The importance of the right packaging
In many cases, the packaging of a product is almost as important, if not more important than the product itself. People base their impressions of a product largely on what they see which is, in many cases, the packaging. Good packaging design is probably the most effective way of attracting a potential customer’s attention to your product, but of course most consumers won’t buy something based on the packaging alone.
Packaging must therefore provide customers with information about the products – ingredients, weight, nutritional information and allergy advice warnings. Designing packaging which is simultaneously easy to carry, eye-catching and contains all the necessary product information is not always an easy task.
An art of its own
It comes as no surprise that there are a number of companies specialising in providing food packaging solutions for a whole host of food products. In the process of designing and producing suitable packaging solutions, a number of factors must be addressed: What is the exact product? What is its USP? How much does it weigh? What is the target group? Once issues such as these have been addressed, the colour, lettering, materials, shape and size of the packaging in question are determined accordingly.
It is also important to keep distribution in mind when designing packaging. Packaged products should be durable and easily stored in the specific containers that they are transported in. Packaging making the most efficient use of space are much more cost efficient to transport. Once it arrives in the stores this shelf ready packaging can then be put on the shelves without further ado. For this reason, packaging is often made of a single blank of cardboard which is light and easy to handle and also, stackable to enable safe and easy transport.
All in all it is safe to say that designing and manufacturing packaging is an art of its own. Many different factors have to be kept in mind in order to do the respective product justice, to minimize transport costs and to stimulate potential customers to purchase the product. Much research is necessary to come up with the perfect packaging. The importance of this is so often underestimated for ultimately leading to the success or failure of a product.