Carton packaging is a popular option across numerous industries, including food, cosmetics, and electronics. But how can your brand make its carton packaging stand out?
The reason cartons are such a common form of packaging is, primarily, their versatility. Options span from basic, unbranded brown cardboard to luxe, brand-aligned offerings that consider even the tiniest details. For instance, the type of packing tape or sealing sticker used.
Over half of consumers say they’re likely to make a repeat purchase from a brand with ‘premium’ packaging. 40% say they’d share a picture of a visually interesting package.
So, let’s explore how the right custom carton packaging can add intrigue, personality and stand-out appeal to your products.
Why Choose Carton Packaging for Your Product
At Meridian, we work with a diverse range of brands to produce thoughtful, bespoke carton board packaging. These businesses choose carton packaging to ship or sell their products in for the following reasons:
- Sustainability: 78% of consumers strongly prefer sustainable packaging, and the vast majority of carton packaging (including printed carton packaging) is recyclable and biodegradable. This allows businesses to reduce their carbon footprint and make environmentally responsible choices that align with customers.
- Cost-effectiveness: Carton packaging is made of cardboard. Cardboard packaging is generally cheaper to produce and purchase than plastic packaging, especially for bulk orders, allowing businesses to reinvest their savings elsewhere.
- Durability: While carton packaging is lightweight, it’s designed to have a surprising degree of internal strength once assembled. This structural soundness is built into the product, reducing the risk of transit damage before (or after, for that matter) a product reaches a customer.
- Customisability: As we’ll explore further in this article, carton packaging is perfect for customisation and personalisation. It’s a versatile product with extensive design possibilities, adjustable in size, shape, structure and design.
Things to Consider for Your Custom Carton Packaging
The UK’s custom packaging market is forecast to expand at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 4.4% between 2025 and 2035. Personalising your folding carton packaging and leveraging the four key benefits noted above is the way forward. As you do, be sure to consider:
- What is the purpose of this packaging? Is your packaging for shipping, retail display or gifting? Does it need to be reusable? Does it do, in broad terms, what your customer needs it to do?
- What is the budget for this packaging? What options are then available to you within that budget? How can you ensure the money you invest is well spent and yields a return through sales?
- Is this packaging design well-considered? Does your packaging marry with your brand story? Have you carefully considered logo placement, colour palette, and essential information to include? Have you chosen the right type of carton packaging for the product you have in mind?
- Will this packaging help me connect with customers? Are you including interactive, customer-experience-improving elements, such as QR codes, branded stickers, or inserts? Have you considered your target customer?
How Can We Customise Your Carton Packaging?
At Meridian, our luxury carton packaging is offered to customers as part of a fully custom process that gives brands as much freedom as possible over how their products look. In terms of the production journey:
- We’ll decide on the design. If you need design help, our in-house team provides full-service support. We can build everything you need from scratch, according to your preferences, ideas and existing assets. If you already have a design in mind, we’ll work with you to make it happen.
- You’ll choose a carton structure that suits your product/design plans from our range of A-frames, crash-lock bases, pillow boxes, and clean-fold formats.
- You’ll choose your finish, lamination style, coating and ink, with all the following available:
Finish options:
- Metallic hot foil printing
- Metallic cold foil printing
- Gloss UV coating
- Embossing
- Debossing
- Embossing and foil printing combination finish
- Window patch (die-cutting, creating a plastic film window)
Lamination options:
- Standard lamination (wrapping in protective film to increase durability)
- Anti-scratch lamination using scratch, scuff and fingerprint-resistant BOPP film
- Soft-touch lamination available in a satin or matte finish
Coating options:
- UV coating available in a gloss or matte finish
- Soft-touch coating
- Clear varnish coating available in a gloss, satin or matte finish
Ink options:
- Water-based ink (eco-friendly, quality colour output)
- Soy or vegetable ink (eco-friendly, vibrant colour output)
- Fluorescent ink (bright, opaque colour output)
- Oil-based ink (quality colour output)
- Pantone precision colour
- Pantone metallic precision colour
- We’ll get to work bringing your packaging to life, offering speedy turnaround time and flexibility for smaller batch orders. Every carton will be made to order at our UK facility.
Personalise your Carton Packaging Today
There are many ways to make your carton packaging feel more personal. More capable of connecting with your customers and driving sales. Better aligned to your brand voice and story. Distinct and set apart from other packaging on the shelves around it.
If you’re overwhelmed by the custom carton packaging options available to you, contact us to talk everything through.
We’re more than your manufacturer. Together, we can combine our expertise to get to the heart of what will work best for your products.