One of the most important things about starting your own tobacco business (or just adding to an existing one) is how your product looks when it’s being sold on the shelves and presented to customers. The way it looks will be the first thing that your customers notice and it’s likely to make or break your business before you even get the chance to convince them of what makes your brand special or different. Unfortunately, these days, well-designed packaging can be hard to come by, especially if you’re on a tight budget. In this guide, you will learn everything from ideation, designing, custom cigar boxes packaging tips and more.
Step 1: Idea Generation
It’s important to think about the story that you want your brand to tell and how it can reach your target market. It will help you to create a cohesive concept for your custom cigar boxes packaging, as well as find a way for people to identify with your brand. Once you have an idea in mind, sketch out some designs and try them out on your friends and family to get their feedback. If they like what you’re doing, then it’s time to take the next step!
Step 2: Sketching The Package
After you’ve decided the dimensions of your custom cigar boxes packaging, sketch out the design. You can do it by hand or on a computer. It’s important to make sure that the cigar fits in snugly with no empty space around it. If you plan to have a label, be sure that there is enough room for one to go over your design without covering any part of it up.
Step 3: Creating the design on computer
This is where the fun begins. You can start by sketching your design on paper. Be sure to take into account where the cigar brand name and logo will be located on the packaging, as well as any other branding or identifying marks that might be needed. Once you’ve got a rough sketch, it’s time to digitize it with a vector drawing software.
Step 4: Printing the custom cigar packages and labels
Lastly, the custom cigar boxes and labels need to be printed. The printers will usually have their own guidelines for printing the custom cigar packages and labels. Make sure you follow them closely so that your design is printed correctly. Also, please double check the size of your label before sending it to the printer. Sometimes they’ll be off by a fraction of an inch and it can make all the difference in how your packaging looks on store shelves.
There are two popular options for printing wholesale custom cigar boxes:
- Offset lithography
- Flexographic printing
Offset lithography is used for high volume production, which is typically more cost-effective for large orders. Flexographic printing, on the other hand, is a lower-cost option that offers a wide range of colors with a more limited color palette. Both are durable methods of printing that can withstand all types of weather conditions, whether it’s humid or dry out!
Offset lithography can range from $4,000-$8,000 for a single color print. If you want to save some money and need more than just one color, screen printing is an option. Screen printing only prints one color at a time, but it can be done in as little as three days and starts at $1,200.
Step 5: Assemble all
Once you have a complete design of your wholesale custom cigar boxes, you will need to know how to assemble the box. The first step is to punch out all of the pieces for assembling your cigar boxes. There should be a diagram on the back of your print that has a list of all of these pieces as well as what size they should be.
Once you have punched out all of these pieces, it’s time to assemble them together. You need to line up two panels face down and then put in a divider. Next, take one panel and line it up with one panel from another set and put them together so they are sandwiching the divider in between them. Repeat this process until all of your panels are assembled into boxes.
Bonus Tips – What you need to know before launching your brand
Here are some popular things that you need to keep in mind when designing custom cigar boxes packaging:
- Does your brand have any notable features that should be incorporated into the package design (e.g., petite, big, etc.)?
- Is there a problem with counterfeiting or product confusion with other brands on the market?
- Do you want each cigar to stand alone or would you prefer them all to be contained within one box?
- How much do you plan on spending for initial set up costs and reorders?
