Written by: Sachin Parmar
Do you sell a product that arrives in your customers’ hands in packaging? Whether this is for protection or to make your product more visually appealing, you must give careful thought to the design, as poor packaging could be enough to lose much-needed custom. Sachin Parmar, Co-founder and Creative Director from evokeu, London’s leading boutique digital marketing and branding agency, shares his thoughts on how packaging can negatively and positively impact a consumer’s decision to purchase.
Love at first sight
It’s all about first impressions. Your packaging needs to stand out from the crowd and be noticeable amongst the many other competing products. Your design needs to be bold enough to grab your audience’s attention, whilst still being in keeping with your overall brand. Make sure that you don’t lose sight of your core mission and vision, as your packaging needs to communicate this to your customer. Consider what makes your product unique and weave this into the design. Within an instant, your potential customer needs to understand what the product is, what makes it different and the reason they should buy it above all other products. Once you’ve got several prototypes in place, it’s worth investing in vigorous testing to get honest reviews from the public before launching your packaging into the big wide world. Taking this additional step will increase the chances of your packaging withstanding the scrutiny of the open market.
Colour counts
It’s vital that you choose the colour scheme for your packaging wisely. Colour is an emotive concept and will make consumers feel a certain way, whether that’s sad, happy, energised or angry – does the emotion correspond with the way you want your product to make customers feel? Your chosen colours also need to work well together. Use the colour wheel to help you select colours that are next to each other and complementing, or on opposite sides and therefore contrasting. To ensure that your packaging matches your branding, make sure that you think about the way your packaging will look from the very early planning stages of your brand. Packaging should be an integral part of your branding, not a nice-to-have extra.
Imagine the imagery
Using imagery on your packaging can add another dimension, but if using images from an external source, you need to make sure that you have the correct rights in place for use on your packaging. It can sometimes be easier to create the imagery yourself, whether you’re looking for a photo or graphic to make your packaging stand out. If you do decide to use images on your packaging, they need to be high-quality, clear as to what they’re portraying and in line with your brand. If photography and design aren’t your strengths, then seek the help of professionals, such as the skilled team at evokeu which includes photographers and graphic designers.
Consider the materials
The materials that you select are just as important as the design. You need to think about the look and feel of the materials, as the packaging will often be a potential customer’s first physical interaction with your product. Does the quality of the packaging material match the quality of your product? In addition to swaying a customer’s initial opinion of your product, you also need to consider the strength of the materials that you’ve chosen, how long you need the packaging to last and whether you need it to protect the product – this could refine the number of materials you’re able to use. Finally, as sustainability is a key priority for many consumers, you need to give careful thought to the lifecycle of your packaging and its ability to be recycled and reused.
Designing and creating packaging for a product isn’t a simple task and if not given enough attention, it could lead to the demise of your business. But fear not, evokeu are on hand to support you with every aspect of packaging design and creation, from generating ideas to recommending the way your packaging should be put together.
If you’d like to find out more about Sachin and evokeu, please visit: https://www.evokeu.com/. You can also follow Sachin on LinkedIn, where he frequently posts business advice and inspiring content.
Sachin Parmar is the Co-founder and Creative Director of boutique digital marketing and branding agency, evokeu. With decades of design experience, Sachin has a keen eye for detail and a drive to create consistently superior results. Sachin and his expert team work with big and small brands across many sectors to help clients capture customer attention and create growth. Evokeu also has a vertical brand called Graphic Kitchen, which specialises in the hospitality sector.
