Weather the Disruptive Pandemic

The coronavirus first broke out around December 2019 when few people would expect this flu-like disease to be so much of a concern. But it turned out to be the great disruption to the global health systems and economy. Most of the major economies are still struggling amidst the pandemic. What's even worse, it seems that no one knows it will end...But life and business will continue anyway...

After the early lock-down period one and a half years ago, Innove Packaging had been gradually returning to its normal production (if not over burdened in this summer☺) 

Custom Cardboard Gift Boxes & Tubes

Cardboard Gift Boxes in Production

Boxes Ready for Shipping

Loaded on Trucks

Spectrum of Packaging from Simple to Excessive

— Implications in modern packaging of a Chinese allusion “Keep the fancy case but give back the valuable pearl…”

There’s a household idiom in Chinese which goes as follows:

About 2,300 years ago, a jewelry dealer from Chu state (of the ancient China) traded pearls in Zheng state. One day, he had a very precious pearl.
In order to sell it at a premium price, he decided to make a fancy box for it. He had a top carpenter make an exquisite box with rare wood, then employ a top craftsman to carve delicate patterns top and elaborately decorate it with superior perfume and gem stones. The dealer then put the pearl in and was confident of the packaging.

A person from Zheng State was deeply enamored by the pretty case and bought it for a high price after some bargaining.
But the story didn’t end here as usual!
To his surprise, the buyer soon returned with the case and pearl. The dealer was literally a little frustrated and expected he would think again. But to his astonishment, the buyer took the pearl out, gave it back to the dealer and left with the glittering box only!

This Chinese idiom is used to satirize people who are bewitched by the gorgeous appearance and give up the precious essence, and also used more broadly to mean lacking judgement and making false choices.

In reality, few would go to extremes like the character in the story, perhaps. But when it comes to packaging, it does render us a bit of deja vu, especially with some health products in China. Some products are not as valuable as its packaging and that’s not exaggerating.

However, the importance of packaging should by no means be down played, either to sellers or buyers. Aside from protecting the products inside, a good packaging go a long way in terms of communicating product and brand values between the two parties.

Then, at the spectrum of packaging from simple to excessive, where’s the right point? Maybe there are a thousand hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes.
1. As a buyer/consumer, to what extent will you buy in a fancy packaging?
2. If you’re a marketer, how will you balance between luxury and simplicity of packaging?

Deliver the Bumpiest Mini Drawer Gift Boxes Project

Simple does not mean easy! Recently we’ve worked on a project where entails a two-part drawer gift box as an accessory to the larger complex box. This tiny box involves no odd shapes, nor complex structure or design! Just so normal except for its delicate size. But just as being so small in size, it had once been quite challenging – unlike round mini tubes(eg. lip balm tubes) which can run on machines. Here’s the story on how we struggled (if not got stuck) in such a ‘simple’ box, and finally were determined to deliver, but at the expense of profits!

This tiny drawer gift box, as shown above, would probably be figured as something not worth the candle by most suppliers, which could be told from the dimensions (as in the following dieline).

Failed Outsourcing Attempts
Frankly, the reason that we’d accept such an order in the busy season is partly because it’s an accessory, and partly because we thought we could outsource this part. Some peer vendors may specialize in such hand-made boxes.
The first few we contacted all declined flatly at the sight of the drawing. Then we tried to contact some factories who keep good relationship with us and asked for their favor. All of them agreed to try but gave up within one or two days. We were somewhat prepared for such reaction. With its delicate size, it can’t fit on the automatic box folding machines. And as it measures hardly the width of an index finger, it’s tricky for manual handling. Thus even the workers are not willing to work on this project because the slow progress affected their piece wages.
The time lapsed fast – two weeks had passed, and we had approached no less than 10 peer cardboard gift boxes factories. The main/larger gift box sets were already done and the agreed delivery time is almost due. However, the little box project was literally going nowhere!

Restructuring in China Packaging Industry: Green Packaging Develops as a Growing Trend

Recently, “Quality Month” campaigns have been carried out in some provinces in China. Local quality supervision departments have conducted spot checks on retail packaging for food, beverages, alcohol, tea, cigarettes,medicines, health products, cosmetics and other commodities that are selling well. According to industry insiders, with the increasing environmental awareness, green packaging has become a trend. The market for pollutional materials keep shrinking, while packaging and printing companies accelerated their transformation, making product packaging gradually move toward green & environment friendly.

Since the introduction of new “Packaging Regulations” in China, the packaging industry has undergone continuous deep restructuring. Some data show that about 55% of packaging related companies realize that a positive environmental image is very important for their future development; 70% of companies believe that consumer demand, value and recyclable signs on the packaging are important in their marketing activities. Compared with developed countries, China's current color gift box packaging market is far from maturing. While there’s no specific definition for cardboard gift box packaging yet, companies have no accurate understanding of the scope of color it.

A company executive said, the essence of their newly introduced printing platform is to, help accurately understand the scope of cardboardgift box packaging segment the packaging markets, grow a strong brand. While at the same time, the environmental protection measures will be put into practice, using high-quality green materials and advanced pollution-free printing technology.

According to industry insiders, cardboard gift boxpackaging, as an environmentally friendly, cost-effective and mature packaging form, has an infinite development prospect. And with the rapid consumption growth boosted by China’s sustained economic growth, environment-friendly packaging will have a bright future.

What is green packaging?

Green Packaging means pollution-free or Environmental Friendly Packaging, which refers to packaging that is harmless to the ecological environment and human health, can be reused and regenerated, and is in line with sustainable development. This concept contains two implications: one is to protect the environment, and the other to conserve resources.

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Innove is a leading custom cardboard gift boxes supplier from China, offering various fancy setup gift box packaging products and custom box designs service. The product lines include personalized odd shaped boxes, round boxes, square boxes, rectangular boxes, telescoping boxes, shoulder boxes, cardboard drawer boxes, collapsible gift boxes, explosion gift boxes, cardboard window boxes, nesting gift boxes sets, etc.