Optimizing Packaging Design For Human Senses

You target human consumers because they are the ones buying your products. We decide on buying something based on the five senses. It means that marketing experts have to consider these five senses while designing and packaging products. In this article, we will discuss how you can trigger human senses to make them taking interest in buying your products.

Sight

Using the right combination of colors, shapes, and text on a product packaging makes it visually appealing. A visually appealing product packaging stands out among other products, meaning that it will attract your customers in a much better way. One way of doing so is to do the exact opposite of what your competitors are doing. For instance, if all of your competitors are using vibrant and loud colors in their packaging designs, you may want to create a more minimalist packaging design to make your product stand out more.

Smell

Most of the brands and packaging companies do not pay much attention to the olfactory experience of their product packaging. The fact of the matter is that how your product packaging smells can help you retain your customers. For this purpose, you will need to choose high-quality packing materials, and also that you are using the right packing materials that are not only protective and aesthetically pleasing but also appropriately aromatic.

Touch

The product packaging you use can be a point of interaction between you and your customers. You may want to use plush suede, pop-ups, or pull-tabs to improve the unboxing experience of your customers. Your potential or existing customers may find such packaging styles worth sharing, and it can help you stand out among your competitors. This way, you will be able to increase the list of loyal customers.

Sound

You might not have paid much attention to this aspect, but what sounds your product packaging generates can make or break your sale. You will want to avoid being too noisy with your packaging, but it can be annoying for your customers. You can optimize the sounds of your packaging by using the right types of packaging materials. Using heavier packaging materials will result in a bit deeper sounds, which are much better than the high-pitch noise that thinner packaging materials create. Thicker materials also develop a perception about your product being of higher quality in the minds of your customers.

Taste

If you are a food brand, you will want your product packaging to draw a perception of your product’s taste in the minds of your customers. This factor depends on all of the factors mentioned above. The visual appeal of your product packaging and how it feels and smells can play a crucial role in developing a perception of your product’s taste. You certainly do not want anything to go wrong in this scenario.

If you want to make sure that your packaging is perfect from the perspective of all of the factors mentioned above, you may need to discuss your requirements with a packaging consultant. A highly qualified packaging consultant will help you select the right type of packaging materials that will help your product stand out among your competition.

Why Packaging SKUs are exploding

For a lot of companies, SKUs are the future. About 75% of owners of brands are focusing more on this, and a lot of them are spending more types of money. 

That’s partially because of the way the climate is changing. Sustainability is something that’s growing with 85% of people making sure that they make a sustainability change, offering better recycling, and the brand owners are offering better value in the packaging, especially if biodegradable, compostable, or recycled material. 

They’re also focusing more on convenience, with people making self-serve packages right now, and it is something that’s going to be growing soon. 

There is ecommerce expansion, since more and more are turning to online shopping, so brands need to make sure that they’re working on making their packaging even better. 

That’s where the new SKUs are exploding. Digital channels, mobile on-demand packaging, and better return on the websites is definitely growing. The changes also may protect from the breakage, making it more fresh during delivery, offering a consistent look tat’s across some of the different channels. 

Then of course there is the rise of premium products, where brand owners are offering more premium offerings to people, and other promotional strategies that come with the premium offerings too. 

A lot of brand owners are noticing the convenience of this, and companies are looking to use packaging in order to provide this, entailing some major changes, offering better investing and responding too. 

This is all an indication that the ongoing investments that are there are critical to the success of the rands, and for a lot of these, the changes that involve the valuable attributes and the brand message will continue to offer the more unique sorts of ways for the products to stand out. 

The biggest surprise for a lot of brands though is how much SKUS have change the game. SKUs or stock keeping until are a huge trend with big magnitude, and a lot of brands are offering more ways for you to look at this. The increase is an explosion compared to what was before. 

And of course, there’s a variety of reasons for this. First of all, it’s convenient, and perfect for premium products, but you can also customize all of this, offering a healthier and greener type of ecommerce, and this is all a huge part of the production of these SKUs working together to offer the best results possible. 

The increase for some companies is about 10% of the spend, which may seem like a lot, but it’s added to a huge growth for a lot of the people who do this. 

The spending increase can involve the components of the packaging, the shift towards more premium kinds of packaging, and upgraded decoration such as metalizing features that are there, a shift towards higher-valued substrates and more resin put in raw material, and a price increase as a result of all of this. 

This is now changing the growth for a lot of brand owners, and it’s becoming a major growth driver for this, since it is very on the go, a lot of more relevant brand actions from easy opening packages to functionality of this is possible. 

There is also the increase for merchandising that goes along with this, and it is offering more efficiency for all. 

Whether or not SKUs will be used in the long-term will be up to of course, the future of the business and the brands but hopefully, we’ll be seeing more of these over time, and a lot more benefits that come along too.

Are you wasting money on Tape?

If you are in the business of packaging anything it is most likely that you are going to be using a good amount of supplies. This means you are likely in charge of the money going in and out of all those items and are responsible for keeping that budget that is set or even getting bonuses for money saved.  This can mean that a lot of power is not in your hands and the ability to source packaging supplies for a low cost can impact your life directly. That is a great and wonderful thing because you can keep your warehouse running efficiently and make the lives of your co-workers or yourself better.

One of the biggest areas of wasted money I have found in warehouses is spending too much on packaging supplies for shipping.  The reason this is done is generally not controlling employees and the processes they have.  This is because some things are so simply we all think they should be done how the handler sees fit.  The thing is thought, is that every process should be tracked and ran the most efficiently possible. 

Each employee who is going to be putting boxes together should know exactly the amount of tape needed for each box.  Now some companies like target understand this and have machines that pre-cut tape to fit every exact box they have.  This is because they were spending astronomical amounts of extra money on tape.  If you cannot afford this machinery then you need to find the right tape for the right box.

There are lots of different types of thickness and stickiness of packing tape.  So if an employee usually uses 4 strips for the bottom of packages you can get a better tape that only tapes one strip. The cost savings can be up to 300% or more when using the right amount of the right product.  It means buying less, and taking less time to do it.  That means an employee could be 100 to 400% more efficient by using the right product as well.  That means more products can be shipped for the same amount of time! Getting excited? That is because it can be truly a game changer for many companies to use the right amount of products.  Now take the tape advice and move it along to other areas and watch the bottom line shrink! Go out and dominate your company!

Gift Boxes for Companies

Being in the packaging supplies business has some distinct advantages.  We get to see lots of trends, ebbs, and flows in the market. We have noticed that a big trend in the last decade is that corporate gifting has become a phenomenon that is taking off.  This is an area that can be extremely profitable for companies and can smooth over relationships to set the tone for the long haul.

We see our gift boxes being used in a plethora of ways.  We find it fun and clever when someone decides to purchase them for Christmas for all their presents.  More frequently it is being used for some form of high class packaging or Corporate Gifting.  This can be extremely extravagant and filled with their brand’s color of shredded paper to give that extra punch of thought.  The options are vast and the rewards for sending the right gift after a closed deal or during a pitch can be the difference for how many gift boxes may be under YOUR Christmas tree!  So why would you really want to do this and what kind of results can it yield?

What we have seen is many companies will actually shop their local packaging supplies store and pick up more than just a few setups for future sales.  Not only do they give a single gift when big deals are closed, but many companies will make a gift for an entire department or board of directors.  This can be a simple gift box filled with a classic shredded paper or a custom box as well.  Some companies go all out with design and print a design on the exterior to jump up the personalization.  This little addition at the end of a deal can give a talking point for every recipient from that point on.  It allows a small amount of common ground and good will to instantly be given to members of the other company.  Especially, if they were not a happy recipient of the deal it can help smooth over that pain.

That is why we love gift boxes and the extra bonuses that can come along with them.  We do suggest not filling them with any kind of controversial item.  It may turn people off instantly if there is a polarizing item. This is also not the time to say I told you so, its a kind gesture so make sure it stays on that level when choosing what goes in it.