Thanks to their variety of delectable flavour profiles and inviting aromas, coffee attracts at least one billion consumers worldwide.
According to the National Coffee Association, coffee consumption has soared to a two-decade high as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions. With more consumers perusing the shelves and online coffee brands, it is crucial for roasters to ensure their packaging stands out from the competition.
Custom-print coffee bags can help attract the attention of consumers and tell them everything they need to know about a brand in a single glance. Custom-print packaging provides roasters with a greater level of customisation by using all the available space on a bag to communicate with customers.
To find out more about how roasters can custom-print their coffee bags to make them a talking point among consumers, I spoke with the founder and CEO of Gripps Coffee, Alex Garrett.
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Why does coffee bag design matter?
In essence, coffee packaging is another marketing tool for a roaster’s product.
Coffee bags not only communicate brand identity and product quality but also help the consumer get to know a roaster better, which fosters brand loyalty.
According to a 2021 study, 72% of consumers stated a product’s packaging design influenced their decision to purchase. This implies a great number of consumers form a perceived value of a brand due to its packaging.
It is important to note consumers may also connect emotionally to a brand, depending on which colour is displayed on the packaging. In turn, this may make it easier for roasters to convert this emotional connection into sales.
Also, a good coffee bag is effective in protecting the coffee on its journey from the roasting warehouse to store shelves or directly to the consumer’s door.
“With coffee packaging, you need to put your best foot forward in the market, and immediately tell consumers who you are and what you stand for as a brand,” explains Alex, who comes from a family of entrepreneurs.
“The coffee market is saturated. In my opinion, as a coffee brand, your coffee bag design needs to say something unique in an innovative way. Otherwise, your brand will get lost in a sea of coffee bags,” he adds.
Why should roasters make coffee bags a talking point?
Studies show brands have approximately seven seconds to attract a customer’s attention enough for them to engage with the product.
Therefore, the coffee bags’ look and feel are crucial contributors to brand identity, awareness, promotion, and ultimately, sales.
“Coffee bag design depends on what you want to say as a company,” Alex says. “At Gripps, we’ve always wanted to approach customers in a conversational, fun, and optimistic way. So, we don’t add any processing or altitude notes on our coffee bags.
“We add plain-speak and fun information pieces on our coffee bags to get customers excited about great coffee,” he adds.
When designing coffee packaging, many factors, such as colour and typography, can help a roaster convey its brand story and values, as well as the bean type and roast profile.
For instance, a white coffee box that is custom-printed with a black sans serif font is likely to convey an urban, contemporary, yet classic brand.
While the classic earth-toned packaging is sustainable, the often overused minimalistic design commonly associated with specialty coffee is likely to make it a challenge for the product to stand out.
As a result, roasters will need to consider ways to innovate coffee bag design in a way that aligns with their brand identity while capturing consumer attention.
What to consider when choosing to custom-print coffee bags
When designing a coffee bag that aims to engage consumers, roasters will need to consider several factors.
These include the type of packaging to use, its materials, what details to print on the bag, as well as the packaging’s overall aesthetic.
When it comes to coffee packaging structures, roasters are spoiled for choice. Depending on their offerings, they are able to choose between stand-up pouches, flat-bottom coffee bags, quad-seal coffee bags, or side-gusset pouches.
Stand-up coffee pouches are one of the more cost effective options, but some roasters feel they have minimal room for brand communication.
Alternatively, flat-bottom coffee bags are highly effective for display purposes and provide more opportunities for customisation. They commonly boast a resealable zipper or tin tie.
Side-gusset pouches are the most common type of coffee packaging as they provide easy access for consumers and ample advertising space for roasters.
Some roasters choose to custom-print coffee bags with QR codes that direct consumers through to key pieces of information about the brand or coffee. More so, custom-printed QR codes allow roasters to create an additional customer service channel, making engagement easier.
According to recent research, the majority of purchasing decisions are driven by a product’s packaging colour, graphics, and shape. Therefore, understanding colour psychology is important, as different colours may convey a unique message.
For example, earth tones and shades of brown may convey a relaxed, secure, and dependable brand, while colours such as black and gold may convey sophistication and luxury.
Monochromatic designs tend to be evergreen, as roasters can use base colours and add highlight colours to differentiate roast types or origins.
“Colour is a fun coffee trend that most roasters are experimenting with,” Alex explains. “At Gripps, we’re experimenting with our bright blue coffee bag, and I think that colour experimentations are always a good approach for coffee bag designs.”
“I think having a design that’s eye-catching can help your brand stand out in the sea of traditional brown, green, and black coffee bags,” Alex adds.
A fairly new trend to consider for coffee package design is including non-fungible tokens or NFTs. Essentially, NFTs are unique digital assets that can be purchased or sold online.
NFTs can represent physical or digital items, and in the coffee world, this could be physical limited-edition coffee blends or a fully NFT-funded coffee shop.
Though, a point to keep in mind is the NFTs have yet to reach a point where they can be a profitable sales avenue.
“In my opinion, NFTs haven’t hit the coffee industry too hard, though there are experimentations underway,” Alex explains. “It’s still difficult to implement NFTs because as bitcoin prices fluctuate, it affects people’s interest in NFTs. As an industry, I don’t think we’re quite at a place where we can use them to their fullest potential,” he adds.
At MTPak Coffee, we offer roasters and coffee shops a range of 100% recyclable coffee packaging options that can be custom-printed to your business specifications.
Choose from renewable materials such as kraft paper, rice paper, or multilayer LDPE packaging with an environmentally friendly PLA lining, all of which minimise waste and contribute to a circular economy.
More so, we give you complete control over the design process by allowing you to build your own coffee bags. Our design team is available to help you create the ideal coffee packaging.
Plus, we are able to custom-print coffee bags using innovative digital printing technology, with a quick turnaround time of 40-hours and 24-hour shipping time.
