The Importance of Great Packaging Design
As a customer walks through a store, they have many products and different manufacturers to choose from. If you’re a manufacturer who is selling a retail product in this environment, it has to be clearly labeled, branded correctly, and the design must stand out from the competition. In a world of cluttered shelves that are filled with well-established brands, visual identity is the key to creating brand awareness among consumers.
Everyone is aware of the importance of branding. There has been a lot of research on the impact of visual corporate identity on branding over the past 50 years. But while the invention of corporate visual identity happened relatively recently, branding has a much longer history.
Beginnings of Branding
For at least a thousand years, cattle owners have burned symbols into their herds. This makes for easy identification and is where the term ‘branding’ originally comes from.
Even thousands of years before that, pottery makers would inscribe personal marks into their work to identify it. Over time, certain marks became popular and well known and this was the start of the modern concept of branding as we understand it today.
Aspects of Branding
While an easily identifiable logo is one of the cornerstones of branding, there are other important aspects to consider. One of the oldest concepts, and most significant components of a product’s branding, is the package that the product comes in.
Packaging Design
During the 19th century, a shift occurred in the way products were sold. Due to the variety of locally made well-selling products, new players in almost every market struggled to differentiate themselves when rolling into town for the first time. This was particularly true with early food and cleaning products.
Once a product could be packaged in a way that made it stand out, it gained a reputation and was easily recognizable to the general public. Packaging was essential to sales back then just as much as it still is now.
Shelf Presence
The average consumer takes an average of 4 seconds to look at any one item, so expertly designed packaging that creates a ‘pop’ in that limited time frame, proves to be priceless.
Of course, the brand should be complemented by the overall packaging. Simple and clear packaging may be ideal for particular brands while bold colors and odd shapes may work better for others. Packaging design that echoes the brand values with its visual identity is crucial.
Need packaging design or a branding push for your product? Contact us today for a complimentary consultation. We’d love to hear from you.
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