Ever been tempted by the fancy, colorful, and trendy product? You’re not alone.
There is a belief among packaging experts that shoppers can be convinced to buy a product without any words spoken, as long as the product caters to the right senses. This goes back to the old saying, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’. But we do. We continuously do! As consumers, we regularly buy products based on the packaging alone and designers are playing off this to increase sales.
After all, why would we buy a plain hand soap with a single company sticker on it when we could purchase a reusable bottle with a detailed and trendy logo? For years, designers have been trying to pinpoint what makes a product purchase-worthy.
Color plays a very important role in determining the best direction to go with packaging. A color has to be eye-catching but not too glaring to deter the customer. Through physiological response testing, certain patterns can be traced. Color sends subliminal messages to people and most of us react similarly to certain colors.
As color trends and design taste of shoppers are ever-changing, the average life span of a package is two and half years. If a company opts not to keep up with the latest design trends, their product may fall by the wayside like a 1950s newspaper.
It was not until after 1950 that much attention was even given to what the container actually looked like, believe it or not! Most items were wrapped in functional packaging designed to protect and deliver. It did its job but did little to attract consumers. Today, impulse purchasing makes up almost 75 percent of the consumer spending and if the package fails to project the right message, an item may end up sitting alone on the shelf.
Test yourself! Do you find that you buy salsa when the sticker is yellow, or cleaning products when they’re in a red bottle? Let us know how you find yourself buying when it comes to product design!
From Chambers & Company Insurance Brokers, we hope that you enjoy evaluating how the package design influences sales. For all of your insurance needs in California, don’t forget to give us a call to get started.