Branded disposable cups are a hugely effective way to get your brand message across. However, not all branding is equal!
Done well, a branded coffee cup can increase brand awareness, improve sales, and build customer loyalty. This guide lists some top tips from branding experts to ensure your branded disposable cup works as a fantastic marketing tool.
1. Think Big! (and bold!)
Branding on disposable cups should be designed to work on more than one level. It isn’t just the customer who bought the coffee that the message should target, but rather it needs to reach out to a wider audience.
Potential customers are going to see your branded cup in a huge range of circumstances, including passers-by, work colleagues, and fellow commuters, to name a few. Disposable cups can extend your message to a massive audience.
This potential audience needs to be maximised, and making sure your message is large, bold, and clearly legible from a distance goes a long way to getting your message across.
2. Opt for Eco-friendly Cups
We have all become acutely aware of the damage we are doing to the planet and its climate. From our overuse of resources to our addiction to single-use plastics, the way we live and how we consume resources has to quickly change.
This means that many consumers are now actively seeking out eco-friendly options and avoiding wasteful single-use plastic options. In effect, what this means is that plastering your message all over products that consumers reject as “environmentally damaging” can have the opposite of the desired effect.
Of course, the flip side is that using compostable and biodegradable cups is also a marketing opportunity that can be grasped by ensuring it appears big and bold in your branding message.
3. Choose the Colour Scheme Carefully
When you think of successful branding, one common factor is the use of a consistent colour scheme across their whole brand identity. Consider some of the famous high-street brands like Starbucks, a quick glance at the colour scheme of their outlets is enough to instantly recognise them.
This might seem too relevant for smaller operations, but these tactics work on any level. Human nature means we are always looking for patterns in everything, and a consistent colour scheme that encompasses your whole brand plays on this behaviour. A consistent colour scheme across all your branding will build an association with that colour scheme and your business.
4. Keep it Short and Sweet!
Simplicity is key for coffee cup branding.
This harks back to the first point, keeping it big and bold! But also, you need to keep it simple. There are plenty of places to showcase your menu, tell your story, or your business philosophy, but branded cups aren’t one of them.
Branded coffee cups should be used to attract customers into your establishment with a simple and clear message. Cups that are cluttered and text-heavy are not effective and, rather than get your message across, may well do the opposite.
5. Distinctive
Your cup needs to elevate awareness of your brand over that of your competition. One way to achieve this is to make sure your branding is distinctive and unique.
Do some research before you simply opt for popping your logo onto your cups. Have a look at what the competition is doing, find out what you like and don’t like about them and what works and what doesn’t.
Armed with this information, you can then look for a unique angle that incorporates (but doesn’t directly copy) successful elements from your competition’s branded cups.
Try to aim for a non-generic look that represents the ethos and atmosphere of your establishment.
The Takeaway
Just following a few simple hints when designing the branding for your disposable cup can pay huge dividends for your business.
Keeping it simple, unique, big & bold, eco-friendly, and consistent can turn your disposable coffee cups into a powerful marketing tool.
At Cup Brands, we can help get your message out there. Our compostable cups and bespoke design services can help you stand head and shoulders above the competition.
