Creative Directors Of Capes&Fringes And Damz Kreations Share On Product and Brand Packaging For Fashion Businesses

Building a fashion business takes a lot. A lot of effort has to go into the entire process of growing a fashion brand. One of the most important aspects of building a successful fashion brand is packaging – Brand and Product Packaging.

This week, we spoke with Azeezat Abdulazeez of Capes&Fringes and Oluwadamilola Adesalu of Damz Kreations on product and brand packaging and how they have been able to infuse it in their brands. 

Azeezat Abdulazeez is the Creative Director of Capes&Fringes, a bespoke brand that caters to the need of women without limit. A graduate of Management and Accounting from LAUTECH, she started her brand as a hobby before turning it into a business after her friends turned to her to save them from amateur tailors. 

“Life’s Lemons and my Innate Love for creating things kickstarted my fashion designing career. We pride in the Smiles we put on each Woman’s Face and the Boost in their Confidence when wearing our pieces.” – Azeezat Abdulazeez

Oluwadamilola Adesalu is the Creative Director of Damz Kreations (DK), a bespoke and ready-to-wear brand for women. She is a graduate of Industrial Chemistry from the University of Lagos. 

“Damz Kreations was born out of my love for creating beautiful outfits out of plain fabrics.” – Oluwadamilola Adesalu

What is Brand Packaging and Product Packaging?

For Azeezat Abdulazeez, brand packaging is the act of creating a unique image of a product or service to build trust and attract clients, while product packaging is the process of using a unique design or process to offer your products or services to clients. A process that distinguishes your products from the rest.

“I started considering brand and product packaging in 2018. It happened when a couple of my designs went viral.  Once I decided to turn my hobby into a profitable business, I knew I had to start packaging my pieces.” – Azeezat Abdulazeez.

For Oluwadamilola Adesalu, brand packaging entails the thoughts, experience and feelings a customer has when they come across your products, while product packaging involves a specific product with a particular brand. 

“I started considering brand and product packaging in 2017.  I was making outfits for my course mates then I decided to make the brand bigger than me and take it to a larger audience. I needed others to feel a kind of grace, fabulous, and class when they rock my outfit.” – Oluwadamilola Adesalu.

What is Your Approach to Brand Packaging?

“Branding is in the little things.” – Oluwadamilola Adesalu.

Brand packaging consists of many different components. It is not just about what people see, it entails so much more. Here are a few ways to approach brand packaging;

1. Credibility

Credibility entails bringing the trust factor into your fashion brand. It means delivering what you said you will deliver when you said you will deliver it. This makes customers trust you and your brand. It makes them see you as a reliable person.

The value you offer your clients also speak to your credibility. Make sure that whatever you tell your clients you will deliver is what you deliver, no changes and no mistakes.

2. Communication

This is the experience clients have with your brand. The tone you use in communicating with clients, be it written or spoken, is a part of your brand packaging. Your response to feedback and how quickly you respond to clients is also very important.

Generally, the vibes you give off to your clients based on everything you do speaks to your brand packaging. Your content and the manner of stories you tell is all a part of it too. 

3. Uniqueness

Every brand needs to have to Unique Selling Point (USP), something that brand is known for. Something that sets that brand apart from the rest. For fashion brands, this is all part of the branding process. 

There should be things in your photos or video that are peculiar to your brand and that makes people know that it is yours. 

“Invest in branding so when anyone sees your items they will know it is from your brand. It sets you apart from people that are in the saturated fashion market.” – Oluwadamilola Adesalu.

4. Consistency

Being consistent in your brand is one of the most important parts of brand packaging. Consistency in the quality of fabrics you use, your finishing, your social media management, and every other thing. Consistency pays.

What is Your Approach to Product Packaging?

1. Identity

This involves your brand name, logo design, and brand theme. It has to do with the colours you use and what feelings those colours evoke in people. The type of font used in writing things on your the packages you put your fashion items in is also part of the product packaging. 

“I started my product packaging simply with dress tags and branded nylons, then I evolved to carrier bags, and now we have tags and appreciation notes. Currently, we are working on branded boxes, wrapping papers, and polymer bags for shipping.” – Azeezat Abdulazeez.

2. Visuals

For product packaging, visuals involve your photography style. When you take photos of your products, how are they? What types of photos do you use when showing off your products to the world?

“I started with just putting my outfits in transparent nylons. Now, I have branded nylons and branded boxes (on request). Product packaging is a progressive process. You change when you want new ways to innovate and make sure customers have the top experience.” – Oluwadamilola Adesalu.

How did You Achieve Optimal Brand Packaging?

Achieving optimal brand packaging is an ongoing process. It is something that even multinational companies are still working on so they do not become irrelevant. Some of the processes involved in achieving optimal brand packaging are;

“In everything you do, Be Unique! Find a creative way to stand out.” – Azeezat Abdulazeez.

1. Be Visible 

Your logo, brand colours, and font style have to be unique. Not complex but Unique, so it can be easily recognised as time goes on. The more people can look at a particular colour or a particular font and think of your brand, the closer to achieving optimal brand packaging you are.

2. Storytelling

Make your brand relevant by sharing stories of your brand. Share stories of your brand and how you started it and stories of the process it took to create a new collection or outfit. This is so when customers purchase your pieces, they feel important because they can relate to your story and are a part of it.

3. Engage your Audience

Use so many creative ways to communicate with your audience. Use bursts of colours to communicate strength and bold attitude or whatever your brands aesthetic is.

Engage them with stories you tell, relate with them on social media. Respond to comments they make on your products.

4. User Experience

This is also very important. Ask for feedback from your clients and share the feedback on your social media platforms. This makes them feel important and lets them know that their opinions matter too.

In working towards achieving optimal brand packaging, you need to ask yourself questions on what you want your customers to remember you for and how you can use your brand to solve their problems. Also, make your buying process seamless so customers have a great experience with your brand. 

Importance of Brand and Product Packaging?

1. It Offers Insights on how to Successfully Create Strategic Branding

When your design and packaging work together, your brand will be elevated from a commodity to an expression of a consumer lifestyle. Hence, brand and product packaging changes how people perceive your brand and it drives new business and increases brand awareness.

“It establishes a positive reputation and builds an image that attracts clients.” – Azeezat Abudulazeez.

2. It Helps With Sales

When you have a good brand, people will always say good things about you that will attract other customers to your brand, this is known as word-of-mouth or referrals. It makes your brand and products presentable and puts you in a league that is above just being a mere brand. 

Advantages of Brand and Product Packaging?

1. It Gives Your Brand a Good Image

Branding your fashion business helps customers develop a good image of your pieces in their mind. And they will attribute your dresses with certain qualities or characteristics that are pleasant to them. Hence, it helps with the overall image of your brand.

2. It Endears Your Brand to Customers

Once you have been at branding your fashion business for a while, people will start to recognise it and have positive sentiments for your brand that will strengthen your business. Branding directly correlated with customer retention. 

“An advantage of great brand packaging is that it gives recognition to your brand.” – Azeezat Abdulazeez.

3. It Commands Respect

When you have been at packaging right for a while and customers can recognise your brand from afar, you can command higher prices for your items. When you have a new product, the right brand packaging can speed up customers acceptance of that product. It also helps guide against price erosion.

4. It Helps Increase Sales in Your Business

When you package your brand and products properly, it increases visibility and this helps your customers see your outfits faster. When you do little things like attaching appreciation notes to orders it put your brand at the forefront of customer’s minds.

It also boosts your chances of collaborating with entrepreneurs from other niches. This results in more visibility and, in turn, more sales.

In closing, 

Azeezat Abdulazzez said, “Start from somewhere then work towards achieving a standard gradually. Fashion designing is a process. Take time to study the type of packaging that works for your brand and figure out what works for you and not what everyone is doing.”

And,

Oluwadamilola Adesalu said, “It is great when, as a fashionpreneur, you have the desire to do something in the fashion industry, but you have to know that brand and product packaging are important. You have to see your brand as bigger than you – it could even be a conglomerate.

“Start small but think big. Know that life is a process so take things in stages. You do not have to have all the clients you desire at once, but it is from the few customers you have that you start practising to get better and grow bigger. Deliver exceptional customer service. Deliver fabulous products. Invest in branding.”