective Packaging Designs

Packaging design is one of the first seen brand identities even before the actual purchase is made by a potential consumer. So, why is packaging design so important when we talk about branding? Packaging entices us to look further, it makes a product appear more desirable and if it is used effectively, it can even lure us to buy it.

A luxury product like jewellery spells opulence. To keep the feel alive, a jeweller needs to invest in sound packaging. A good quality jewellery packaging design helps to promote jewellery and other treasures. Customers want to feel pampered when they buy expensive items of jewellery pieces and presentation can be an important part of the process.

Jewellers present this luxurious packaging when customers make a purchase. The packaging displays some real attention to detail, with a unique box style, stunning ribbon, bags and many more.

Being a Brand Identity Agency, we have listed down a few essentials that make a good package. Ribbons, visiting card, warranty/guarantee card, company literature, taking care of your jewellery /easy tips literature, brand logo, colour, carry bag and surprise element.

Nature of the Product: Indian jewellery is vast and diverse. Nature of the product, be it gold or diamond, plays a significant role in packaging of the respective ones. It has been observed that Gold and Antique heavy jewellery is more preferred in earthy shades of packages, whereas pastel shades are chosen for a diamond jewellery package. Overall, whether gold or diamond, the packaging should be consistent with the corporate /brand identity.

Colour: It is associated with your brand and thus, one of the key factors to consider is consistency. By sticking to one or 2 colours, customers will associate those colours with your brand. So, using multiple colours or changing those colours causes customer confusion.

Box: Jewellery box are the storage place for the jewellery. Hence, internally care should be taken that there are no sharp object, which can scratch the jewellery. Preferably, the internal lining of the box should be made up of velvet, satin or like soft materials. Externally the box should carry the identity of the brand. Overall, the package box should be lavish, light weight and optimum.

Logo: An illustration of a logo and logo placement on packaging can go a long way in retaining the identity. A logo or an illustrator or a text should be placed, which can give higher recall to the consumer.

Warranty/Guarantee Certificate: Authenticity Certificates are the trust marks or seals. It acts as an assurance not only for the product, but also for the jeweller. They mark the ethics of a good and sound jeweller. The credibility of these cards builds customer following and brand loyalty.

Brand book/ jewellery care Literature: A good package should accompany a brand book, which can carry the brand beyond store. Similarly, a jewellery care literature mentioning simple tips on it can act as good stimulant for the brand as it builds faith and confidence of the customers.

Ribbons: Ribbon enhances the look and depicts elegance, which is an important element of jewellery. Style of tying a bow and its quality, adds a personal touch and creates a lasting impression and bond between the jeweller and the customer.

Carry Bags/Pouches: Travel pouches make it easier for the customers to carry jewellery while on the move. Carry bags today are preferred eco-friendly/ bio-degradable and re-usable over others. It shows how concern brands are towards environment. Carry bags are yet another form of advertising. Hence, care should be taken that the quality is not compromised and it lives up-to the overall identity and experience curated by the jewellery.

A smart tip from Packaging Design Agency:

Don’t miss the opportunity for branding! Put your website or email address on your packaging, and slip in a couple of business cards.

Jewellery Photography Tips

Jewellery is very difficult to photograph as it reflects maximum light that it receives due to its shiny high-finish glossy surfaces, gemstones and diamonds. Taking good quality pictures of jewelry for most is an unsolved mystery.  The key elements of table top jewellery photography consist of sharpness, lighting, maintaining white balance, elimination of unnecessary shadows and creating some sparkle in case of gemstones. There are some simple techniques used by the professional photographers to obtain dramatic results with minimal effort.

The set-up: The solution to Jewellery photography is the use of an enclosed lighting system. The enclosed system wraps even and balanced light around the entire product you’re photographing. The advantages include an even distribution of light, consistent natural lighting, elimination of glare, and illumination of hard to reach spots. Accessories such as true color daylight balanced compact fluorescent bulbs, a special diamond dazzler LED bulb to light up the diamonds and faceted stones, a tripod, Mx- Photo Box are key to sharp images.

Diffused Lighting: When illuminating jewelry, you have to make sure never to expose it to light directly, as direct light will be reflected on the jewelry, and will create hot spots and shadows. You have probably already discovered that an on-camera flash does not lead to good jewelry photos. Not only is the camera's flash too bright at such a close distance, but it is probably in the wrong position to actually light up the jewelry properly. On camera flash will also create harsh and distracting shadows. Rather than flash, we like to use continuous lighting for product photography. Using continuous lights makes it easier to visualize what the final image will be like.

Continuous natural daylight lighting: The key is to use continuous natural light which has the ability to evenly and accurately reproduce all the spectacular colors found in the different elements of jewelry. Therefore, for photographing jewelry use fluorescent daylight light. Fluorescent compact bulbs provide nice, natural-colored light and they produce very little heat so they can be left on for long photo sessions without over heating the photographer.

White Balance: Maintaining white balance can be a much of a task but a definite way out to successful product photography. You need to be able to program the white balance setting on your camera. Although many cameras will come with pre-program options or presets you need at least one custom white balance option. This means that the camera can "read" and self-adjust itself to be able to take pictures under many light conditions. If your camera cannot perform this custom adjustment, it’s very likely that you’ll end up with badly colored product pictures, especially if you are trying to take pictures of products against a white background. You’ll likely end up with all kinds of color variations: yellow, blue, magenta, green etc.

Avoiding unnecessary shadows and reflections:  When photographing jewelry, there are certain shadows and reflections that might be necessary to create a three-dimensional look. Yet, there are other reflections and shadows that are unnecessary and that you want to avoid in order to have a photograph that presents your jewelry in the best way possible. The first thing you need to understand about reflections and shadows is how they are produced and why they appear or exist and then work on lighting to have the desired effect.  

 Positioning your jewelry - using different jewelry accessories: There are many accessories you can use to hold jewelry items while photographing. Jewelry accessories will help you position rings, earrings, pendants, loose stones, diamonds and other pieces in various positions and angles in order to get a photograph from the perspective you desire. 

Communication in External Environment : Effective Branding Tips

Truth Triumphs!!! Customer is a KING!!! Work is Worship!!! These messages often float in most organizations. However, jewellery business is more based on trust and designs. Often customer at Jewellery stores are given royal treatment because of:

 a) High value attached to jewellery

b) Legacy of business spread across generations.

Etiquettes such as customer service, consumer experience and corporate culture are reflected in the operation of the business. These intangible assets add value and earn a reputation which we called as Goodwill. However, it is also important for the industry to become a wholesome brand by focusing efforts on building tangible assets. With so much competition and every jeweller driving business on faith, it has become crucial to build add-on experience. Effective positioning of tangible brand assets can aid in brand building. 

Tangible Brand Assets:

Logo and tagline: We truly believe in Karl Lagerfield’s saying “Logos and branding are so important. In a big part of the world, people cannot read French and English – but are great in remembering signs” jewellery logo designs have to look modestly prestigious that brings value to their products. Logo designs, which justify the feeling of wealth and aristocracy, appeal their inner personality. A well-crafted logo and tagline starts the baseline perception of your brand. It drives home your brand promise and uniqueness. It is targeted at two simple fundamentals of human psychology, Attention and Retention. 

Marketing Collateral: From business cards to billboards, your marketing and sales collateral reflect your brand. Key visual components, such as color, typography, style of photography and logos on collateral, should always be consistent. Keep in mind; branding is all about repetition, the more consistent your brand is represented, the more likely it will be “branded” in the minds of the audience. As so rightly said in Management Rule, every thing has a place and should be in its place.

Website: Today, a well designed website is worth its weight in gold. Data shows that if a user doesn’t like your website, it’s an indication to them that the company doesn’t care. Responsiveness, user-friendly, easy navigation, swift page- loading are certain essentials of a good website. The placement rule of logos, typography, brand-colors play functional role on websites and thereby supplements branding.

Packaging: Your packaging boxes, jewellery pouches, carry bags, information literature; look-book, guarantee certificates are brand assets which consumers take along with the purchases made. A jeweler has to invest in packaging which prompts indirect advertising and branding. 

Messaging while Rebranding: While undergoing a rebrand, you should be revisiting mission and vision statements. This messaging should trickle down into everything your business uses to communicate with clients, from brochures to daily emails.

Everything your business does and says reflects on your brand—so it’s important to maximize its potential.

Branding in the Jewellery Industry

Branding is a set of tools and activities, which builds a brand or gives an identity to it. It is extremely important in any industry because multiple, competing brands create category excitement and bring new consumers to the market. These competing brands give more choice and clear differentiating product to the consumers. This happens in every industry, including jewellery and luxury goods industry.

Brands occupy a special place in our minds and hearts. Many brands are associated with a known and trusted set of benefits and values that satisfy our rational and emotional need. They can help us distinguish between products, recognize the promise of an understood experience, choose and create preference, and target the people who are going to exercise that choice and preference.

Branding in the Jewellery Industry:

There is a revolution taking place in the jewellery industry and it is the emergence of branding as a powerful force for the future.  Jewellery brands only account for a small percentage of total retail sales. Yet, brands are just as important in generating consumer choice in the industry as they are in other luxury goods categories. There are 4 key reasons why there is huge opportunity for jewellery brands in the future.

a) The diamond jewellery industry is a big business worldwide.
b) The retail market is fragmented.
c) The global jewellery market is largely unbranded.
d) Industry players do not spend significantly to support brands.

The big question - How do you build a BRAND?

Creation of Brand Identities:

Brand has to be built with time. It depicts company’s value and beliefs. Brand identities illustrate and maintain close connection with that perceived image. Taking a step forward to begin branding exercise, it needs to begin with creation of BRAND IDENTITIES. Brand Identities are set of tools, which brings immediate attention and recognition. Hence, it is significant that these identities are created and communicated appropriately. Brand tools can appreciate or depreciate the market value/share of a company.  A very close at home example is of TBZ- the original who came up with multiple chain stores in July 2011 when the company proposed its first IPO. The iconic Zaveri Bazaar store dates back to 1864. With 149 years of consumer patronage, it was a challenge for the group to keep the same warmth and feel with its other stores. Apart from the legacy, décor, jewellery designs and warmth of the salesperson, it was the identities that did the magic. Identities such as logos, brand colors, signatures, brochures, packaging, corporate stationary, advertisements, tv commercials, etc. contributed in empowering TBZ – The Original as the brand.

Branding in the jewellery industry is more than a legacy. It is the core essence of the identity that a jewellery brand creates in the minds of its consumers. To know more, read our next article about Creation of Brand Identities.

Creation of Brand Identities

The visual elements of the brand that together identify and distinguish the brand in consumers mind are brand identities. These elements are colors, design, logo, symbol, signatures, name, font style and size, which help us distinguish between two brands. We call these Identities power tools as they are retained for a longer time in consumers mind. The first step in Brand Building exercise is the creation of identities. Let’s begin with first identity – Logo.

Logos: Logo is a fundamental part of a business and the centre point of a brand identity. It is the first thing that customers see the most and by which they recognize the brand. However when it comes to brand styling, a logo is just the start. Logo as a composition contains several elements such as typography, textures, icons, patterns, emblems, symbols. Logo evolution dates back to industrial revolution. From early days of Industrial Revolution to Modern era, logo development has been re-positioned with every passing time. Today, it has developed into a brand equity asset.

Color: Color is an important element of visual brand identity and color mapping provides an effective way of ensuring that a color contributes to differentiation in a visually cluttered marketplace. Many brands associate colors with company values and same are perceived in consumers mind. Colors can be depicted in logo, products or packaging.  The particular Tiffany blue or called as Robin’s-egg-blue has made the Tiffany Blue Box® an international icon signifying the excellence of all Tiffany & Co. designs.  They have been able to do this by maintaining consistent use of colour across all their communications – boxes, shopping bags, advertising and other promotional materials. It is a trademark color and reference number given represents the birth year of the Tiffany & Co.  The color represents creativity, communication, modern & forward thinking, which acts as a stimulator for the brand Tiffany.

Typography: The style or way you write is Typography. It is an identity, which is common irrespective of the languages it is translated and spelled in. The font, style, size and color are usually identical throughout all markets, channels and aids in building brands. A much known example can be taken of Coco-Cola. The cola giant’s typography is recognizable world-wide. The Coca-Cola translated in various languages ensures the same font style and Color scheme. SO whether its Hindi or Russian, the Koka-kona will have the wave and the Gotham font with symbolic red color as the brand identity.  The power of brand identities is to secure a position in consumers mind by keeping it simple, clear and distinctive in all markets. Typography in luxury segments has been given due importance to spell opulence. The Indian Jewellery Industry segment is still naïve to develop brand identities. Internationally acclaimed, Harry Winston uses stacked “H & W” that are the first initials of its name in an emerald shape frame (which is an emerald cut diamond), giving importance to typography.

Symbols:  Symbols were supposed to be first language of communication. Egyptians encrypted special codes in form of symbols on the mummies.  Symbols convey different meanings in different regions, but there are few symbols which are common worldwide. It is important to design symbol in such a way that it does not hurt sentiments of mass and at the same time depicts the core aesthetics of the company. The twin interlocking C’s with one facing right and other left of luxury French Brand Coco Chanel is symbolic and constitutes their logo.

Packaging:  Packaging today has become very crucial for most of the Business. Apart from the product as the key strength of any business, it is the package that stays with a customer and gives first impression of the brand. Packaging has to be innovative, compact and offer protection to control damage. It also acts as a salesman. It conveys about both,the product and the Company. Hence,utmost care is taken while packaging. These days, due significance is given on protection of environment; hence eco-friendly packages are being developed by the companies. Jewellery Companies’ packages have also come a long way. Apart from the protective case to the product, the package also includes company product literature on how your product was made, imprint of company logo on the product for easy recognition, certificate of authentication and a digital story to give the whole experience every-time you open the box.

Jingle/Slogans/Taglines: Jingles or slogans have been in use for a long time. These slogans or jingles help the consumers’ to recall the brand in their minds. No one can eat just one – Lays, ting-ting-tining – Britannia, or as I am targeting Luxury Jewellery Segment let me say ‘Hira hai sada ke liye’- Yes, u guessed it right, Its De-Beers. De-beers is the Trendsetter for the jewellery Industry. They are the very first players in Gem and Jewellery segment to promote through advertising and connect to consumers with an emotional appeal.  For Indian markets, the above tag line caught instantly and till date it continues to use this in all its TV commercials. 

These identities have helped the brands to grow over the period of time and make space in the minds of their target audience. If they are communicated well, they become signature elements and Brand Assets.