Choosing the Right Substrate(Board) for your Carton

How To Choose the Right Board for Your Carton

In this article for Sappi Packaging and Speciality Paper Blog, Didem Tekbas explains the importance of touch and packaging substrate (also known as cardboard/cartonboard/board ) in a consumer’s purchasing decisions.

Below we have summarised the article. Read time approx. 3 minutes.

Your Packaging Creates the First Impression

“You only get one chance to make a first impression” With any packaged product, it is the outer carton or sleeve that will create this first impression. It is essential to engage with the consumer immediately, as there is rarely a chance to change this initial perception. Attractive packaging will help a product stand out and the board on which the carton or sleeve is printed in extremely important in getting this right.

Have you ever bought something without seeing it first hand or seeing photographs of it? Probably not very often. Therefore, the packaging’s job is to attract the consumer’s attention. Then it stimulates a positive feeling, which the consumer invariably projects onto the product.

Packaging Can Appeal to the Senses

A printed item can be seen, touched, even smelt! Therefore, print is ideally suited to the brain. It also offers more possibilities than ever for marketers through finishing and new technologies. At the Creatura’s event  “The Print-Effect” Sappi talked about how choosing the right substrate matters for consistent brand communication.

(Creatura is a joint project of various decision-makers in communication and print. The team has set itself the goal of making the possibilities of multisensory print communication known. It advises on effective design in print communication.)

Conveying your brand message through printed packaging

One of the less well-known criteria is how the brightness of the packaging board contributes to buying decisions. In a bright cartonboard the contrast provides a wider overall spectrum of reproducible colours and provides the best base for printing. It also creates an image of freshness, vitality, cleanliness and purity.

Once the consumer has noticed the product, they pick it up and turn the packaging around in their hands, as if seeking confirmation that their initial visual instinct was correct. Therefore, how the packaging feels is important and how it feels will depend on the quality, thickness, colour and finish of the board. All of these elements must be consistent with the brand message e,g, if your food product’s brand message is one of a wholesome, chunky, natural food, then a thin cartonboard with glossy, elaborate, foiled finish may not be consistent with your brand message.

Total consistency in brand communication

To know which cartonboard, finish, shape, and design to use, always start by looking at the target audience, the product you offer, where the product is offered, and your core brand It is important to convey total brand consistency throughout the brand communication.You can read the full article here 

You can also check out Dollard Packaging own article on choosing the perfect board for your packaging here