Khushboo Solanki Sharma, the author of this article, is the founder of Zero Gravity Communications. Here, she talks about how cracking the consumer’s point of view is a task, but all you need to do is put in all your creative energies into making your product a head turner on this runway that the supermarket shelf is.
It’s in human nature to be attracted to aesthetically appealing things, isn’t it? Take a supermarket, for instance, the shelves are overflowing with new products every single day. But the golden question is, what aspect of the product determines its fate? It is worth wondering what pushes the consumer to spend their money on these products, and what helps the product stand out.
The answer is an obvious fact what one sees and likes, one buys. “the packaging” is the way you make consumer see your product. It can be by making the product stand out, differentiating with USP, messaging or just via simple colors. It’s the way the product is presented via its packaging that grabs a consumer’s attention. Every point of communication in the retail space happens through this crucial aspect called “packaging”. To gauge a better understanding, let’s talk about what goes behind designing the package of a product.
The onus lies upon the product team at client and design agency. It becomes their collective responsibility to grasp who and what kind of consumer do they want for their product. Then the consumer’s consumption pattern and in retrospect their psyche needs to be studied. The six factors need to be taken into consideration to hit that right chord are:
1. Visuals
2. Typography
3. Colour
4. Shape
5. Touch
6. Feel
Furthermore, the agency focuses on having a clear idea about the product category, target group, communication of the USP, and the pricing. Once these characteristics of the product are well understood, the designer processes the information received. It is important to remember, that packaging is neither easy nor quick, it’s a journey. It’s a process of selection, addition and elimination to create the optimum and acceptable packaging for the product.
In my experience, the packaging is highly reliant upon developing a process and improvising along the way. A lot of creative minds are put together while designing the product package. The goal is to come up with an exceptional concept that conveys brand identity in its true essence.
To illustrate better, let me tell you about Alanna, one of our clients that were an upcoming natural beauty brand. Our purpose while designing its packaging was to tell a story. The story though is supposed to capture the brand identity while attracting the attention of the target audience. Every brand has a unique need, and the packaging needs to both cater to that need and highlight that uniqueness to the table. Like for Alanna, each product had its key ingredient placed in front of the packaging, along with a monument representing the city where it was cultivated.
It is also essential to appreciate the things the brand takes pride in. Alanna, for example, took pride in the fact that it was completely made in India, and this one USP was loved by many. A special section was also added that addressed the points that makes the brand different from others and why the consumer should choose Alanna over their preferred brands.
The material chosen for the packaging was soft to provide it with a premium feel, which was an important factor since the brand was marketed under the bracket of affordable luxury goods. It is great if your packaging has a story but it is more important that it reaches out to the target audience or potential consumer.
A very important point that people often miss while making attractive packaging is the legibility and the information provided about the product. Over the years, I have worked on the packaging for many FMCGs, and in my opinion, it is one of the most competitive industries to deal with when it comes to packaging. Despite being basic retail psychology, we often forget that the brand has just a few seconds to garner that attention and interest of the prospective consumer. And in those few seconds, the packaging is supposed to communicate the purpose, the USP and the vibe of the product.
While we are trying to encapsulate the aforementioned, it is vital to keep the client’s demands into consideration too. To elaborate upon that I’ll conclude with the insights about our ongoing project. Currently, we are working on the packaging for a brand launching corn-based snacks. Now the client wants to make the name of the brand as the hero, along with intriguing visuals and concepts. And the fact, that there are so many snack brands already made, our task becomes even more challenging. It was critical to differentiate our client from others because when the product is kept on the shelf, it should stand-out. While we are figuring out ways to serve them to our fullest capacity every day, we also don’t let this challenge waver us or our creativity.
Reality is that cracking the consumer’s point of view is a task, but all you need to do is put in all your creative energies into making your product a head turner on this runway that the supermarket shelf is.