For those who consume it, tea is more than just a product. It is a profound experience, a bonding ritual, an everyday essential. People take their tea very seriously; Hence, it is no surprise that tea brands have to stay at the top of their game when curating and marketing their products.
Tea entrepreneurs know their blends need to be perfect, aromatic, and pack the right punch. However, before the taste, the packaging is what entices the customer. Your tea packaging must echo your brand identity and be suitable for the type of blend and mix you are selling.
Today, we’ll help you identify and understand what makes the best packaging for your tea brand, plus what to keep in mind when deciding on the final look. Let’s get steeping!
Identify Your Target Audience
Undoubtedly the first question brands seek to answer is: who is their ideal customer? It defines who to sell to and drives your product, business, and marketing strategy.
Tea is a versatile product with multiple blends, and customer choices vary region-wise. Black tea is popular in the West, while green tea reigns in the East. Within the East, South Asia boasts of multiple tea choices – chai, fruit teas, or khadas. With such an array of market segments, identifying and focusing on your ideal customer can help you focus on perfecting the blend and marketing of your product.
Get the Tea on Your Competition
Once you have identified the segment you want to focus on, scout out your competition. It will help identify best practices for the segment, understand what the customers prefer (and why), and highlight areas of differentiation.
Studying how the competitor brands look, taste, and approach the market can help you strategize your entry into the market. Focus on brands with similar offerings and observe how they brand, market, distribute and promote their products. Competitor intelligence will help you create a brand identity and presence that will set it apart from your rivals and give your product its uniqueness.
The next step is to focus on product packaging. Custom tea packaging creates an emotional connection with the brand and will help enhance brand loyalty.
Tea Packaging Types
Packaging is an important facet of any brand, especially tea brands. Tea packaging should complement the blend and mixture to help preserve its freshness and taste. The packaging material should offer protection from moisture and hot and humid conditions.
The most popular tea packaging materials are cardboard boxes, stand-up pouches, and canisters…
Cardboard Boxes
Undoubtedly, everyone is familiar with tea packed in cardboard boxes. These boxes or custom folded cartons are versatile and popular packing materials. They are the perfect packaging for tea blends and leaves pre-packed in sealed plastic or foil bags.
Cartons are easy to design for custom tea packaging. Custom-designed labels, branding artwork, and visuals can be printed with ease. Additionally, the carton sizes can be customized for multiple SKUs and variants, allowing for cohesive product marketing efforts. They can also take unique shapes and sizes, making your brand stand out from the rest.
Stand-Up Pouches
Stand-up pouches are resealable packs and are popular packaging for tea. They are suitable for both loose tea leaves as well as sachets.
Like cartons, they offer adequate space for branding, custom tea labeling, and designing. They are cheap and easy to use for customers, making them a popular choice.
Cannisters
The two packaging materials mostly used for canisters are metal and cardboard. Metallic tins can be in any shape or size, leaving you open to various choices that complement your branding style. Cardboard tubes are also popular.
Canisters serve best for packaged or loose tea. You can custom design labels and packaging for your brand setting it apart from the rest. The packaging also becomes a popular choice as the canisters can be reused for multiple purposes by customers.
Pick the Perfect Tea Packaging for your Brand
When the time comes for you to select a tea packaging style, you’ll have several options to choose from based on your company’s needs. Make sure you choose a style that aligns with your brand. When choosing the package, you must take three aspects into special consideration. The packaging should keep the tea fresh, make usage and storage convenient, and should be eco-friendly.
The right material and shape will complement not only the product, but also your tea labeling and branding. Once you have chosen the best material, the next step is to use it creatively on the packaging.
Design Stunning Custom Labels and Visuals
Packaging visuals include brand names, logos, taglines, custom images, product information, and labels. Custom label printing and visuals support your marketing efforts and help customers recognize your product among several other brands. Hence, it is important to give them careful consideration.
Your product packaging should include your brand name and logo, as well as also contain relevant product information (such as ingredients) and visuals. Ensure that the visuals are relevant to the type of tea you are selling and the variant.
The colors chosen are also part of your brand identity. When you differentiate variants based on colors, you need to ensure that the different colors are congruent with your brand colors and identity for brand recognition!
Special ingredients and benefits should be front and center on your labels or tea packaging so they grab the customer’s attention. For example, chamomile tea is often used for calming and soothing nerves, hence, a pack should communicate this clearly so shoppers know exactly the value they’re getting from your tea product.
Labels and packaging represent your brand and help you communicate with customers at the point-of-sale. Your packaging needs to be neat and simplistic but eye-catching. With such an incredible emphasis on the visual element, we recommend consulting a designer who can help you optimize the best use of the limited real estate on the packaging.
If you’re looking for professionals to help you design and print custom tea labels, M&R Label is ready to help! With over 30 years of cross-industry experience, we’re professionals in helping businesses in all industries create custom, high-quality labels. Connect with our team for a consultation and to learn how we can add value to your product marketing with premium, custom labels that set your brand apart from the competition.
