No matter how much you try to promote your product- if the packaging looks unattractive or meaningless people will never try it. The package is the first experience your customers will have with your product, and it is also your chance to get their attention in the supermarket. It will affect the way customers perceive your product’s value, functionality, and will also help them remember it.
Value
The notion of value refers to both the perceived worth of the product and what makes it unique. You’ll notice many lower-price brands using “premium” packaging to convince customers that they’re getting more value for their money. A bigger, shinier, sleeker package attracts more attention than a plain, smaller one at the same price, despite having the same content inside. Similarly, a container with a feature that makes it easier to open will stand out among products that don’t have such a feature. Packaging that you can repurpose into something else, regardless of if the buyer intends to recycle it, displays more value than a wrapper that can only be thrown away afterwards.
Function
In some instances, the functionality of your package helps gravitate your customer towards it. A customer, for example, is more likely to buy preserved food that comes in cans, which are more durable than plastic bags, because they’re less prone to damage and contamination even though they have the same preservation capabilities. If it’s a product that is meant to be stocked up, boxes that can be easily stacked in storage and provide other benefits like saving space will mean more to a customer than a regular square box.
Branding
Everyone is familiar with the Coca-Cola bottle shape. Because of its unique, timeless design, anyone can recognise a Coca-Cola bottle whether by sight or by touch. Other brands have colours strongly attached to them. For example, Tide owns the colour orange in the detergent industry, while red and yellow make people think of McDonald’s. In both instances, the companies chose these colours because of their ability to attract. Red, yellow, and orange are some of the most eye-catching colours. Your product typically only has a few seconds to call someone’s attention as they pass by, so strong colours will win but keep in mind that the colour and the overall design must also match your brand. Don’t make your package red just because it works for McDonald’s! Communicating your brand identity with your overall packaging design is essential. Make it iconic and memorable, and people will keep returning to it.
Designing packaging can entail as much work and research as the product itself. To have genuinely successful packaging, aside from keeping the contents safe, you must also learn your customer’s behaviour in places where your product appears, plus be memorable. Bespoke packaging helps; unique packaging will give your product its own identity in a sea of competing products.
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