Product Packaging Design: 3 Tips for Success
For years, studies have shown that around 70% of purchase decisions are made in-store. In addition to this, 10% of shoppers will switch their brand decision in store.
Small business owners can either take this news as encouraging or intimidating. Either way, one thing is for certain. Product packaging needs to be taken very seriously, as it can either make or break your product. You have the power to convince people to buy your products, not through advertising or commercials, but right at the point of purchase!
Great product packaging can sell a product on its own. On the other hand, if you poorly present your product, you won’t make the sales you desire. Make sure you get the results that you want by following three simple tips on product packaging.
Invest in Packaging.
Investing in high quality product labels and packaging for your products signifies to customers that your brand has value. By increasing the perceived value of your product, you are achieving many things.
First, you are able to separate yourself from competition that isn’t willing to do the same.
Second, you are able to charge a premium price for your product.
Third, you are sending a message to your customers that you care about your brand, and that they should too.
Ensure a Positive Shelf Impact.
Shelf impact is how your product impacts customers when it’s sitting on the shelf. Does it blend in with the other products or does it stand out? You want your product labels to be visually unique enough to stand out in a crowd. It is a proven fact that visually unique packaging can boost sales when done right, even when nothing about the product has changed. It is also a proven fact that it can do the exact opposite.
Tropicana learned this back in 2009 when they changed their packaging design and sales dropped by a whopping 20% in one month, which caused them to quickly revert back to the original design. We can learn a few things from this case study.
1. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” If you have created a trusted brand that customer’s love, it may be best to keep it that way.
2. Consumers can feel an emotional bond with the appearance of a product or brand. If the connection isn’t positive, it can deter them from purchasing a product, even if they like the product.
3. Do not change all of your branding elements at once. A big part of Tropicana’s drastic decrease in sales was that changing all of their design elements at once made them unrecognizable as a brand. If you want to upgrade or reinvent your brand, make sure that it is done gradually so that customer’s will be able to recognize your brand throughout the process.
Keep it Simple.
In order to make your product stand out, you may be tempted to go overboard with a wide array of colors, text, and images. You may be surprised to find that overly complicated designs actually tend to blend in more with other products, while simpler designs stand out among the visual overkill that customers are used to. In a busy, overstimulated world, consumers enjoy moments of visual calamity and tend to gravitate toward simpler packaging.
When it comes to package design, less is more. Most best-selling brands create iconic connections through their easily recognizable and simple packaging. It is also important that any text on your label is large and clear enough to be easily read, and that any images displayed are of high resolution. Keep this in mind when you send design files to your printer. Files created in Adobe Illustrator often work best since Illustrator is a vector-based program.
The amount of care you put into product packaging is just as important as the care you put into the products themselves. Keep these tips in mind while designing your product packaging. Investing in effective product packaging can get your product off of the shelf and into the consumer’s home!
Do you need custom product labels printed?
Contact us at info@ziptape.com or (480) 966-2999 to learn about our 4 color process printing and high quality custom printed labels!