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This is the specific case of a tin packaging – technically tin box – a very distinctive material that can be often functional for the use of the product; such as in the case of the can of oil, the classic cans of soda or the common tuna cans.

In these cases, choosing a can also has practical reasons, but there are situations where to develop a can container – despite not having practical reasons – is a winning choice for boosting sales.

How do we tell if a can could be a driving force for the sales of your product?

The first step is to separate the product from its packaging: let’s get into our heads that packaging, in this case, is not only functional to the product and its use, but it also becomes a product itself and the consumer sees it exactly like that!

It is not an assumption, it is a fact – and I want to prove it in this article. In the case of food tin box, the packaging itself acquires a value that lives regardless of the product.

For this reason, in trying to identify the needs of the consumer, it will be good to find answers through the choice of packaging.

There are basically THREE aspects that make a tin packaging a success factor:

→ its reusability (I, many time, buy and reuse the packaging for other purposes)

→ its value as a collectable item (I buy and collect the package)

→ 100% recyclable material (determining factor for the environment and in today’s buying reasons)

Specifically, what do I mean?

There are some solutions where packaging is not only seen acting as a product container or as a product exhibitor on the shelf, but it is conceived from the start as a separate object that can be, later, reused for other purposes or just collected. And that is how it acquires immediately its own value that can be added to the value or purpose of the product it contains.

Taking it to an extreme, this concept can turn some choices of packaging into the driving feature for the sale: you buy the product almost exclusively to own the tin packaging that contains it!

A recent and clear – for everyone – example of a square tin box packaging designed as a collectable item is the Caffé Illy set of cans.