We all have the same goal: to create and distribute a satisfying product for customers with as little financial burden as possible, for profit’s sake.  While everyone shares this common goal, it’s less wise to choose the inexpensive route for each aspect of your packaging, and instead it’s most important to know how to allocate money.  This requires prioritizing what’s most important about your product for customers, as your packaging is an extension of what you’re selling.  In some cases, the packaging is actually more crucial than the product: often, packaging alone can sell the product for you.

What do you most want customers to notice about your product due to the packaging?  Depending on what’s inside, you may want to choose an environmentally sustainable package.  Perhaps that doesn’t seem like the most inexpensive route, but if your product is going to an audience that appreciates that kind of ecological awareness, you will sell more, making up for cost spent on materials.  If you’re selling something edible, the package ought to make it look deliciously appealing.  In this case, perhaps the material doesn’t matter as much as the graphic design artwork.

Saving money on packaging is all about knowing your audience.  If you’re aiming for structural oriented people (selling interesting new kitchen ware?), perhaps make the package itself into a creative geometric shape, a kind of architecture.  If you go that route, you can lessen creative necessity in other areas (who needs a pretty image if the box looks cool?).  Packaging makeup?  Show a face that knows how to wear it, or, show off its color on the outside.  Choose the aspect of what you’re selling that will most appeal to your intended audience and play that up; in all the other areas, choose the less expensive route.