“You can give them any name you want, the only thing that matters is the emotion they generate for the consumer”. At the end of a lecture, one of the attendees summarized very sharply his opinion about the different design strategies presented.

We can spend hours doing a conceptual analysis of design, but packaging can be evaluated in just a few seconds while we shop. If the design doesn’t win us over right away, we simply choose the brand next door.

We design to seduce in a few seconds

Each brand must have tangible and intangible attributes that help differentiate it from its competitors.

For this purpose, we apply different design strategies based on a brand story built according to the consumer’s profile. Because we can only be relevant when we mean something to people.

Packaging is the most efficient ad.
There’s no AdBlocker that can keep us from seeing it.

This makes it the best ally for companies that do not have an advertising budget, and also for those that do. Here are seven strategies that help to build value and meaning through packaging design.

Essential pack

Trapped in a changing and unpredictable world, consumers strive to gain control and focus, seeking to be able to relax again.

The saturation of information and stimuli in which we live makes the brands that scream the least to stand out today. Understanding the need for simplicity, clarity and order, brands that adhere to the Essential pack strategy become facilitators, allies that allow us to refocus.

In order to regain control in the context of purchasing, we bet on highlighting only the essential, the relevant, by carrying out an exercise to reduce the superfluous in order to keep only what really matters. We seek to communicate in the clearest and most concrete way possible. No distractions or overloaded decorative elements. That’s why many brands are simplifying and enhancing their message to reach the consumer directly without communication noise.

Classic pack

“The past is the future.” Some consumers, and especially millennials, idealize the past. They find in it an escape from today’s frantic lifestyle, an antidote to a world of continuous change. It allows consumer to go back to times with a slower pace of life where attention to detail was paid and love and passion were poured into products.

Combining the classic with the contemporary is a way of representing feelings of nostalgia and recreating a return to the past with a contemporary look. You have to look retro, but not old-fashioned.

Used not only to communicate the trajectory of a company, new brands without tradition use this design strategy to identify with a part of the past. This is how a large number of emerging brands adopt this strategy to dress up as classics.

Fun pack

Shopping is often a monotonous and unentertaining task. If packaging can produce a smile, it has already achieved much more than expected.

Connecting from humour is a shortcut to consumer emotion. Appealing to funny images and phrases in the packaging is a way of giving a moment of happiness in the daily routine, appealing to the unexpected or surprising.

This strategy is commonly found in products aimed at children, but it is also used to reach all categories and ages.

Read part 2