Preparing your jewellery business for christmas part 3 – packaging and branding

he third and final post in our series on preparing your jewellery business for christmas. In week 1 Anna Campbell looked at christmas craft fairs and markets, week 2 was the online marketplace. In this final week we’re turning our attention to branding and packaging.

Luxe business cards and stickers available from moo.com

Your branding and packaging is important all year round but is particularly important at Christmas. Offering your items gift wrapped can be a real benefit to would-be customers as it is one less chore for them at this busy time. Also, having some kind of branding on your packaging can help make your business look professional and promote your work to a new audience, the recipients of your jewellery.

Here are a few ideas to get you thinking about how you brand and wrap your pieces for customers.

Some items from my sweetie shop, available on Etsy

Your brand

Your brand is your business identity. You need to think about how you want people to identify you via your logo and business colours. You will have noticed that the London Jewellery School colours are pink and purple. These can be seen consistently in our communication – in our logo, on our website, our class brochure etc.

You may not have a logo yet and creating one before christmas may be a bit too much to undertake but do think about the colours you would like to use in your logo as you can start using packaging in those colours now – even if it’s just getting some purple tissue paper!

Labels

Like many jewellery makers and crafters I love moo.com who offer all things printed e.g. business cards, stickers, postcards etc. You can get a different image printed on every item which gives lots of flexibility, they don’t all have to look the same. I have tried most of their products and can really recommend their quality.

I have bought mini-moos, which are half sized business cards, to use as labels for my sweetie shop products (see photo above). Not only do they act as a warning not to try to eat my products (they do look a bit real!) but they also give my contact information. This is great if a piece is being given as a gift as the recipient will see where they can buy matching items.

Velvet or organza bags

An easy way to provide attractive gifts is to simply put your piece into a ready made organza bag, velvet pouch etc. I also wrap my pieces in tissue paper before putting them in the bag, particularly if I am sending the item through the post.

When wrapping my pieces in tissue paper, rather than use sellotape, I use one of my branded stickers to seal the package. I think it looks more professional and is consistent with my brand.

Quirky packaging from Light Boat Jewellery

Unusual packaging

Have a think about any unusual packaging you could use as a feature. For example, for my sweetie shop range I found small glass jars and put jewellery in them. I stick one of my moo stickers on the top and it makes a quirky gift. I’ve also bought pink and white striped sweet shop bags to wrap my pieces when selling at craft fairs and markets.

Is there an unusual way you could wrap your jewellery?

There has been a lot of advice over the last three weeks in this blog post series. Don’t worry if you feel that you haven’t been able to implement it all. My hope is that it has helped you generate ideas about how to develop your jewellery business, whatever stage it’s at.

I really hope that these ideas will help boost your sales over the christmas period and I wish you all lots of festive fun!

Do remember that we offer a number of one day jewellery business courses, a distance learning jewellery business course and a taster class in PR for your jewellery business so if 2013 is the year for you to move on with your business consider enrolling to get expert advice and guidance.

Anna is an LJS tutor teaching a number of jewellery making classes and PR for your Jewellery Business. She mentors artists and crafters in setting up their website and using social media to promote their businesses for Crafty Websites and runs her own jewellery business, Light Boat Jewellery.

The photos in this blog post have been taken by photographer Gary Ullah at Crafty Websites who offers jewellery photography as a service. Good quality photos of your jewellery are crucial, particularly if you sell online. The London Jewellery School runs a one day class on photographing your jewellery to help you get confident with doing this yourself.