Building a strong perfume brand means stacking up the right components in the right ways to attract customers and keep them. A foundational part of your perfume brand identity is your image – packaging, design, and values, all stemming from your product’s appearance.
At Fillcon, we provide a comprehensive service for perfume filling, ensuring your products are ready for the store shelf. In this article, we’ll get you up to speed with industry standards for packaging and design, and set you up to make a big impact in your target audience.
Already got your packaging and need it filled? Get in touch today!
The Importance of Packaging for Perfume Branding
When a customer first sees your product, they’re unlikely to recognise its quality or benefits right away – unless you have the right packaging to communicate it. They may not be in a position to try your product, or there may be other competitors that could draw their attention away, such as on the shelf at a store.
You need to provide the right incentive for them to pick your product over anyone else’s. The only way to do that is through your product’s packaging.
Picking the right packaging for your product helps it stand out among your competitors, conveying the essence of what your product and brand are about. It should reflect the quality and substance of your product, with visual indicators to show what the scent is or what image it creates – such as gold to represent luxury, or floral decals to indicate the scent.
The best packaging is also robust, makes the product easy to use and store, and comes with environmental benefits like being able to refill or recycle it.
All these are factors to consider when designing your perfume branding and packaging, and are why it’s so important to get this step right in the competitive market of retail fragrances.
Another great way to get your product in front of your customers is through fragrance samples. These give a sneak peek as to what your perfume is like, with just enough to get a solid use while leaving them wanting more.
Find out more about Fillcon’s perfume sampling solutions >
How to Design Effective Packaging
Now you know why your perfume packaging is important, it’s time to learn how to design it effectively. This will take into account fundamentals like your selected vessel, all the way to the brand identity of your business at large.
Identify Key Packaging Elements
There are two main elements for your product packaging:
1. The Container or Bottle
The container you use is important as it’s what the customer will use to apply the product. It should be easy to store, as inconvenient shapes, while eye-catching, may instead turn people away. It should also be easy to apply the product. Perfumes typically use an atomiser pump that turns the liquid fragrance into a fine mist. We encourage breaking the mould, and will fill any vessel of your choosing, but sometimes it’s best to stick to the fundamentals.
In terms of the design for your container, basics like the product name and your brand logo and name should always be included. Other factors like product information are a legal requirement, so can’t be skipped. Generally, perfume brands tend to keep a minimalist design for their perfume bottles, creating a luxury look for what is often an expensive product.
2. The External Packaging e.g. a Card Envelope
An often-overlooked part of your product packaging is the packaging for the container. This can come in several stages, from the individual packaging for each product to the box that a unit might come in.
These bits of packaging are an opportunity to add colour to your perfume’s packaging design. Typically, your perfume bottle will be clear, coloured only by your branding and the liquid inside. Having other colours and imagery around it can help provide a visual element that sets you apart from other products and draws customers to you.
The box for the unit is also important, as sometimes stores use them to conveniently display products on a shelf. Making sure this is appropriate for your product is also a must to make sure you stand the best chance at a sale.
Brand Identity
A lot of your perfume packaging design comes from your brand identity. From the colours you choose, to the image and feeling you wish to convey, to the logo on the front of your product, there are many different elements derived from your overall brand.
Consider how you want customers to interact with your products. When will they be used? What’s your target audience? Is there a motif or particular style you want to go for? Try to align yourself with these goals. What’s important is that your brand identity reflects values you believe in, and that it accurately shows your story and quality, as customers tend to value integrity highly.
Brands that Excelled in Perfume Branding Through Design
Diesel: Fuel for Life
The simple rustic packaging of Diesel’s Fuel for Life gives an immediate impression of the product’s scent. Despite being themed as a paper bag with a twine cord for the box and a canvas sack to hold the bottle, it still manages to give off an air of excellence, showing how simplicity and the basics can give off a premium feel when used with confidence.
Vilhelm Parfumerie
The Vilhelm Parfumerie offers a range of fragrances with boxes featuring a golden yellow design with black zigzag patterns down the sides. These patterns are actually the names of the product, repeated over and over, showing a creative use of branding to act as the décor. A simple theme, but striking enough to leave an impression, and easy to apply to any of their range of products.
Chanel: No. 5
The simple, angular bottle of Chanel No. 5, inspired by whiskey bottles, is in stark contrast to the complex and massively successful scent held within. The clear bottle shows the perfume inside, and serves as an icon of simplicity. In 2019 in the UK alone, Chanel No. 5 was used by around 1.92 million people, and still stands as one of the most well-renowned perfumes in the world.
Opium
The 1977 relaunch of the fragrance Opium was met with controversy due to its name, which only served to spark intrigue. Featuring packaging with vibrant reds and yellows, sometimes with a feathered cord reminiscent of old opium bottles, this product was certainly eye-catching. It sold $30 million in Europe within a year, and is still one of the top 10 best-selling perfumes in France.
One Million by Paco Rabanne
On the complete opposite end of simplicity is men’s fragrance One Million, which slaps you in the face with luxury via a bottle in the form of a gold bar. While some attempts at this could come off tacky, One Million managed to sell 20 million units within just 2 years, showing the power that a powerful design can hold.
Your Perfume Formulation and Filling Solution from Fillcon
Develop a brand that reflects your goals, and translate this into product packaging that shows your product’s unique values. This is the best way to set yourself up for success in the competitive market of perfumes, helping you stand out against your competitors and catch the eye of browsing customers.
Once you’ve got the perfume and the packaging, the next step is to pack it all together. At Fillcon, we provide a comprehensive service for fragrance formulation and filling, and can even do the final-stage assembly, ensuring your product is fit for the store shelf. With other services like quality sampling, we’re your one-stop shop for fragrance filling. Get in touch today to get started!