Times are tight and everyone is looking for ways to cover increased production costs and safety testing. At the same time, now more than ever, your product needs to jump off of the shelf in order to compete for consumers’ increasingly tight discretionary dollars. This is especially true for specialty manufacturers trying to maintain a luxury, high-end brand image, regardless of whether you’re selling in specialty or making the transition to the mass market. So how can you cut costs without decreasing the perceived value of your product? Packaging is one place to look.

There are several ways to decrease your packaging costs, but you’ve got to cut back in the right places. Your package is your last chance to win the sale and needs to speak loudly and clearly, stand out from the competition and present itself as the best option to the consumer. This is a tall order—and now you’re trying to do it with smaller budgets. With that challenge in mind, here are some ways to decrease packaging costs without decreasing the perceived value of your product.

• Cut back on embellishments. Special treatments like embossing and foil stamps are costly and the desired effects can sometimes be achieved through Photoshop “fakes.” If you do need an embellishment to call special attention to an area of your package, pick one area rather than peppering your package, as you pay by the inch for special foils.
• Ask for color samples early on. Prepare a file for your printer with several variations of the colors you’re considering and ask them to print samples on the material you’re using. It will help you meet your color expectations without wasting expensive ink.
• Photograph kids without product. Plan to shoot the kids at your next photo shoot without product. You can Photoshop other products into their hands later. Hand shots are especially useful.
• Select package size and structure carefully. Chip, the paper/cardboard used in most toy packaging, comes in pre-measured sizes. If your package goes over a size, even by a quarter of an inch, you’ll be forced to use a larger, more expensive sheet.
• Make the most of wasted space. If you’re designing a window box, make sure your pop forwards fit in the waste areas, or fold out of your inner or outer structures, rather than using additional material.

These tips will start you down the road to savings. However, there are also areas of your package you shouldn’t mess with. Here are some to remember:

• Good design. It’s priceless. A professional designer can help you make the most of your limited packaging budget by ensuring a clear hierarchy of messages and images; a compelling color palette and graphics; and a clean, fun layout.
• Communicate clearly. The messages you are communicating to the consumer are incredibly important, so make sure your copy is not only well written, succinct and clear, but visually grabbing and fun.
• Maintain the integrity of your materials. It’s tempting to decrease the quality of your materials to cut costs, but a flimsy, torn package results in fewer sales. Don’t go there!

The pendulum will eventually swing back toward the luxurious, high-end packages of yore, but for now, following these tips should save you some pennies to put toward development of your product and its marketing.