In the previous articles, we discussed the importance of food design and packaging and the reason for it, and we learned that thanks to technology and industrial automation, design, and packaging have become a strategic branch in business today.
Considering the fast-growing pace of digital businesses and media, the market is now enjoying more dealers, middlemen, and brands covering every niche of it and given the importance of product design, in this article, we try to look at the strategic points in the design and packaging of food as well as possible so that the designer, with more awareness and fewer risk steps in this direction.
Mentioned fact gifts consumers more choices, options, and bargain-power while decreasing the power of suppliers and entry barriers. Keeping these points in the head, suppliers are putting more emphasis and efforts on brand management and branding science. In other words, Brand management has become one of the most and maybe the first important ways that lead to reaching a sustainable competitive advantage.
Then we learned that thanks to technology and industrial automation, design, and packaging have become a strategic branch in business today.
Answer these four basic questions before designing and packaging:
• What is the product and what are its features? (Goods)
• Who are the target audience and customers of the product and what are their characteristics? (Audience)
• How is the process of purchasing goods by the customer? (Purchasing)
• Under what conditions and how is the product consumed? (Consumption)
In the following, we will examine each question separately.
What does packaging mean and why does it matter?
Make it simple and short, packaging implies every effort and task that deals with the product covering and its outer display and view. Filling with different views, brands, and packages, the market is now less loyal to suppliers and more to consumers. Written descriptions led the companies to see packaging as a catalyzer that accelerates their way to reach the customers’ pockets and share.
Imagine your product alone in the market and shopping mall which is replete with dozens of brands and products. Packaging and product cover will be all those consumers will recognize at first glance. So, it’s got no importance how well and qualified your product is. All that consumer is in, are your product’s packaging and visual achievements.
Packaging and product analysis
The packaging is the first eye-catcher element of your product. It is the first sight he sees and beware that the first sight, is to attract 90 percent of consumers’ attention. Besides the mentioned fact, more than 60 percent of consumers’ decisions are made through the first visual contact with the product.
What is the product and what are its features?
This is a question that is important in two ways. The first aspect is that once the product is clear, the designer and graphic designer will have a specific perception and definition of the product, and as a result, the product design will attract more attention from the audience. On the other hand, the characteristics and what the product is, make the packaging process more appropriate and compatible with the product. For example, in food packaging, it is necessary to consider factors such as shelf life, transportation of goods, and health tips in its consumption.
Who are the audience and customers of the product and what are their characteristics?
Knowing the customer is one of the strategic steps of any business. Knowing the audience and their characteristics help the designer to implement the design and packaging according to the needs and conditions of the customer. For example, if a product is designed for an older customer, the logo and design should be large and legible enough for the customer to easily see and interact with it from a distance. Another example is the packaging of goods for children. The more colorful the packaging of goods such as chips, desserts, puffs, and ice cream with fancy images, the more attractive it will be to the audience and the customer, who are children.
How is the purchase of goods by the customer?
Where and how the customer buys the goods. Does the customer buy the product on the store shelf, behind the shop window, or on the site? If a product is offered on the site, it is better to have an attractive and effective design. If it is sold in a boutique, it must be impressive and be able to attract customers at first glance, and if it is offered in a store, its design and, of course, packaging must be different enough to attract more customers than other similar products. Its packaging will make the audience feel good.
Under what conditions and how is the product consumed?
This is especially important when it comes to food packaging. For example, if food is to be consumed outside the home and while traveling, it is better to have comfortable, compact, and light packaging. Also, paying attention to the resistance of packaging in hot and cold temperatures is another important and influential factor that is related to how the product is consumed.
Packaging as marketing means: roaming through its way from the factory to the shopping mall, your product will be judged and kept by its cover and packaging. A brilliant and eye-catcher packaging will empower your product to hit on the consumer’s mind and attract him to take a look at the product. Furthermore, attractive packaging and covering help consumers to enjoy a good and ever-lasting memory of your brand and company. There is also another side to this story. A boring and unattractive covering will instill a grey and vague memory of your company into consumers that will affect their future purchases. Even if consumers are not to buy from a specific product that your company and other competitors are producing, an eager-less packaging will put your future transaction in danger. So, you will not only lose the present interest but the future share also.
In this article, we found that it is not enough to just pay attention to the design and packaging of the product, and it is necessary for this attention and cost to be placed intelligently and purposefully and in the right direction, which the author thinks, without sufficient knowledge of the product, the customer It is not possible to buy or consume goods, and of course, this is in full contact with the marketing department, and the more communication and interaction between the two marketing departments and design and packaging, it is clear that a better achievement will occur in this area.