Each year, the specialty coffee sector becomes more competitive as new players emerge and consumers become more demanding.
Therefore, it is essential roasters and coffee shops develop a full marketing strategy that helps them connect with customers. More so, this strategy should communicate the brands’ values and the unique characteristics of the coffees it offers.
Innovative product packaging is the key to surviving in such a demanding and dynamic market. One such innovation in the packaging industry is custom-printed sleeves for coffee bags.
Custom-printed sleeves can be used on coffee bags and mailer boxes, and offer several benefits and functions that can help create a unique customer experience.
Read on to find out how roasters can use custom-printed sleeves to enhance their coffee packaging.
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What are packaging sleeves & why are they used?
While packaging sleeves have been used across the food industry for years, they have only recently become popular within the specialty coffee market.
Roasters and coffee shops are seeing the marketing and functional properties of this easily customisable, often inexpensive form of packaging.
Essentially, packaging sleeves, also known as belly band packaging, refer to a piece of paper or cardboard that wraps around an object such as a bag, box, or jar.
Sleeves are often customised with the brands’ logo and additional product information about the product within.
As packaging sleeves lack any barrier properties and only wrap primary packaging, they are often used for marketing purposes. Custom-printed sleeves can help roasters engage with customers and communicate any product promotions.
More so, packaging sleeves can be customised to reflect extra information about the coffee, such as origins, flavour notes, and brewing instructions without affecting the design of the primary coffee packaging.
Sleeves can help roasters highlight elements of their product in a practical and efficient way while increasing its attractiveness. They can often be seen across the cosmetics, food, and jewellery industries.
What are the benefits of custom-printed sleeves for coffee bags?
The main benefit of custom-printed sleeves is the role it plays in the sales process.
The sales process has different steps, one of which is customer awareness. In essence, this refers to the moment a customer spots a product, in this case, a coffee bag.
According to recent studies, it takes the average consumer around 8 seconds to decide whether to purchase a product.
Therefore, it is essential the design of the coffee bag captures consumer attention and keeps it long enough to encourage a sale.
A well-designed custom-printed sleeve on a coffee bag can do just that, at half the cost of customised coffee packaging.
More so, modern coffee consumers have a strong interest in the value chain of specialty coffee, as well as growing concerns around packaging waste and pollution.
Many have the desire to feel a connection with their favourite coffees that goes back to the farm.
Using packaging sleeves on coffee bags can help roasters communicate this information to customers without crowding the packaging’s design. Roasters can convey the coffee’s processing method, information about the farmer, and methods on how best to brew the coffee.
This additional packaging can help roasters present their product in a unique way that may help increase sales and customer engagement.
Packaging sleeves are also incredibly flexible in how they can be used. For example, depending on their size, custom-printed sleeves can be used on both coffee bags and coffee mailer boxes.
Therefore, they are the ideal investment for seasonal products, special editions, or product variations.
What to consider when designing custom-printed packaging sleeves
Packaging design is one of the most important elements in product development.
It forms part of the customer experience and is a powerful tool to connect and communicate with the customer base.
Therefore, there are many elements roasters must consider when designing custom-printed sleeves for coffee bags.
The main element is being able to reflect the brand’s personality, values, and mission to customers accurately. This is likely to be a factor in whether customers will continue to support a roaster.
Roasters should also understand local preferences and ensure the coffee bag design connects with them, as this can increase sales and customer loyalty.
More so, it is important that roasters have a clear goal in mind when designing and printing packaging sleeves.
For example, will it be used to convey additional product information? Will it be designed solely to attract the attention of consumers? Or will it be used to promote a limited edition or seasonal coffee offering?
These decisions will influence the look and feel of the packaging sleeve and ultimately determine the overall cost.
Custom-print sleeves for coffee bags allow roasters to choose more robust options for their primary coffee packaging, such as kraft paper or low-density polyethylene (LDPE).
Using a customised packaging sleeve allows for roasters to offer customers the best of both worlds – a customised look and feel that is sturdy enough to ship and protect the beans inside.
For many businesses, buying packaging in bulk can be the cheapest option. That said, some may lack the room to store it.
Packaging sleeves can be stored flat and take up minimal space. This means roasters and coffee shops can order large quantities whatever the size of their premises.
At MTPak Coffee, we help our roasters create the best coffee packaging to create a unique experience for their customers.
Our range of 100% recyclable coffee packaging is made from renewable materials such as kraft paper, rice paper, or multilayer LDPE packaging with an environmentally friendly PLA lining.
Our coffee bags and custom coffee boxes can be embossed, debossed, foil stamped, or fully customised with QR codes, transparent windows, or tasting cards, to meet your marketing needs.
More so, our 100% recyclable cardboard packaging sleeves can be customised in the same ways.
Using innovative digital printing technology, we are able to help you with a quick turnaround time of 40-hours and 24-hour shipping time.
MTPak Coffee also offers low minimum order quantities (MOQs) to micro-roasters who are looking to remain agile while showcasing brand identity and a commitment to the environment.
