What does “good” packaging mean, though? You can read another of our blogs on this topic to get more of a deep dive into what makes for effective packaging design; but in case you’re still not onboard with the idea that packaging really is as important as we’re saying it is, stick around here a little while longer.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that packaging is just as important as your logo and brand. It might seem like a second-order element – an item created as an outgrowth of a brand – but actually product packaging is so integral to what a product is and how it appeals to audiences that a good brand is built around a good package – and vice versa.
Obviously good packaging protects and contains an item – no amount of aesthetic appreciation will make up for a box or a blister that doesn’t do this basic first-order job. But let’s take that for granted – as your customer will – and move on from functionality to form.
Why The Package Is So Important
Once a project has been protected from damage or spoilage both in transit and on the shelf, packaging begins to fulfil its other critical function: appealing to potential customers.
Packaging is so important because in the retail space the box a product comes in is one of the primary ways in which a customer interacts with it prior to sale. Indeed, in many cases the packaging is the first impression a potential consumer will have of the product. In other cases still, it’s job will be literally to stop the customer in their tracks as they stroll around a store or flick through an online catalogue.
We keep using this word ‘box’, but think of this as a placeholder for whatever shape is arrived at by designers. A good package almost certainly doesn’t have to be a cube – and it probably shouldn’t be. Think of the variety of bottle shapes, and how their shape denotes the product: making a package something worth exploring in itself – so-called “innovative package design” – is crucial.
According to one study, almost a third of product purchasing decisions are based on packaging – and two-thirds of all consumers say that at some point they have made a product decision on the basis of the “box”. This isn’t just a bricks-and-mortar issue, either: in another survey, 52% of online shoppers say that they’d shop again with a business if their product arrives in premium packaging.
That’s what makes product packaging so crucial: sales. Business that give packaging the attention it deserves report a 30% increase in consumer interest. Some analyses have shown that packaging results in a greater ROI than any other form of marketing or advertising. Packaging matters because it drives consumer decision-making.
All this is why we spend so much time at Squibble helping our clients make the right packaging design choices. Drop us a line to discuss the process and how we make sure your packaging is box-clever. (We promise we won’t make that pun again.) The long and short of it? Good packaging equals better sales. And that’s why packaging design is so important.
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