Yes, packaging serves a functional purpose, helping us carry and protect products. But why would simple packaging make us want to buy something? Even when we already know what we want, how can a brand’s packaging still influence our decision?
A set of experiments conducted with real people showed that people’s perceptions, expectations, and choices regarding mineral water are differentially affected by the color of the plastic cup in which the liquid is contained. Why is that?
Because we humans are curious by nature and love colors, since we can see them. We are the curious kind, and ones who are sensible and sensitive to beautiful, pretty things.
Imagine this, when you go to a shopping mall to buy your list, do you come back with just those items? Rarely! You're perusing the entire mall when something catches your eye, and you pick it up. The more you look at it, the more lucrative it seems.
You check the price, and maybe it is too pricey, so with a heavy heart, you put it back. If it is affordable enough, it would already have made its way to your basket. That’s the power of packaging and product marketing.
It stirs curiosity and aesthetic strings in our brains. We've all made purchases where the actual product turned out to be a bad choice, but you didn’t choose it based on the product! But rather because the packaging looked cool or good.
As said previously, ‘Packaging is the brand and product’s entire pitch made visual’.
The same applies to advertising, packaging your brand in a way that it is perceived exactly as intended by the consumer or target audience.
Industry experts and their marketing teams study trends in color, design styles, and more consumer behaviors to understand what is now and how to make the best use of it.
They often change their boxes to align with Packaging Design Trends. Right now, minimalism is in, and their boxes usually feature just two dots on a white background with a single color—red or blue—showing a minimal Domino's look. You can even spot a Domino's box in a trash can by just a corner!
Even local brands like Uncle Goons are making waves online thanks to their quirky branding and menu offerings. For example, for the Diwali gift hampers, they played on the joke that it is always a soan papdi dabba that makes rounds, they packaged their brownie hampers labeled as ‘Not Soan Papdi’, making it clever marketing while playing with fun colors and fonts, and staying on brand.
Brands seek professional help, such as a dedicated Packaging Design Company, to evoke emotions through packaging. Food brands use yellows, reds, and oranges to trigger cravings. Beauty and wellness brands use muted, earthy tones and minimalism to set a calm mood and entice purchases.
Brands like Coca-Cola, Maaza, and Frooti invest heavily to make products irresistible, while alcohol brands use design to make products look classy, cool, or straight-up heavenly.
Inversely, YogaBar plays to the new generation’s ‘want to eat healthy and clean’ vibe, with graphic elements, muted and bright color combos, and fonts that look handwritten.
It has hit the spot when it comes to making the new generation want to buy their products. Just holding one of their protein bars makes you feel that endorphin rush that comes when you do something healthy. Like you just took care of your body.
The appearance of a product’s packaging significantly impacts buying decisions. For many consumers, packaging is the critical factor in attracting attention and triggering the desire to purchase, while the actual product may come second.
On Valentine’s Day, would you buy regular chocolate or one with hearts in pink or red? The regular feels plain; the heart fits the occasion. The chocolate is the same—only the packaging differs. Packaging plays a huge role.
When buying soap, do you pick flowery packaging or clean, solid colors? Most choose the latter today because minimalism is popular, whereas flowery was the clear winner years ago.
Since day one, Steve Jobs prioritized packaging after the product. People buy iPhones to experience the unboxing, which ultimately comes down to packaging.
Hence, when we say packaging matters when driving a buyer to purchase a product, we kinda know what we’re talking about, cause we're the ones providing the service, trying out different combinations to make the packaging more lucrative for you.
If you think we do know what we’re talking about and want to upgrade your packaging game, we’re just a call away!
It plays with the consumer’s psychology by making it a lucrative choice or playing on the consumer’s curiosity.
It works on a lot of factors, like how the brand wants to portray the product, font combos, color choices, the product's intent, and, lastly, the target audience and their way of looking at things.
Sometimes yes, like McDonald's has made things iconic with their clown and M symbols, while some brands' long game is to be relevant all along, which would make the packaging dynamic as per trends, both are sensible approaches.
Because we are one of the leading professionals in the package design field, we bring years of experience, ongoing research, and continuous updates to our knowledge base.
