Product Packaging - Packaging Design

Ever wondered how much difference good packaging makes?

Consumers will look at a product for less than 3 seconds before deciding whether to look further or move on. We can help make sure they will look further at your product through expert packaging design using experience built up working with many of the biggest retailers in the world.

Packaging design in the modern age is one of the most sophisticated and powerful examples of the designer's craft. IC Innovations has come to learn that most products are meaningless without their packaging.

Each stage of a pack's life has different requirements: protecting contents, helping to sell them, and helping the user employ the product - and this is what we at IC do to every product that we are involved with.

What is packaging design?

Packaging design can be viewed in four different ways:

a means of protecting the contents of a package
a contributor to the cost of the end product
a sales canvas on which to promote the product's attributes and benefits
a part of the product experience itself

In the 80s and 90s it could be argued that packaging designers concerned themselves mostly with how their craft could help add value in terms of improving aesthetic appeal, to then improve sales. The use of foil bags, embossed and etched bottles, textured papers and wax seals, latest print techniques and new materials were options endlessly considered as designers tried to enhance product perception and standout.

More recently there has been a marked shift in focus towards environmental issues and the role of packaging. Design pundits often quote the egg carton as being a design classic. It is somewhat ironic therefore that this simple eco-friendly, yet beautifully functional design is perhaps also a contemporary benchmark for environmentally sustainable packaging. While the repackaging of many grocery items in foil wrap may still be wholly appropriate in many instances to improve shelf life and product perception, the rise of the “savvy shopper” in the last few years has forced packaging professionals to look at alternatives. The growth of retailer “basics” brands and a growing awareness of the impact on the environment of excessive packaging have driven a desire for packs to be wholly recyclable.

The packaging life cycle

But ‘green’ packaging isn’t just about recycling. We now also live in the world of “food miles” where we measure the distance a product has to travel from source to point of purchase. Therefore truly green packaging needs to consider more issues than recyclability. We need to consider palette maximisation too. In other words how can we design our packs to minimise the amount of “air” we ship during transportation.

Savings of millions of pounds on fast moving consumer goods can be made by maximising the number of products that can ship per palette and thus saving greenhouse emissions too. So, in the modern day we need packaging to drive top line sales and drive down waste and bottom line cost.

A well designed pack must also address the needs of its life cycle. This life cycle runs from the moment it is used to wrap its product (whether this is by hand or in a factory), to the point of sale, to the point of use, and finally - with current tough environmental laws - to its after-use.

Standing out from the crowd

With around 40,000 different packs to choose from in the average supermarket, across food and non-food items, the challenge is to stand out from the crowd. Over 70% of purchase decisions are made at point of purchase. There are thousands of products competing for shoppers' attention in store and, according to various research findings, a pack on a supermarket shelf has less than three seconds to grab that attention. This doesn't mean that packaging necessarily needs to be loud or simple - but it must be clear to the audience for which it is intended.

Block merchandising

One technique to ensure standout is known as block merchandising. It works by creating a visual illusion that the individual pack is bigger than the reality by having multiple facings which create a bigger picture like a jigsaw. This is a difficult concept to get across in print, but next time you're in a supermarket take a look at a display of Oxo packs and it will become clear.

Another key factor in aiding standout is having recognisable, simple icons - things that stand out even without looking directly at them. These icons can be called 'visual equities'. There are a number of tools you can use to create visual equity and thereby improve standout:

Shape: e.g. the Perrier bottle (designed to echo a droplet of water), a Cif lemon or Toblerone.
Colour: e.g. Heinz green, Kodak yellow or the black and cream of Guinness.
Illustration: e.g. the Fox's glacier mints polar bear or the Kellogg's cockerel.

These are just a few tricks that IC Innovations use to help a pack shout 'hello look at me'. But beyond this, the pack then has to stand closer scrutiny. At this level it is important to consider the hierarchy and digestibility of information.

1. Firstly, and most importantly, does the pack communicate its key benefit quickly - be it price (i.e. this is the cheapest on display), appetite appeal (i.e. this will taste great), or functional benefits such as with the Card Hang Ups products that IC Innovations created.

2. Beyond this, the designer needs to consider the order of secondary information, such as performance criteria or foodstuff ingredients. Getting this hierarchy right is key to creating user-friendly packaging.

3. Lastly, you need to consider how the packs themselves work as part of the product proposition. Perhaps one of the best early examples of this is the wine box.

All these points are largely about how the packaging works on a rational level, however today’s consumer also requires products to have an emotional dimension. Therefore thought also needs to be given to aspects of the product’s social responsibility and how this standpoint can be communicated in a relevant way.

Today the after-use is a main consideration for all packaged goods. For instance, meat packaging that changes colour if the product has been exposed to temperatures likely to lead to contamination, toothpaste dispensers that ensure all the toothpaste can be used, re-sealable bags for peanuts and rice, widgets in beer cans, and so on.

Competition is at its most fierce within fast moving consumer goods and therefore where innovation is often most valuable.