Today, how you package your product plays a huge role in determining its success in the market. A product that has a great packaging design attracts the buyers to the shelves, leading to more sales. Good packaging design goes the extra mile to create customer loyalty if it’s memorable. The design never fades from the mind of the buyer, hence continuous purchases.
It is interesting that in the past, we never fathomed the ability of packaging design to sell a product. Whoever thought that the way a product is packaged would be used as a competitive tool to determine who sells more in the market?
To stress the significance of good packaging design, a report in 2013 indicated that the appeal of a product’s packaging carries a considerable ability to stimulate impulse buying. This applies to the customers who visit the supermarkets to window shop and buy a product even without the intention of doing so.
Below, we have compiled a list of secrets that our freelance product packaging designers swear by. If you read and follow these tips, you will increase the chances of your new product succeeding in the market.
1. Legible Typography
Always use readable typography on the label of your package design. People don’t want to spend a lot of time searching for product specifications. This means that everything written on the package must be readable in a single glance.
Important aspects that you consider in typography include the color of the font and the size of the letters on the packaging design. The font should be large enough that the customer can spot the product and skim the information easily. However, ensure that the font is not too large to interfere with its readability.
Whether your product will sell online or in stores, typography either compliments or destroys your packaging design. New and unique typography creates long-lasting memories in a buyer’s mind.
2. Know Your Product and Production
There is no way you’ll come up with a great design if you don’t have a clear understanding of your product. You need to know things like whether the product is affected by moisture and temperature. When you understand all this, you’ll be able to factor these issues into the final packaging design.
It is also wise to understand your production process when you think about great packaging design. Do you have the required machinery to come up with the package you have selected or are you going to outsource? If you think about these aspects, you will be able to come up with a good design that is appealing to your customers without stretching your resources to the extent of making losses.
3. Wise Use of Colors
According to a research study titled The Impact of Color on Marketing, it was established that people make a sub-conscious decision concerning certain products in the first 90 seconds of viewing the product. They then do an evaluation of these products on the aspect of color, and this compels 85 percent of them to buy the commodity. Another 80 percent agreed that the use of color improves brand identity.
Having understood this, we can say that color is a critical aspect of developing a memorable package design for a product. The color aspect can be looked at in four aspects:
Brand Identity
Colors should manifest your brand identity that must always be in the packaging design. If your brand has a logo, you should have definite colors that act as your identity in that logo such that whenever a customer sees it, they automatically recognize your brand. It remains memorable and enhances customer loyalty.
Emotions
Certain colors are associated with different emotions. For instance, red is associated with passion and intimacy while blue is correlated with stability and serenity. Depending on the product, you can use a color that promotes the product. The packaging design should have that color as well.
Attention
Color can be used to attract customers. Bright colors are easily noticeable when the potential buyer is standing at a distance. When your product packaging design has excellent use of color, buyers will keep on visiting it, eventually leading to sales and consequently customer loyalty.
Correlation
Make sure there is a correlation between the color of the product packaging design and the product inside. You cannot package an orange beverage in a dark bottle. This variance in color might create a bad impression on the buyer, resulting in a negative product image.
4. Know your Target Customers
If you want to succeed in making a memorable product package, you must know who your customers are. You will be able to develop the package in line with their preferences.
One thing that you should consider is the age group. Different ages of people are attracted to different package designs. What appeals to a teen may not be appropriate for a senior. Knowing the exact buyer of your product will assist you in choosing the right package design.
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A good example is packaging a lotion meant for a teenage girl with a package that would only appeal to a 50-year-old woman. This would be a waste of resources since the lotion will never make for good sales. Make the design for such a product lively, appealing, and youthful, and you’ll get good sales.
It’s also important to consider the finer demographics about your potential customers. Consider the gender, religion, and sex of the people, and put these factors into consideration when coming up with a design.
5. Giving the Design a Shelf Impact
It is proven that customers are attracted to beautiful patterns on a shelf. This is enough to lure the customer to the shelf to have a look at the product, which could result in sales.
Before you start developing a packaging design, try to establish the kind of pattern that will be formed when the products will be arranged together. But don’t stop there. Go further and assume the role of the customer to evaluate whether that pattern is appealing to the eye. If it is, that is the right design. If not, take an optional packaging prototype and repeat the process until you’re convinced that you get the best packaging design.
6. The Practicability of the Design Package
You’ll be surprised to note that consumers not only look at what is on the design of the package to fulfill their needs, but also consider the practicability of the packaging. Good and practical package design is memorable and does not leave the mind of the customer.
Keeping that in mind, you should always ensure that the shape you create for the packaging of the product is practical. You cannot come up with a container that is unstable at the bottom and expect it to be appealing to the customers. The buyer requires a stable container that can rest on a surface without difficulties.
Secondly, you should think about practicality regarding the size of the product. You shouldn’t put a small item in a large box. The converse should also be considered, as you cannot squeeze a huge product into a container that is not sufficient. Customers are looking for practical products on the shelves.
The most important thing here is to identify already made practical designs and improve them through innovation and creativity. Customers will opt for packaging designs that have an extra feature compared to what they’re used to. For instance, think of adding a handle to the existing design and enjoy the new and memorable packaging.
7. Study Your Competitors
It’s always good to learn from your competitors, whether it’s in product development, marketing, or even packaging. This way, you get to improve certain aspects so that you can compete effectively. Study how your main competitors are marketing and packaging their products to learn how you can differentiate your design and still catch the customers’ attention.
Look at the colors, materials, shapes, and other elements, and compare them to your understanding of the target market. Use your findings to come up with a better packaging design and marketing strategy.
8. Be Relevant in Your Package Design
You can never underestimate the significance of being relevant. Relevance touches several aspects of the process of creating a new and memorable package design. To begin with, always think about the kind of images that will go onto the product label. It’s better to use an image that portrays a positive value of the product rather than a negative one. Again, it will be odd to use an image of a baby on a perfume that is meant for a middle-aged woman. If it’s a baby product, let the image be relevant.
Secondly, your package design should be relevant regarding time. No customer will be willing to buy a product with a design that was created a decade ago when there are plenty of appealing designs in the market. This calls for you to be up-to-date with new trends in packaging design. Thankfully, our CAD drafting services know all of the trends.
Finally, always be relevant regarding the competition at a time when you are developing the packaging design. This will help you compete favorably in the market, and since you shall put all the points covered in this article into practice, you will have a competitive advantage.
9. Mind the Texture
To create a new design that will remain in the minds of your consumers, try to think about the texture that potential customers will love. This means that you should gather different materials and select the most appropriate for your product. You need to examine each type and put yourself in the shoes of your buyer to determine which would be most appealing to them. Think about whether the texture that goes with your product should be rough or smooth.
It’s also wise to remember that nowadays, people are very protective of the environment. Your choice of material should be eco-friendly. Given a choice between a product packaged in an eco-friendly material and the same product packaged in a non-eco-friendly material, most customers will opt for the eco-friendly packaging.
10. Consider the Shape
The shape of the product packaging is another aspect that can make your product memorable. Today, customers are used to bottles, and there is nothing about them that’s appealing. However, if you make a new and unique shape for your package design, you are likely to reap the benefits. Therefore, observe the shapes currently available in the market and see how you can improve them or come up with something unique.
When a customer enters a shopping mall and spots a unique bottle with a strange shape, they will be more interested in that product than the regular bottle shapes. In the process, the customer will interact with other catchy aspects of the design of the package and eventually, you make an extra sale, simply because of that unique shape. Also, unique shapes stand out and are easier to spot, especially when among products with ordinary shapes. It is also interesting to note that shapes evoke feelings and emotions in the customers’ mind.
Research done at the University of California has revealed that many people tend to like fair curves more than normal lines. They also do not find sharp points as friendly. After knowing this, you can now think about what to include and what not use to appeal to potential customers. Therefore, the shape of a product’s packaging can be a great tool if well used.
11. Be Humorous
Nobody hates humor. Your customers will be impressed if your packaging design makes them happy inside. Remember you’re not there to speak for your product and it must express itself to the potential buyer. If it fails to please the buyer, you fail as the packaging designer.
Think about a shape or images that will make the customer laugh or smile. Let’s take the example of packaging something like coffee. In this case, you can come up with a packaging sachet, but make an image that keeps the potential buyer glued to it with a smile.
Be assured that the customer will always remember the coffee brand since the image was funny, unique, and engaging.
12. Embrace Authenticity
Although I’m saying that you must be creative, your creativity must show some originality. You will not succeed in selling a product in packaging that is way too exaggerated. As much as customers want appealing packages, they value realistic packaging designs.
Therefore, do not use excessive color as it will lead to a sense of confusion. An exaggerated shape and size will lead to a sense of product disorganization. Unreasonably huge typography is distracting.
Coming up with new and memorable packaging design is more important than even developing a new commodity itself. The reason behind is that, as long as the packaging design is appealing to the potential customers, the product will sell. However, coming up with the best and highest quality product with a poor packaging design is all in vain as you will incur losses due to little sales.
Now that you know the greatest secrets of packaging design, I’m confident you will be able to come up with a memorable idea. It’s all about being creative, innovative, and unique. The market is full of similar products, and only differentiation of the package design will renew the niche and rejuvenate market opportunity.
Remember that in the packaging design field, it is the simple things that matter the most! Thankfully, we can handle all of the hard work for you. We have hundreds of freelance packaging designers who are pre-vetted. They’ve worked on some huge products and know how to design for the shelf. If you’re interested in getting a free quote, contact us today!