Product packaging is one of the primary marketing tools available to every product-oriented sales force; the most effective way to develop product packaging is to test your designs with a group of consumers.
Product packaging is one of the primary marketing tools available to every product-oriented sales force.
Keep in mind: your packaging should not just act simply as a casing for the product inside - it should act as a billboard for it. Effective product packaging design engages the audience’s attention and makes your product stand out from its competitors; the way you package your product could mean the difference between a sale made and a sale lost.
Designing effective packaging for a product requires several considerations be made to style, form, and function. If your packaging fails to place your product in parity with its competitors, consumers may fail to identify your product for what it is; gaudy, elaborate designs may drive up the costs of your production.
The most effective way to develop product packaging is to test your designs with a group of consumers. Test audiences provide important feedback on the merits of your design, and are able to highlight the different elements of the package that do and don’t work. When designers develop their products with their target audience in mind, the results are often not only more aesthetically pleasing - they sell better!
With Helpfull surveying, designers and marketers can test their designs in front of thousands of Helpfull panelists. Everyone from general audiences to specific target demographics can be polled with ease; the speed at which responses are generated aids allows for feedback to be integrated into product packaging designs in real-time.
First and foremost, your product packaging design must be functional. If the box design or casing is unable to properly house your product, then it fails to meet the basic requirements of product packaging. Once this is achieved, further design product packaging considerations can be made.
Knowing your audience’s taste is another integral component of winning design packaging that does more than just protect your product. Drawing from existing consumer profiles and avatars is a helpful way of figuring out what design elements your consumers will respond positively towards. Avoiding any offensive or ineffective imagery is vital to achieving strong brand recognition in the mind of your customers.
When looking at aesthetics, there are some unifying qualities shared by most effective packaging designs. To develop a product package that will resonate with your consumers, consider the following tips.
Consumers aren’t simply buying your product - they’re buying the box it came in as well. If you can make that box seem like a tangible part of the value proposition, consumers will be drawn to your product over less-exciting alternatives.
Color is a visual component of branding that cannot be ignored. Humans are innately wired to develop strong emotional connections to color; these connections have a major impact on their purchasing decisions and product preferences.
The way you color your product packaging can influence the way consumers form associations in their mind about your product. Consumers have been conditioned to associate specific color palettes with certain industries: greens and yellows for education and ecology, blues and oranges for sports and tech development, and so on. With these facts in mind, it’s important that your color choices for your packaging are not only aesthetically pleasing - but also relevant to your industry.
For our first example, we’re looking to do some simple split option image-comparison testing. We’ve developed a series of different color palettes for a new brand of over-the-counter medicine we’re producing; we want audiences to give us their feedback on which colors they find to be “the most attractive”.
After submitting the poll to 100 Helpfull panelists, our results were returned to us in less than twenty minutes.
Of the three design choices given for our imaginary medicine Oxyminphen, consumers overwhelmingly chose the purple-and-cyan color scheme.
Consumers found the design to be the most legible and clear of the three. Many panelists reported an affinity for the darker color scheme, as they felt it was the most “modern” and aesthetically appealing choice.
With 84% of the market supporting our winning color choice, we feel confident in making a decision to run with the purple-and-cyan color palette.
When it comes to packaging design, even small changes can make a very present and noticeable impact on the design’s effectiveness.
In the packaging design process, the variations between design iterations often grow smaller and more directed as the final product becomes more fleshed out. Testing even minor variations in design with consumers can be a great way to course-correct with your designs; the design changes may seem small to you, but they could have a very discernable impact on how your consumers perceive the product.
Unlike our first survey, the results found here were far more narrow and undecided.
Beneath each column of votes, consumers gave us their unique considerations on why they felt their chosen design was stronger than the rest. Some consumers appreciated the aesthetic design of the bread bag, while others voted for the selections they felt gave them the best window into measuring the freshness and quality of the bread.
Of the five bag designs tested, three of them managed to garner more than 20% of the vote each; this tells us there is merit in all 3 designs, and that we need to run further tests.
In order to determine the most effective bread-bag design, we ask another 100 Helpfull panelists to decide on which of our top 3 designs we should run with.
Surprisingly, the audience results were even more narrow for our proceeding poll. An almost perfect split of votes between all 3 designs lets us know we’re sitting on three very strong packaging designs.
In the product packaging design process, there will be times when scrapping an entire failed concept is necessary in order to find the most appropriate design. Other times, simply re-arranging the existing elements on a product package can have a dramatic impact in how consumers respond to your product.
For our final example, we’ve asked our poll recipients to give us their consideration on two different designs for our vitamin-fortified water flavoring tablets. The only changes made between the two sets of designs were the layout and placement of the design elements, and the label font.
After 20 minutes of deliberation, our audience overwhelmingly voted in support of our “centered” packaging layout. The advantage this design carried over the alternative was a more logical ordering of the logos: brand label, then product label, then product title. A centered logo gave the product a much more “professional” look to the consumers than a top-aligned logo.
A 70-30 split in votes tells us we’ve found the superior product packaging; all we did to create that divide in audience perception was simply rearrange the existing elements present in the logo design.
Consumers often make vital purchasing decisions based on the information gathered from a product’s packaging; ineffective, garish, or forgettable packaging will therefore have a negative impact on your product’s shelf appeal. Developing packaging that balances functionality with style is the best way to ensure the success of your product launch.
The best way to develop memorable, effective product packaging is to test your designs before your product launches. From initial designs to finished concepts, a Helpfull audience is there to give you quick, measured feedback on your progress. Designs made with a Helpfull audience in mind are designs that will drive customer satisfaction, brand recognition, and ultimately - your sales.
An intuitive user-interface, coupled with the ability to gather hundreds of consumer responses in just minutes, are just a few of the features that make Helpfull the ultimate tool for any artist, designer, or marketer.
Find the best face for your product - sign up with Helpfull today!
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