Last Updated on February 26, 2024
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You’ve got an awesome new product, and you can’t wait to get it on the market so that the whole world can see it. Consider though, the plethora of multicolored product-packagings that will share shelf-space with your product. Suddenly, the visibility of your product is greatly diminished. Suffice to say, then, that it is not enough to ask for consumer attention, your product packaging must demand it!
Easier said than done, you say? Well, yes, but that is precisely why it should be done. Going that extra mile, shirking the conventions to which your competitors cling, these things are the prerequisites to captivating package design.
Thanks for read—oh, huh, examples? Yeah, sure. I’ve got examples. In fact, why don’t we take a look at a few so that we can better understand how and why they work to improve consumer engagement.
1. Make A Game of It
So what, if anything at all, is special about a label that allows one to play games on it. Yeah, yeah, I heard it as soon as I wrote it. Who doesn’t love games!
What makes this kind of label so appealing to brand owners is that it offers a fun and creative way to cement the image of the product in consumer minds. Think how often you’ve been acquainted with an awesome product, maybe it was introduced to you by a friend, and you enjoyed it but cannot remember its name. Wine brands so often employ fancy yet hard to pronounce and therefore easy to forget product names.
In contrast, the potential for traceability and, later conversion, is especially high for this product. A consumer may have only a vague memory of your beverage product, the color and earthiness of its taste perhaps. The unusual and engaging appearance of a game, or the like, on the bottle though, is sure to leave a lasting impression.
Even if the customer doesn’t remember the name of your brand, they’ll quickly whip out their iPhone and Google search “XYZ Product with crossword puzzle label” and guess who they’ll be able to find? That’s right. Your company..
2. Shock and Awe
We’ve all had those moments when we’ve seen something we wish we could unsee. For some of us, this moment occurred when as children we stayed up past bedtime and watched some scary movie we had no business watching. For others, it occured when they haphazardly stumbled into their parents’ room without knocking. *Shivers*
The thing is, shock sticks.
You needn’t do anything too extreme, but it might be good to every once and a while confound the senses of your consumers. Take for example this startling package design for an energy drink by Harcos Laboratory. The blood tinged fingerprints are an excellent touch, and add to authentic and disquieting feel to the design. One sip from this is sure to make onlookers recoil, and then, look again. It is this second look that is truly important.
3. Functionality and Ease of Use
Sometimes it is the simplest of design considerations that makes a product appealing to consumers. Take, for example, this awesome packaging design by Help Remedies. Each one succinctly describes a specific kind of ailment. Phraseology like “I have allergies,” “I can’t sleep,” and “I have an aching body,” take the guesswork out of finding the solution to what ails you.
What’s more because of its stripped back aesthetic design, this kind of packaging offers brand owners a cost-effective alternative to more stylized designs. The housing for the individual packagings is essentially a miniature version of the pamphlet stand so readily encountered at the pharmacy. This adds an air of familiarity to the presented product, as well as a bit of understated humor.
4. Subvert Expectations
Ever see those “Get yourself a man that can do both,” memes? This label design by Clara Lindsten is pretty much the embodiment of that. It subverts our expectations by coupling a beverage, so often associated with masculinity and a rugged appeal, with an art that is associated with elegance and refinement. The oddity of the subversion adds to the product’s memorability, but so too, does the tactile quality of it.
The consumer is granted the opportunity to recreate the design of the label. It is a brief kinesthetic experience akin to game playing that further cements the product in the minds of consumers.
5. Show Don’t Tell
As shown with the above Help Remedies example, there can be a certain charm to understatement. Sometimes products allow a brand owner to forgo witticisms, slogans and let the packaging itself do the talking.
For an example take the packaging of these Nike Air Max sneakers. The concept for this packaging was developed by Scholz & Friends, one of Europe’s premier advertising agencies. It conveys with almost no words at all, what buoyancy will be availed the wearer of this shoe. The air bag makes for an interesting design concept that is sure to turn heads.
6. Put My Name On It
Prior to the implementation of their “Share A Coke,” personalized bottle campaign in 2011, soft-drink giant Coca-Cola was in a bit of an economic slump. The “Share A Coke,” campaign, basically involved the company printing first names onto the label paper. You’ve got a friend, with that name, you share it with them. Eventually, the campaign would evolve to allow people to submit names for printing.
This further increased sales as individuals could purchase customized labels for their friends with less common names. Before long the customization process allowed room for phrasing such as “Get Well Soon, Bob,” and “Will You Go To Prom With Me?” It proved to be a bonafide financial success for the company. The project effectively lifted the company out its slump—a steady decreasing of sales lasting the entire decade prior. At the launch of the campaign the company reported a 2.5% increase in U.S. sales.
In Australia, the initial site of the launch, 7% of teenagers purchased the product, and two out of five citizens purchased it. Even their facebook traffic increased by 870%. They would go on to register a 19% year-over-year growth for the 20-ounce package. This was the most substantial year-over-year growth the company had experienced since its 1886 inception. Not too shabby.
7. Look To The Future of Branding with AR Packaging
AR packaging, or Augmented Reality packaging, is a technology that allows consumers to scan a label with their smartphone and see a digital, sometimes animated image, appear on their display screen. The technology allows the brand to communicate information in a novel way. The information expands beyond the dimensionality of the printed media, and spills into the real world.
Some companies have already begun to implement this technology into their label designs, and to great success. For an example, check out the 19 Crimes line by the Living Labels brand. A paper label that can speak to you? Yeah, try unseeing that.
Thanks to hard work, a focus on putting customers and employees first and investment in innovative labeling technologies, LabelValue is now the go-to supplier of over 120,000 customers across dozens of industries throughout the USA!
Posted by:Cris Antonio
Cris Antonio is a content wizard, responsible for coming up with fresh and unique article ideas. Aside from writing, Cris also enjoys painting, collecting toys, and reading German novels.
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