Unbox the Secrets: Elevate Your Brand with Stunning Packaging Design

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios, it’s time for Women In Motion. Brought to you by WBEC-West. Join forces. Succeed together. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Women In Motion and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, WBEC-West. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Women In Motion, we have Sharon Eucce with Packaging Chic. Welcome.

Sharon Eucce: Thank you so much. Excited to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Packaging Chic. How are you serving folks?

Sharon Eucce: Well, a lot of what I do is helping brands, so product-based companies, those brands, getting their products onto the shelf and into the hands of the consumer. It sounds super broad, right? But the packaging is part of the marketing, and that’s how these brands get their products to their customers.

Sharon Eucce: So, I’m in the background a lot of times. People may not really think that there’s an entire industry behind when they go to that store and they see the boxes on the shelf at Sephora or the cereal boxes at the grocery. It’s a pretty neat business because I get to be inside other people’s business.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you talk a little bit about your backstory? How did you get involved in this line of work?

Sharon Eucce: Well, actually, I have a degree in printing. I have a degree in graphic communication from Cal Poly here in San Luis Obispo, California. And this became just sort of this natural evolution. I had a 20-year career in paper serving designers and brands, helping them choose paper for their products. And then, I ended up in packaging in 2007 when the paper business condensed. That’s the rise of email and other marketing communications became digital instead of printed.

Sharon Eucce: And I kind of stumbled into it. I was going to be laid off. But one of the clients I had been calling on said, “Hey, we like you.” This was a box maker, and they said, “Hey, why don’t you come work for us and sell packaging?” And so, I totally fell into it. I mean, you say you fall into something, but everything that you’ve done leading up to that point has got you there.

Sharon Eucce: And I really didn’t know that much. I’d always worked in maybe two dimensions, sheet sizes of paper. And now, I’m going to go into boxes, which is three dimensional, and I had a moment of panic where I was like, “Oh, my gosh. I’m just going to be another box schlepper where I’m trying to compete with people for a penny difference.” And a friend of mine said, “Oh, stop it, Sharon. You’ll always be my packaging chick.” And I said, “What did you just say? That’s it. That’s it. That’s the name of my new company.” It was really more of a personal identity crisis that I was having. And I grew my personal brand based on this packaging chick.

Sharon Eucce: Now, I told my parents, I was so excited, I said, “Oh. I got a name for my company.” And they said, “What company?” And I said, “Never mind. Never mind. It’s Packaging Chick.” And there was silence on the other end of the line. My mom said, “Gosh, that’s kind of biker-ish.” And I said, “Okay. Just take off the K, it’ll be Packaging Chic to you and it will always be Packaging Chick to me.”

Sharon Eucce: So, long story, but people started asking me – I was making boxes, just the type that you see on the shelf, the pretty stuff – and they said, “Oh, by the way, can you do tissue? Can you do mailers? Can you do labels?” And I just kept saying, yes, of course I can. And when people say can you do, that means can I help them manufacturer. Because there’s one thing where someone’s designing something, it’s very pretty, it looks great on Instagram. But just having a photo of something, that’s not the same thing as actually producing it in real life. And that is where my strength lies, I understand the technical, but I have an eye for the beauty and the artistic side.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you talk a little bit about during that time, because I think the listeners may not understand what it feels like to have that kind of existential threat to an industry that you went through. Like printing was your life, everything dealt with printing, and then all of a sudden email and stuff comes along and digital comes along, and then the spigot shuts off and it’s scary, and you have to adjust or quit. I mean, the choices are kind of limited in that regard with your career at stake there. Can you talk about maybe some of the emotion as you were going through that big disruption in your industry?

Sharon Eucce: Oh, jeepers. I could talk a long time about that, but I won’t. It became really difficult during that time because it didn’t just, like, happen in 2007, boom, there’s no pretty annual reports anymore or any pretty marketing newsletters or stuff like that. This had been coming along for a while, and luckily the paper company I worked for – actually, for a paper mill – we made beautiful textured colored papers for printing.

Sharon Eucce: And I’m still so very grateful to the team there. One guy, he had – I don’t know – the foresight to say, hey, we need to sell our beautiful papers into the packaging industry, into box making. And like I said, so grateful because I was tapped as the western regional person to go into this luxury packaging division, there were three of us. And that was a year before the buyout, and so I was so excited because I felt like I didn’t have to hear anymore, every time we’d go to events with other paper companies, everyone would be talking about who’s getting laid off, who’s going to buy who, where’s the blah blah blah. And I just felt that was so – what would be the word – really, waste of time. It’s inefficient to talk about what’s going to happen because we don’t know.

Sharon Eucce: And so, really, I didn’t know if I was going to keep my job or not after one year being in the luxury packaging division. We were being bought by another paper company, and I had competed against them for 20 years, so I was thinking, “Oh, my gosh. I could never go work for them.” And then I said, “Oh, Sharon, they probably think you can’t work for them either, so get ready.”

Sharon Eucce: And I thought I was going to be laid off. And at 2007, if you think back to that time, there just was quite a bit of turmoil in general as far as financial markets and that sort of thing. And I said, “Well, hey, I’ll just ride this thing out.” And when the company, Utah PaperBox, said we like you come work for us, I said okay, sure. But I’m the kind of person who doesn’t want to sit still either, so I jumped in right away, and luckily, again, I am so grateful for all the training I got there, and I work with them today still.

Lee Kantor: Now, can we talk a little bit about packaging, the actual business of packaging? Because it’s one of those things that everybody sees every day, but they really maybe don’t understand its impact it can have if done right. Because I think quality packaging and design really can make a difference, and it can separate and differentiate one product from another if it’s done elegantly and it’s done mindfully. Can you talk a little bit about how good packaging can kind of change the game for a business and be a point of differentiation if they invest in it?

Sharon Eucce: I mean, you totally hit the nail on the head. Think of like a wine label, right? A lot of people might just buy a bottle of wine based on the label, that is packaging, maybe the shape of the bottle. And also in cosmetics, when you go into Sephora or Ulta and you see all those products lined up and the color is all exactly right on, they’re all the same color, there’s no color shift or it’s all consistent, that is like working in your brain as a consumer, “Oh, I’m going to have to grab that.” It’s not a trick, but the packaging is the billboard. And, you know, if you’ve got high quality packaging, this is sending the message this brand cares about quality. It’s almost like a handshake. If the packaging feels premium, customers will trust that the product inside will be too.

Sharon Eucce: Now caveat to that is, I’ll buy it once, but if the product isn’t great, then I’m not buying it again. And so, we might get them the one time to pull it off the shelf and buy it. But if the product doesn’t perform, then see ya, we’re not buying that again.

Sharon Eucce: I mean, I have a product where the box looks nice. It’s great, I tried the product. But the inside packaging, so the primary packaging, which is a bottle, the product just dribbles out of it. Even when it’s closed and then I open it, there’s still product all over the place. That’s a packaging problem. My expertise is really in the secondary, which is all the cartons, the folding cartons, the paperboard type boxes. But, you know, there are all these levels of packaging, so the good packaging isn’t just functional, it’s almost emotional.

Lee Kantor: Right. And it has to be congruent, right? Because if the brand is sending one message in the packaging and sending a different message, it’s creating incongruity or friction, and it’s making me not trust the brand.

Sharon Eucce: Absolutely. Oh, my gosh. You’re exactly right. Yes. And sometimes some of these solutions to this are really the simplest. Going back to this one product that drips, maybe you need to go ahead and invest in that better primary packaging bottle because you’re not going to get the second sale or the constant sale.

Lee Kantor: So, what type of clients approach you? You mentioned kind of perfumes and things like that, or cosmetics I would imagine is another one. Do you have kind of a sweet spot in terms of expertise?

Sharon Eucce: Well, it turns out when I first started, I got my first big break in what we call the beauty industry. And I dove deep in there where I was a primary supplier for one large beauty brand, and that was just awesome. It was one of those things where the people that worked there, we connected. They wanted the type of expertise that I personally had, which is this cross between artistic vision and technical.

Lee Kantor: And can get it out the door and be functional. It has to be beautiful but functional.

Sharon Eucce: Yeah, yeah. So, beauty had always been my centerpiece. But I always felt like what the beauty industry does also translates to fine chocolate, wine and spirits, specialty foods. So, you see where I’m going? It’s all the pretty stuff. That’s what I like to do.

Lee Kantor: So, are you at the point where they’re finding you now and they’re seeking you out? Or do you have to kind of look for work in those spaces and let them know what you’ve done and what you can do for them?

Sharon Eucce: All these years it has been referral only. And if I subscribe to any hot tips on how to get more clients, you can’t survive on referrals all the time, I suppose. So, I’ve joined a variety of groups, of industry specific groups so that I’m just there as an expert. And from there people say, “I like you. Let’s work together. Here’s our project.”

Sharon Eucce: And that’s been really effective, too, because then when I go to some of these events, like the fancy food show for specialty foods or Cosmoprof for the beauty industry, I get to see and understand what my client’s troubles are, or what they’re looking for, and how they speak. You know, everyone has their own language in each of these industries. And I found that that’s been super helpful because I really want to be seen as part of their team, not just another – you know what I said – box schlepper.

Lee Kantor: Now, is it something that because you work with kind of diverse industries and niches that you can take a best practice of this worked great in beauty, maybe it’ll translate into chocolate if we do a little tweak here and there.

Sharon Eucce: Absolutely. Because most people will come to me, and maybe they’re in the beauty space, and then they’ll give me a list of brands that are also in their same space that they like or want to – I’m going to say – “copy.” You don’t have to do that. I do get inspired and pass that inspiration on between those industries, depending on what the client is looking for. I have a high-end candle company, and in my mind I’m remembering other jobs that I’ve done for people in other industries to see maybe that structure would be pretty cool right now for the candle company, even though it came from chocolate.

Lee Kantor: Right, because you can connect the dots. They don’t know. You have so much experience in each of these niches that you can borrow from, and maybe kind of borrow a couple different elements from different ones, and put them together in a new way for them.

Sharon Eucce: Yeah, totally. And, also, they may be so inwardly focused, I guess, or in their own industry focused that they don’t know.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned the importance of joining different communities and being seen in different communities, why was it important for you to become part of the WBEC-West community?

Sharon Eucce: Well, I’ve always been a woman-owned business. It’s just me. And it’s funny because at one point I thought, “Come on, Sharon, step it up. Here’s who you are and you need to own this. And oh, by the way, maybe you can meet some other people that you can really help, and they’ll be women business owners, we’ll have this common denominator, the passionate common denominator.” And that’s why I started and decided to get certified. And I’ve been to a couple of the national conferences and some local regional events, and it is just this comfort thing of like, oh, you’re running a business too. And so, I’m helping them, but they’re also helping me because you got to have community.

Lee Kantor: Now, can you share a story maybe of one of the clients you work with? You don’t have to name who they were, but maybe share how they came to you with a challenge and how you were able to help them get to a new level because of your expertise.

Sharon Eucce: Let’s see. I think I’ll go back to the candle company I was just mentioning. And honestly, gosh, they’ve been my client for maybe five years. And that’s the funny part, is, I do have a lot of very long term clients and that relationship building is important to me. But this client said, “You know what? We’re just sick of it. We have this designer and they keep nickel and diming us for everything. And we want someone who can actually do the design work and get the boxes produced.”

Sharon Eucce: So, that is perfect for me. So, this particular client, she’s very creative. She doesn’t have time to physically do the production artwork. She just says, “Here’s the new color. I want you to do this box like this. I’ll design it, put it into production art, and then I’ll also take it all the way through to production.” That’s one of my favorite clients, because I do get to use so much more creativity and they love doing crazy things, foil stamping and embossing, and challenging things.

Lee Kantor: So, before we wrap, is there any advice for brands that are trying to stand out on the shelf? Because that’s the last mile, right? This is the time they’re making a buying decision, obviously, and they’re going to grab something, one thing or another, and it’s kind of a zero sum game. They’re either picking your brand or they’re not. So, any advice for those brands who want to stand out on a shelf?

Sharon Eucce: It often depends on your industry and what shelves you’re on, because it’s so crowded, really. Packaging typically has to pop, as they say, to get noticed. So, that might mean bold colors or I mentioned foil stamping before, but how about a unique shape that’s different from the competition? I think of all those perfume bottles that have different shapes. And, you know, it comes back to knowing your audience, because some people might love minimalism while others are drawn to natural earthy looks, or others they want the disco version.

Sharon Eucce: So, I think that knowing the customer is really all part of the path. And when the packaging aligns with what that brand stands for, the customers pick up on it and it builds trust over time, like we said.

Lee Kantor: Now, if somebody wants to learn more about Packaging Chic, is there a website? Is there a best way to connect?

Sharon Eucce: Yes. Actually, the website is just packagingchic.com, and that’s packaging-C-H-I-C-.com. And I’m also on LinkedIn. Those are probably the best way. I’m on Instagram too. That’s pretty fun, that’s more of my visual playground over there on Instagram.

Lee Kantor: Well, Sharon, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Sharon Eucce: Lee, thank you. Thank you so very much.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor, we’ll see you all next time on Women In Motion.