The packaging on a product tends to add greatly to the decision of whether or not a consumer will buy the product. Since packaging is so significant and makes such an impact on whether or not the product will sell, it’s important that packaging design is maximized to its full potential to ensure that the product is given its best opportunity to sell on the market.
Packaging can be the backbone of driving sales, which means that you want your packaging design to be the best it can be. Although there are many ways to ensure that you receive high-quality packaging design, and it greatly depends on your company and product, there are a couple of top ways to ensure that you get the best design for your product.
Simplicity
The first rule of packaging design is to ensure that your design is simple. The average consumer spends around four seconds looking at a product on a shelf before moving on, ultimately giving you four seconds to tell them what the product is, how it benefits them, and why they should choose it.
Unfortunately, this is where many companies go wrong. They’ll include long lists of benefits without clearly labeling what the product is. Some branding is so distorted that it can be difficult to find a brand name in the mix of colors and text on the design. Your design should be simple and only display the minimum amount of content. No extras, nothing that could confuse the consumer; just easy to read and define.
Attractive
Remember that your product will be one of many on a shelf filled with competition. Ask yourself what makes your design different. You already know why they should choose your product, but what will instantly grab their attention and pull them in, even from a distance? What will ensure that they choose yours from all the options available? This is where the design comes in. Your design should be attractive and unique. This isn’t to say that you have to ensure it has every color on it or that branding is completely absurd, but ensuring that it’s high quality and stands out will make all the difference.
Be Honest
We get it, this is your product and you want it to shine in the best light. You want it to be displayed at it’s best, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But you also don’t want to exclude anything from consumers and you certainly never want to lie. When it comes to packaging design the saying ‘honesty is the best policy’ is always true.
If you’re like the rest of the world then you’ve probably experienced seeing a product that displayed a product a certain way, maybe showing a cookie filled with chocolate chips, only to open it after you’ve bought it and seen that it has a quarter the number of chocolate chips displayed on the box. This is dishonest and plain wrong. It’s okay to show the product in its best light, but completely changing the product on the packaging is never okay.
Make It Practical
It’s no secret that people are attracted to practical products. They like something that is not only easy to use but that also has more than one benefit to it. The more uses that a product has, and the more it can benefit the consumer, the more apt they’ll be to buy it.
Unfortunately, practicality tends to be the most overlooked aspect of packaging design. This is usually because once a company finds something that works, they often don’t see any room for improvement. This makes it difficult as a designer when they see an opportunity for change, to attempt to change the client’s mind. Be open to change and, if your designer tells you there may be room for improvement in the product design, be open to improvement.
