Packaging consumer goods is almost as important as the quality of the product itself.
Packaging effectively means the product is presented appealingly, protects and preserves the goods within, and provides a great user experience for whoever picks it up off the shelf or has it shipped to their door.
However, marketing, shipping, and storage are only part of the story. Increasingly, brands are required to make product packaging safer and less risky to offer more peace of mind to parents with pets or small children in the home.
This has led to a rise in child-resistant packaging solutions and encouraged a favorable safety and risk management trend across industries.
Child-resistant packaging might seem like a no-brainer for some brands, while others could need more convincing to upgrade their packaging strategies.
Let’s list 12 reasons to use child-resistant packaging solutions, including some benefits that can positively affect your brand unexpectedly.
1. Common Sense Safety and Security
Like many aspects of business, common sense usually points decision-makers in the right direction. As companies develop brand positioning and identify a target audience, they know that many shoppers have families with children who must be considered and protected.
Business ethics also push brands to make their product safer overall, and child-resistant features are a logical step in making a brand more family-friendly and well-regarded.
Industries like packaged foods and pharmaceuticals led the way with common-sense child safety tech, and others followed suit as consumer expectations evolved.
2. Legal Requirements for Certain Product Types
Child-resistant technologies existed long before they were made mandatory and standardized, but the Poison Packaging Prevention Act of 1970 brought widespread compliance to the mainstream.
Following a series of high-profile incidents in which children were injured by consuming hazardous materials, regulators stepped up to form standards that would be upheld for the decades to follow.
While some requirements have evolved with new product types, the fundamentals of the law remain the same, and child-resistant packaging is a crucial part.
Packaged products containing potentially harmful products — including OTC drugs, cleaning supplies, and small components — must be appropriately labeled and contained behind a child-resistant barrier that meets industry standards.
Whether you choose to deploy stand-up pouches, twist containers, or any other packaging format, your brand must meet these terms of compliance to stay legally protected at all times.
3. Accompanying Warning Labels and Indicators
If your package says it contains potentially hazardous materials or comes with other warnings, you better have a child-resistant mechanism in place to support those claims.
We know how children tend to do the exact opposite of what you tell them, and for some kids, a warning symbol can read more like a dare than a sign to stay away.
The point is that even the most precise and accurate warning labels will be useless if a package can easily be torn open by anyone under five.
Brands can remedy this situation by using lab-certified, child-resistant packaging that goes hand in hand with warning labels for all product types.
4. Peace of Mind for Retailers and Third-Party Sellers
While a growing number of products are sold online directly to consumers, many packaged goods are purchased through third-party retailers like big box stores, convenience stores, and other brick-and-mortar environments.
This adds another level of liability to the equation, and retailers seek to minimize risk when dealing with potentially hazardous products.
Whether it’s the corner drug store or a massive national chain, your brand should use packaging solutions that third-party retailers can sell with confidence.
5. Improve Seal Quality and Product Preservation
We typically think of child-resistant mechanisms as a means to protect kids from harm. Still, these features also often benefit freshness, preservation, and the overall quality of the finished product.
Brands sometimes forget that standard seals tend to come apart incidentally or fail to maintain their structure in storage or transit.
This can lead to unwanted waste, as products may be more vulnerable to the effects of moisture, temperature changes, infestation, or other forms of degradation.
If you’re packaging sensitive, perishable products, consider child-resistant seals as an extra layer of security and barrier protection that other closing mechanisms may not offer.
6. Get an Edge in Competitive New Industries
With so many small businesses opening concurrently, new brands need every advantage to stand out from the crowd in a positive light.
By offering lab-certified child-resistant closure features, even a tiny underdog brand can compete with heavy hitters in competitive industries like the crowded cannabis marketplace.
Child-resistant features add a sense of quality and security that standard zip-seal and button packaging lack. Consumers take note of these small yet essential differentiators and are more willing to recommend brands based on these critical details.
7. Avoid Negative PR and Brand Perception
Every brand owner imagines a worst-case scenario in which their company is on the front page of social media with a scandal.
While it’s increasingly rare for children to consume harmful substances accidentally, this should motivate brands to seek the best child-resistant packaging their budget can manage.
Since the PPPA went into effect, incidents involving child injury or death have decreased dramatically, but there’s no such thing as too much risk management from a brand perspective.
The last thing a new brand needs is a series of negative news headlines, even if the incident did not result in any significant damage. The threat of lawsuits is ever-present in the United States, even if the brand is not to blame.
Eliminate any chance of a PR nightmare and get your brand’s highest quality child-resistant packaging.
8. Keep Packaging Discreet, Private, and Personal
Many products, especially OTC drugs and cannabis items, are meant to be kept private by users, even if they’re doctor approved and legal. Privacy is a big motivator when selling medical and personal products of all kinds.
Child-resistant features add another layer of discretion to product types consumers want to keep to themselves.
Unlike the typical bag of candy or zip-lock bag, a child-resistant barrier requires extra attention and deliberate effort, even for competent adults. This subconsciously implies that the product is meant to be private and protected for the owner and nobody else.
Additionally, child-resistant features provide an added sense of security, exclusivity, and luxury that only a specific tier of high-quality products can attain.
This can often work to the advantage of brands carving out market share in upscale products and may help shoppers justify spending a bit more for the specialty packaging option.
9. You Can Outsource Your Child-Resistant Packaging Needs
Child-resistant packaging can be daunting to product creators with little knowledge of how these mechanisms should work.
If you specialize in collectibles or supplements, you aren’t expected to know the inner workings of child-resistant closures and how to develop them to fit your finished product best.
Therefore, outsourcing child-resistant packaging is a common trend among today’s brands, helping to streamline the product release process and speeding up time to market when every business day counts.
Suppliers like Dymapak create patented child-resistant solutions that undergo rigorous lab testing and meet the ever-changing standards of regulatory agencies.
This way, your brand can focus on what matters, moving the needle forward for your company while reducing the risks and anxieties of safe product packaging.
10. Utilize a Variety of Packaging Formats
Not long ago, child-resistant packaging formats were limited, including basic mechanisms like push-and-twist cylinder containers and little else. Now, formats are more dynamic, subtle, and effective than ever.
With Dymapak’s exit bags and Secure Sack pouches, the opening mechanism requires the unique application of pressure to a single area while pulling the crease apart in opposite directions.
Children under the age of 5 cannot perform the process, and it’s still easy enough for seniors to access medicines and other products.
11. You Don’t Have To Compromise on Customization
In years past, child-resistant packaging formats were associated with clunky or unwieldy mechanisms, forcing brands to choose between safety and shelf appeal.
Thankfully, the new generation packaging solutions are 100 percent child-resistant while delivering a sleek, modern look and feel for your brand’s best-selling products.
You can apply your complete branding elements to Dymapak’s bags, SecuriTin containers, and other formats while getting the lab-certified child resistance you trust.
It’s the best of both worlds, so don’t limit your packaging possibilities.
12. You Can Enjoy Safe, Eco-Friendly Packaging Solutions
Consumers are serious about eco-friendly packaging but also hold high standards for child-resistant features. With the Secure Sack Eco, brands can balance these two key market pressures while delivering a memorable user experience.
No more trade-offs or compromises — the Secure Sack Eco lets you have it all while keeping the environment safe and parents happy with safe packaging formats.
Reassure With Child-Resistant Packaging Solutions
The challenges of business are more than budgeting and branding. It’s also about building trust with customers and assuring them of every aspect of your product design and user experience.
Child-resistant packaging is a matter of common sense and business ethics. Get started with Dymapak today and make your products as safe and successful as can be.
Sources:
Child-Resstant Packaging for Pesticides | EPA
Guide to Child Resistant and Senior-Friendly Packaging | CPSC
How the Cannabis Industry is Re-Imagining Child-Resistant Packaging Design | CannaCon
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