Packaging and Consumer Behavior

Product packaging is considered as the ultimate opportunity for us to communicate our brand’s
message visually.

How does consumer behavior relate to the packaging design?

Any design of the product packaging includes several features. These are:

 Color
 Brand name exposure
 Labeling
 Print finish variant
 Added value
Each one plays a distinct role in the way your packaging will influence the customers.

How Packaging Design Can Increase Our Sales? (For Adults*)

Packaging design plays a role in how customers would see our company and in extension, our
brand. Investing in great packaging would lead to customer attraction and lead to increased
sales.
If we have a packaging design that catches the eye of our customers, we’ll get noticed and
recognized easily and instantly. To enhance that, we need to communicate our branding on the
packaging.
According to Shorr Packaging’s e-commerce customer survey (2016):

 Fifty-two percent of online consumers say they would shop again from a business if it
included premium packaging.
 Thirty percent of businesses say consumers pay more attention to their products after
they refocused on their packaging.
 Forty percent of consumers would share a photo of a product on social media if the
packaging were interesting.

Our Packaging should Communicate all the Information

Our product’s packaging needs to be informative and tell our user everything they need to
know. We should put all the answers on the outside, so they learn all about us and our product
before they even open the box. So, here’s a few customer questions that our packaging should
answer:

 Who designed this product? Who is the product for?

 What is the product used for? Does it have any limitations? What knowledge do I need
to use this product?
  Where is the product made? Where can I learn more about the manufacturer and
purchase companion products?
 When is the product supposed to be used? Does it have an expiration date?
 Why do I need this product? How will it improve the quality of my life? Why should I
spend my money on this product?

Packaging Creates and Demonstrates Brand Identity

Brand identity connects with consumers on two fronts:

 Creating a clear impression of a company and a product to a new customer.

 Reminding consumers about the brand and the products offered.
Packaging is one of the key tools in defining and sharing brand identity.
The consistent impression we create for our company and product is what makes consumers
recognize and remember our product.

 It should clearly show our company logos

 The logo should have an attractive design and color.
According to the Paper and Packaging Board survey, we should switch to cardboard or paper if
we want to have premium packaging since 63% of consumers perceive that. It would also
influence them to buy more from the store or retailer.
Yorksaw found that bold and bright colors are the trend in 2020. It’s a way for brands to stick
out from the competition.

Some Packaging Tips that may work:

 Attractive Label:
The first step is to make sure your products are branded. These little things remind people
about our business and go a long way in branding.

 Include a personal note to the buyer:

A short note, just a short thank you for your order note will suffice. This adds a lot of value to an
item.

 Throw in some extra goodies:

People love receiving more than they expect and ordered, so this can go a very long way! It
doesn’t have to be a huge item – maybe for example if we sell a custom journal, we could
include a pen with your company name or something like that. This will cause our customers to
be delighted to receive more than they expect!
  Simple packaging:
There are so many elaborate packaging designs out there. While they may look nice on our
computer screen, they may not necessarily be the most practical. For example, too many
ribbons and strings and tape and our customer may be swearing at us trying to get something
out of the box! Simple shipping is important, because our customers want to get to the product
and start using it right away.

Packaging and Kids Psychology:

 Primary colors should prevail: Primary colors such as red, blue, yellow or green have a
direct impact on children, especially when they are associated to certain cartoon
characters they are used to seeing. The shade of the color is also important. It should be
bright as this is better at gaining their attention and helps to incite emotion and stimuli
in them that will ultimately attract them to a certain packaging over another.
 Characters have an important place: children get carried away by the characters that
are in fashion and that they see every day in their favorite cartoons.
 Creative and imaginative packaging: The element of surprise is also important and, as
we say, nowadays child-focused packaging is no longer marginal and there is a lot of
competition. So, if we are capable of offering something new, original, and creative in
the packaging then a great part of the battle will be won.
 Semi-transparent Packaging: Kids are more attracted to products that they see visually.
A good colorful card-board packaging with a semi-transparent design would attract any
kid.

Suggestions on our existing packaging:

For Kids:
 The color selection is good on the back page.
 But the design doesn’t look attractive to the target audience, I.e., the kids, instead this
design would work for grown-ups like teens.
 The front design doesn’t look attractive due to the color selection. Kids are attracted to
bright colors and not dark ones. Please refer to the kid's psychology mentioned
previously.

 This Design looks really dull, gain due to color selection. The brighter the color the
better is the reach.

 Both the color and design look dull.

 Instead we can use a whole white box with the toy train picture.
  Again, for this also, the box can be in white, in which the puppet show theatre can be
placed.
 The font colors at the back should be bright.

 The color selection is not good. It looks dull and boring. We should use bright colors.
Some of the kid's products that have a good packaging:
Basically, our product should be really bright when it targeted towards kids.

 We can use combos of White and other bright colors like yellow, sky blue, red, green,
orange etc. For a gender-neutral audience.
 White and pink or purple could be a good combo when targeted towards girls.
 It would be attractive if we could put up clear, colorful pictures of various sizes on the
pack.
 Semi-transparent designs have become a trend now, the curiosity of the kids increases
when they could partially see what is there inside, and they would want to see
everything that is there, ultimately makes them want to buy it.
 We can also give packaging in small packs with attractive shapes like a creative can or a
creative kit bag.

For Adults:
 They prefer card-board or paper packaging.
 I think the existing packaging works well.
Some of the best packaging that customers would like:
This is a monthly subscription model.
The cut-off craft supplies can be packed like this.
Basically, the packaging targeted towards adults should be opposite to kids.

 They prefer paper/card-board packaging.

 Light colors.
 Minimal Designs.
 Good patterns