Packaging doesn’t only exist to protect the product. It is one of the most important aspects of marketing. Eye-catching designs on the packaging help it stand out on the shelf and improves the odds it will sell. Good packaging will identify the product, reassure them as to its quality, and create an emotional connection with the customer. However, this is only possible when you have a good, eye-catching packaging design. Let’s take a look at what will make your packaging pop and catch the attention of your customers.
Table of Contents
Identify How the Product Will Be Sold
The ideal packaging for the product will differ based on the sales channel. For example, items sold online can’t be touched and held, so your packaging should rely primarily on visual appeal. The packaging on the shelf could appeal to other senses, though the visual appeal remains predominant. After all, the product has to stand out from the competition well enough for other people to pick it up and feel the material or hear the sound effects from the toy.
Be Deliberate in Your Design Process
Don’t make the packaging design an afterthought. Start designing your packaging early in the product design process. Go through a variety of product packaging designs so that the product packaging is an extension of your brand, not just something to hold the product and have a label applied to it. Go through several mock-ups of the product and perform market research so that you know that your customers will approve of it before you mass produce it.
Study what your competitors are doing, find out how they’re failing, and then learn from it. If you can make your packaging easier to open or use less material, this can be a selling point. And learn what lingo they’re using that works so you can include it on your packaging, as well.
Stay ahead of the curve and plan changes in advance instead of sticking with what works until it doesn’t. Also, consider working with a reliable source like Smash Brand. Their world-class packaging designers know how to design consumer product packaging that connects with consumers while meeting practical needs such as protecting the product. They’re known for redesigning product packaging to revive flagging sales. They can provide advice based on what works for the most successful brands and apply that expertise to your new packaging design.
Involve More than Your Marketing Department
While marketing is a key contributor to your new packaging design, work with production and manufacturing as well. You don’t want to come up with a packaging design that is difficult to manufacture, fill or distribute.
When you consider changing your packaging, engage manufacturing at the very start to ensure that the design you want to implement aligns with what works best. For example, wax seals may give a sense of luxury but embossing or letterpress seals have the same look for a much lower cost.
Consider listening to customers and distributors on how the current packaging fails to protect your product or is difficult to stack on shelves. Verify that the product’s packaging protects it and looks good as long as the item is on the shelf. After all, slow moving consumer goods may sit on the shelf or in a warehouse for years.
Also, look past the shelf to how the product is used in the customer’s home or place of business. If the product isn’t single use, make certain the packaging isn’t totally destroyed when someone opens it. Make sure the product isn’t hard to open by the target consumer and easy to store for future use if it will sit on their shelf for a while.
Remember that Less Is More
Environmental concerns are of increasing importance to consumers. Look for ways to make your packaging more environmentally friendly, whether it is using recycled content, making certain your packaging can be easily recycled, and using less material in the packaging overall.
If the packaging is both eye-catching and eco-friendly, this will increase sales. And you may be required by law to meet various standards. Meeting those may not be a selling point but exceeding them can be. Just don’t go with packaging with such a low perceived value that it undermines the consumer’s confidence in your product.
Keep It Simple
Design product packaging that uses as little material as possible. Try to make the packaging serve every purpose possible from protecting and preserving the product to advertising the contents to aiding in its distribution.
At a minimum, design product packaging that doesn’t get in the way of packing as many as possible in a box for shipment to the retailer and doesn’t require multiple layers of packaging to arrive safely. Be careful of the temptation to go with custom packaging since this is expensive and may be overkill. The more economical choice is finding ways to advertise on the packaging without spending much. For example, include applicable warnings along with the marketing content on the package instead of applying a separate warning sticker.
Another mistake is over-selling with the packaging. If you try to oversell the product through the packaging, you’re actually at risk of dissuading people from buying it. This is where market research with the packaging can save you from disaster. At the same time, take market positioning and branding into account. Make your product eye-catching without being too flashy. Stand out on the shelf but remain associated with your brand’s color scheme. After all, you want to maintain customer loyalty and ensure that loyal customers can find your product in the store.
Pay Attention to Typography
The typography on the packaging matters. For example, text that can’t be read because it blends into the color scheme of the box is meaningless. Don’t make text too small to be read from the customer’s perspective, either. The most important text should be the largest and the most obvious writing on the packaging. And remember that too much text on the box is a distraction, so only put what is important on the packaging. You can print other warnings, notices, and instructions on a packaging insert.
Conclusion
Your product’s packaging is often your company’s first impression with a potential consumer. And bad experiences with your packaging will always cost you future sales. Create the perfect package for your product so that you’ll keep it flying off the shelves.