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Custom-printed packaging for both physical retail purchases and online order fulfillment
Case study
Younique Culture Boutique.
When this unique clothing boutique wanted to extend their branding with custom-printed packaging, Brown & Pratt provided solutions.
Case Study highlights
Extended Branding with Custom-Printed Packaging.
01. Collaboration
Building a solid foundation with robust solutions to initial needs.
02. Packaging Specs
Putting in the extra effort needed to solve challenges and meet needs.
03. Flexibility
Bringing your A-game to meet evolving needs over time.
04. Learning
Willingness to pursue unique solutions outside your comfort zone.
Collaboration
Client Relationship and Problem-Solving
She noticed some of her competitors had well-branded packaging and she wanted to establish new packaging for her products that would capture the unique vibe of her physical and digital retail operations.
Younique Culture Boutique was launched in 2014 with a physical retail store in Plainfield, Indiana, followed by its online store in 2015. When the owner approached Brown & Pratt, she explained how she had noticed some of her competitors had well-branded packaging and she wanted to establish new packaging for her products that would capture the unique vibe of her physical and digital retail operations. As the company website puts it:
“We are dedicated to providing a unique selection of women’s clothing, select men’s clothing, accessories, and home décor, all for reasonable prices. We want to help people find their edge; to style what fits their personality. We want to help our customers think outside the box and get them out of their comfort zone. People deserve to not only wear what they want, but to wear it with confidence.”
“Why fit in when you were made to stand out?” (Dr. Seuss)
- Branded cardboard boxes for online order fulfillment.
- Branded carton sealing tape for online order fulfillment.
- Branded poly mailer bags for online order fulfillment.
- Branded merchandise bags for physical retail store purchases.
- Branded masking tape to fasten tissue paper wrappings on physical retail store purchases.
Bringing your A-game to the table for a potential new client is critical, and we put our best effort forward to meet the client’s initial needs, thereby establishing a robust collaborative working relationship. This was the solid foundation needed so we could build upon it moving forward.
Packaging Specs
Putting in the Extra Effort Needed to Solve Challenges and Meet Needs
For the physical retail store purchases, the client was already using a heavier-duty, high-density poly shopping bag to which she was applying peel-and-stick labels with the company logo for branding purchases. What she wanted to do was have something like that printed instead of using stickers. This was different than what most boutique stores do, which is typically a printed paper merchandise bag because it’s the least expensive way to achieve customized merchandise bags. This client’s choice was brilliant because the style of shopping bag she wanted was one people would naturally reuse many times, giving it a much longer brand-impact life cycle than a paper bag.
The Brown & Pratt solution for this piece of the puzzle was to go with a hot stamping printing process, which is a more visually striking way of custom-branding this type of bag, resulting in a more textured appearance (inset or raised) than traditional ink printing. We produced two different sizes of bags (smaller and larger) onto which we hot stamp the company logo in silver metallic. We immediately encouraged the client to add the online store’s URL, as opposed to a phone number, since this is the quickest way for people to connect with the client’s company in the digital era.
For the custom-printed poly mailer bag, the client settled on a mid-sized bag that could handle most of her online orders. The client’s artwork for the mailer bags was something very unique and a style never before printed by Brown & Pratt. It was a very finely detailed graphic with a font like no other that would cover nearly all of both sides of the poly mailer bag. After checking in with the B&P graphic design staff, we determined we could, in fact, do it!
The result is the creation of the most unique custom-printed poly mailer bag we’ve ever done! Getting there, however, was no easy feat. The initial artwork provided was simply not of a high-enough resolution. We had to dig deep into our graphic expertise to enhance the artwork to the point it could be used. And the result was well worth the effort! The branding impact of this mailer bag is clear. When customers receive an order in one of these bags, they know immediately who it’s from. The client was incredibly pleased with this packaging because it completely aligned with the vision of what she wanted—high visual impact and quite unique.
We had to dig deep into our graphic expertise to enhance the artwork to the point it could be used. And the result was well worth the effort!
flexibility
The challenge here was to find a way to get her unique branding onto the bag in small production runs. Custom printing wasn’t an option here due to the minimum order required for it to be cost effective.
Around the one-year mark of working with this client, the owner came back to us with a new need. She wanted a smaller kind of Euro tote gift bag. The challenge here was to find a way to get her unique branding onto the bag in small production runs. Custom printing wasn’t an option here due to the minimum order required for it to be cost effective. She was looking for limited quantities to use for holiday giveaway promotions.
While the obvious solution here was to apply an adhesive label to the high-gloss black bag, the challenge was figuring out how to make it look like it was printed and not a label. We were able to produce a silver metallic-backed label that would reverse through 100% black print. The result was the custom branded gift bag she wanted without being able to tell it was an adhesive label applied to the bag. It literally looks as if it was a custom print job.
The client was very happy with the look and feel of this label, so much so that she began finding other ways to use the label on other packaging products she already had on hand. It turned out to be a very versatile branding tool she uses in a variety of applications.
Working with this client for years has reinforced an important aspect of how Brown & Pratt works with evolving needs over time: It’s critical to approach each new need with the same energy, passion, and commitment to finding solutions that we brought to the table to land the client in the first place. Just because a client has worked with you for years doesn’t mean you can afford to deprioritize new projects with them. Client retention is every bit as important as landing new clients!
Learning
The same is true for the custom adhesive label. Were we 100% sure we could pull off an adhesive label so it would look like the branding had been printed on the euro tote gift bag? No, but we were reasonably confident we could make it happen. In the spirit of nothing ventured, nothing gained, we tackled the challenge head-on and ended up hitting another home run for the client.
Another learning point here is meeting the client where they’re at. This client’s mode of operation is being unique, being original, and standing out from competitors. We had to take on this mindset ourselves if we were going to rise to the challenge of meeting those unique needs. It simply wouldn’t do to just offer up the standard solutions most clients want because those would all have fallen far short of this client’s vision.
Brown & Pratt: Your Custom Printed Packaging Partner
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