Packaging is a great marketing tool that you can use with the dual benefit of providing distribution capability and delivering important advertising messages to your consumers without appearing pushy. However, while using packaging as your marketing game, you must follow the right rules if you want to create maximum impact on your consumer and want your brand to be remembered on top of the consumer mind. Here are five golden rules of packaging design that can do wonders for you.
1. Reflects your brand honestly
A packaging speaks for your brand, whether you take a conscious effort to streamline your message or not. To create the right appeal, it is important that your packaging is a true reflection of your brand identity. The use of colours, typography and images used on your packaging should be aligned with your brand components.
Colour psychology suggests that different colours have different emotional impacts on people. Thus, you should decide the colour for packaging based on the kind of emotions you would want to invoke in your consumer and the image you want to create of your brand in their minds.
- Yellow – Happiness, intellect, creativity, optimism, and warmth
- Orange – Confidence, courage, energy, innovation, and warmth
- Red – Energy, power, passion, strength, excitement, and fearlessness
- Green – Hope, health, nature, growth, freshness, and prosperity
- Blue – Logic, loyalty, trust, security, serenity, and dependability
- Purple – Wealth, wisdom, spirituality, sophistication, imagination, and luxury
- Magenta – Creativity, passion, imagination, innovation, transformation, and balance
- Brown – Seriousness, reliability, authenticity, warmth, and support
- Black – Power, security, sophistication, authority, elegance, and substance
- Gray – Balance, reliability, strength, intelligence, and timelessness
- White – Simplicity, purity, freshness, sophistication, and clarity
Gloria Jeans Coffee has positioned itself as a premium sophisticated brand that keeps coming up with the latest trends through innovation. On its paper cup, black colour is used to show sophistication and authority.
Costa Coffee as a beverages brand has always kept its focus on creating an experience of feel-good factor. The cup uses red colour as a reflection of passion and excitement.
2. Keep consistency in packaging
You could be using different kinds of packaging as marketing materials that give you an opportunity to deliver brand messages to your consumers. These could be paper cups, clips, bags, T-shirts, sleeves and more. It is essential that you keep consistency in the use of colours, typography, messages, and patterns, so all your marketing materials speak the same language, communicate the same message, and show the same style to remember.
Lipton tea has been consistently using yellow colour in all its packaging with images of green leaves, use of the same font, and typography in the presentation of the brand name.
3. Have an information architecture
On your packaging, you can have multiple areas where you can insert information about your brand. A random insertion can confuse a customer and your messages would not stand out. Instead, if you have a proper information architecture, you can have the most important information displayed in the right places on your packaging.
You might want to ask – What are 2-3 most important things you want to tell a consumer about your brand?
Costa Coffee napkins have the two most important information elements printed – the name of the brand and the key benefit to a consumer.
Jumeirah Hotel uses paper bags that have two most important information insertions – the name of the property and expected experience of it.
4. Make it convenient for Market
Your packaging is a container for a consumable product. Thus, it may also have some significant functionality other than just being a cover. For example, a squeeze bottle would have the functionality to discharge liquid and a cup would have the functionality to contain a drink and enable its consumption. When designing such packaging, you should always keep in consideration the factor of consumption or its usage which should be made more convenient or user-friendly.
Ask yourself – How would the consumer use your packaging? Can you make it convenient for your consumer?
A good example of how this can make a difference to your brand is Heinz ketchup. The company modified the packaging of its bottle and instead of keeping the opening on top, pushed it upside down. This made it easier for customers to pour the ketchup on the food they were consuming and the sales of the bottle skyrocketed soon after its introduction in the market.
5. Keep it simple!
As per a recent Nielsen study, the attention span of the average human has dropped down to 8 seconds over the years. This can be a big problem for advertisers, who could fail to hook the audience with their ads, especially when they have a lot to say.
Packaging can be a great way to reach consumers for brands and can give an experience to the user or consumer. However, when packaging is used for advertising, care should be taken on how we communicate and how much we communicate if it has to be effective. A cluttered design with too many elements can only confuse your consumer. In the world of complications, simple things stand out and are remembered. Minimalistic design for your package can be really inviting and looks graceful. Use minimal colours, patterns, and design elements for the greatest impact. A design with no real pattern but only a simple small text over single-colour background can actually stand out.
At maimoon we understand your needs, and have all the solutions to your papercup needs.We keep these factors in mind, so that your cup lands the punch. Think paper cups, Think Maimoon
