Custom cereal boxes have become the need of every household. As a matter of fact, Americans buy 2.7 billion of these boxes each year. You see, there is huge potential in this market. If you are also looking to enter this segment, leverage the power of customization to attract buyers and make a solid reputation. Techniques like printing and finishing touches will uplift your packaging, resulting in more engagement and sales. Let’s have a look at how you can make your own cereal box more adaptable.
Different Types of Custom Cereal Boxes
The first step of customization is to get versatile packaging. It is not only necessary to fulfill the needs of your products but can also create brand differentiation in the market. Although a major share is grabbed by standard-shaped rectangular or square boxes, custom shapes are also available in the market. See whether they can satisfy your user’s intent and choose the ones from the below:
Window Cereal Boxes
Equipped with a die-cut, these boxes are designed to give a sneak peek of your cereal items. The purpose of window cereal boxes is to produce transparency among your buyers, winning their trust.
Reverse Tuck Boxes
These boxes are designed to provide ultimate protection for your items. The power of reverse tucks keeps your items from spilling, as well as protecting them during handling and transit. Most reverse tuck boxes are often made of corrugated material, which brings an added security feature to your custom cereal box packaging line-up.
Auto-lock Bottom Boxes
Do you need a secure and efficient packaging box? Order auto-lock bottom boxes. Their bases are strengthened with pre-glued flaps. Further, when they are assembled into a 3D shape, these flaps automatically join together, ensuring a streamlined assembly process.
Mini Cereal Boxes
Mostly designed for single servings or sample sizes, these custom boxes are perfect for packaging small cereal items. On top of that, they are useful for on-the-go buyers or promotional giveaways.
Custom-Shaped Cereal Boxes
If you are looking to craft tailor-made packaging, custom-shaped cereal boxes can help. You can craft them in whatever look you want, enhancing your visibility and customer attraction. One example of such innovative packaging is custom pyramid boxes.
How are Cereal Boxes Printed?
You can print a box of cereal with the help of different types, such as digital printing, offset printing, and screen printing. Each one of them has distinctive features, offering you unique perks. Let’s quickly have a look at them:
Digital printing: If you need quick and sharp results, go with digital printing. This type often utilizes results in CMYK format. Due to its less durable prints, brands prefer this printing type only for promotional as well as seasonal items. Further, it is quite affordable, allowing you to print even smaller batches of less than 500 boxes.
Offset printing: Do you need accurate and punchy colors? Use offset printing to design your boxes. The best thing about this type is that it can give you output in both CMYK format as well as PMS – where PMS is more accurate in color reproduction. Due to its higher cost, offset is only preferred for large batches.
Screen printing: This type leverages results in bold hues. With the help of a pencil and mesh, ink is directly transferred to the boxes, printing your design. You can also use screen printing to give special final touches to your boxes, such as embossing or debossing.
How to Design a Cereal Box?
Designing custom cereal packaging boxes is an essential thing to create a distinction in the market and differentiate your brands from others. The following are the tips that can help you design your box:
Define Your Brand Identity
First of all, you need to describe the niche, intent, and your target audience. Leverage colors, logos, and custom messages to educate your buyers about your brand. Introducing consistency in your lineup will unconsciously settle your company in your customers’ minds, increasing brand recalls.
Specify Box Shape and Size
Determine the shape and size you want for your products. Are you looking for a standard yet affordable rectangular shape? Or do you want to go with some bespoke form factor to introduce surprising factors to your buyers? Whatever figure you choose, keep in mind your target audience and the product’s needs.
Include Essential Elements
Next, you need to work on other essentials in your box. Mostly, these are relevant to your product and tell customers what to expect when they open the personalized cereal box. These essentials are given below:
- Product name
- Ingredient details
- Nutrition facts
- Weight of the product
- Barcode with product details for scanning purposes
- Sales, promotions, and customized recipes (optional)
Finalize the Packaging
The last step is to finalize your packaging. Get your boxes from suppliers and review them. Check for color accuracy and look for errors in the text. Further, also ensure that all the graphics, such as logos or other pictures, are as per your needs. Once you are okay with the quality, bring the box to the market and pack your items in it. Keep a close eye on the buyers and see how they respond to it. Get their feedback to better your cereal boxes.
How can Cereal Boxes Be Used as a Promotional Tool?
Custom printed cereal boxes are not only about protecting your package, but they can also be used to market your brand. With the help of different marketing strategies, you can effectively target your customers, boosting your sales. Let’s explore these functional techniques and see how they can benefit you:
- Limited Edition Designs: Create limited editions or seasonal packaging boxes and produce an urgency among your buyers. It has been found that FOMO (fear of missing out) is a big factor in uplifting sales and user participation.
- Interactive Designs: Leverage the power of interactive elements such as QR codes to encourage your buyers to interact with your brand. You can link these codes to your social platforms, increasing your online presence. Another nuanced perk of this aspect is that it also brings online publicity for free, giving you word-of-mouth marketing.
- Product Collaborations: Join hands with various industry artists and market your brand among their fan base. In fact, collaboration is one of the easiest and quickest ways to get viral. General Mills is a food brand that collaborated with the K-pop brand TOMORROW X TOGETHER and created collectible cereal boxes.
- Promotional Offers: Introduce discounts on your boxes to quickly bring them up in front of your buyers. Techniques like “flat 20% off” or “up to 30% off” have been quite effective in upselling the products.
- Sustainability: The global world is changing at a rapid pace, and they are now embracing eco-friendly products to make the planet more habitable. If you also adopt this approach, it will give you dual benefits – saving costs on premium customizations, as well as letting you charge higher pricing. Materials such as Kraft stock, paperboard, and cardboard are green in nature and can be utilized to make your brand sustainable.
Looking for a way to get affordable customization on your custom cereal boxes? Contact Packaging Mania to avail free design support. Get 10% off on same-day orders and complimentary shipping to anywhere in the US.
