Packaging Copywriting

The box has to do quite a lot before anyone opens it

You’ve spent months developing the product. Then come the decisions about the packaging. Box, bottle, tin, tube, carton or bag. Size. Shape. Colour. Materials. Photography. Illustration. Logo.

Eventually, somebody sees it on a shelf or a screen and picks it up.

Now the words have a job to do.

Packaging copy needs to tell people what the product is, give them a reason to want it, communicate something of the brand behind it and provide the information they need to make a decision.

Quite often, it has to do all of that in remarkably little space.

I’ve been writing professionally for 30 years, including product names, taglines, packaging and product copy across sectors ranging from food and drink to health, beauty, technology and consumer products. I help brands work out what needs saying, where it needs saying and how to say it without making the packet look as though somebody has tried to fit the website onto it.

Pick it up. Turn it over.

Good design may be what first catches somebody’s eye. Once the product is in their hand, the conversation changes.

What is it? What does it do? Why this one? What’s different about it? How do I use it? What’s in it? Is it suitable for me? Is that claim actually telling me anything?

Packaging copy has to anticipate those questions and answer the important ones quickly.

The front might have only enough room for a product name, descriptor, key benefit and a few carefully chosen words. Turn it over and there may be space for a brand story, product explanation, instructions or reasons to believe.

The sides, lid, label or inside of the pack may have jobs of their own. Good packaging copy isn’t about filling all the available space. It’s about giving each bit of space a reason to exist.

Box clever

For simplicity’s sake, let’s use a box.

You’ve potentially got six sides, although barcodes, ingredients, instructions, warnings, legal information, photography and the realities of the design may have claimed quite a lot of them before the copywriter arrives. So I start with the hierarchy.

What will somebody see on the shelf? What needs to be understood immediately? What deserves front-of-pack space? What can wait until they’ve picked the product up? What belongs on the back? What information is essential, and what is merely there because somebody internally would quite like to include it?

Then there’s the competitive context.

Your box won’t usually enjoy a shelf to itself. It may be surrounded by products making remarkably similar promises. The job isn’t to make every panel shout. It’s to decide which words deserve to be heard first.

Features are useful. Reasons are better.

Packaging is particularly susceptible to adjectives.

Premium. Advanced. Natural. Innovative. Luxurious. Powerful. Sometimes they’re justified. Sometimes they’re taking up valuable millimetres without telling the customer very much.

I prefer to find the detail behind them.

What makes the product different? What does a particular ingredient, material, feature or formulation actually mean for the person buying it? Is there a useful proof point? Can a technical specification be translated into a practical benefit?

A feature tells me something about the product.

The useful question is often: so what?

Answer that properly and the copy doesn’t need quite so many adjectives to do the selling.

Your packaging should sound like your brand

Take the logo away and the words should still feel as though they belong to you.

A playful food brand doesn’t need to sound like a pharmaceutical leaflet. A luxury skincare product probably shouldn’t sound like a packet of crisps. A technical product may need precision rather than personality.

I’ll work with your existing tone of voice and brand guidelines where you have them. If you don’t, I’ll use the product, audience, market and wider brand communications to establish the right approach.

That voice then needs to survive contact with the practicalities of packaging.

A beautifully crafted 80-word brand story isn’t terribly useful if the designer has room for 35.

Part of the job is knowing what can go.

One product is one thing. A whole range is another.

Packaging becomes particularly interesting when there are 10, 20 or 100 products rather than one. Each needs to be distinctive enough to explain what’s different while clearly belonging to the same family.

That might mean establishing a repeatable hierarchy for product names, descriptors, benefits, claims and back-of-pack copy. It might mean deciding which language remains consistent across the range and where individual products need more personality.

I’ve worked on product and brand communications across ranges where consistency matters just as much as individuality. The objective isn’t to write the same thing repeatedly with a different flavour, ingredient or model number dropped in.

It’s to create a system flexible enough to accommodate the differences.

Packaging copywriting services

I can help with new products, product ranges, launches, rebrands and packaging refreshes, including:

product and range naming;
front-of-pack messaging;
product descriptors;
taglines and straplines;
key benefits and reasons to believe;
back-of-pack copy;
product and brand stories;
usage and instruction copy;
product-range messaging;
packaging tone of voice;
editing and rewriting existing pack copy; and
adapting copy across different pack sizes, formats and products.

I can work directly with your marketing or brand team, or alongside your packaging designer, branding agency or product specialists. The earlier words and design meet, the better.

The compulsory words matter too

Not everything on a packet is marketing copy.

Depending on the product and where it’s sold, packaging may need to accommodate ingredients, allergens, instructions, warnings, quantities, safety information, responsible-person details, substantiated claims or other mandatory information.

That information isn’t something to squeeze in after the interesting words have been written.

It affects the space available, the hierarchy and sometimes what can legitimately be said elsewhere on the pack.

Where regulatory, technical or legal information is involved, I’ll work from material supplied or approved by the appropriate specialists and flag claims or wording that need checking.

I’m a copywriter, not your regulatory adviser.

My job is to make the approved information clear, consistent and useful while leaving the legal and technical sign-off to the people qualified to provide it.

Small packet. Surprisingly complicated job.

The shortest copy isn’t necessarily the quickest to write. Packaging is a good example.

You may have only a handful of words on the front of a product, but those words have to compete for space with the brand, product name, design and information that legally or practically has to be there.

I’ve spent 30 years writing advertising, product, brand and sales copy where space is limited and individual words have to work rather harder than usual.

I ask questions, look for the useful detail, work out what matters to the customer and then try to say it in considerably fewer words than we started with.

Because the packet may be small.

The thinking behind it shouldn’t be.

Got something that needs putting in a box?

Or a bottle, tin, tube, carton, pouch or bag. If you’re launching a product, refreshing a range or staring at a packaging layout containing several boxes marked COPY TK, send me what you have.

I’ll look at the product, the audience, the available space and what you’re trying to say, then tell you honestly whether I can help.

Packaging copywriting FAQs

What does a packaging copywriter do?

A packaging copywriter works out what a product needs to say on its packaging and finds the clearest, most distinctive way to say it. That can include product names, descriptors, front-of-pack messages, benefits, taglines, back-of-pack stories, instructions and copy across an entire product range.

How much copy should go on the packaging?

As much as the customer needs and the format can comfortably accommodate. The front of the pack may need only a few words. The back or sides can provide more detail where it’s useful. The important thing is to establish a hierarchy rather than treating every available surface as somewhere else to put a paragraph.

Can you work directly with our packaging designer or branding agency?

Yes, and I’d generally encourage it. Copy and design compete for the same physical space, so developing them together usually produces a better result than writing everything first and discovering later that half of it doesn’t fit.

Can you write packaging copy for an entire product range?

Yes. For larger ranges, I can help establish the messaging structure and principles first, then apply them across individual products so the range remains consistent without every pack sounding identical.

Can you rewrite existing packaging copy?

Yes. You may have a good product and strong design but copy that’s too long, inconsistent, generic or no longer reflects the brand. I can edit or rewrite individual packs or look at the messaging across the wider range.

Can you make sure our packaging meets legal labelling requirements?

I can work with mandatory information and requirements supplied by your regulatory, legal or technical specialists, and I can flag wording or claims that appear to need specialist review. I don’t provide legal or regulatory approval. Responsibility for determining the applicable requirements and approving regulated claims should remain with the appropriately qualified people.

When should I involve a packaging copywriter?

Ideally, before the design is completely fixed. Copy and design need the same limited space, so it’s useful to establish the messaging hierarchy while there’s still some flexibility in the layout. I can also join an existing project where the design is already under way and work within the space available.