Strategic packaging design opens up a world of possibilities for bringing meaning to the brands which form part of our daily lives.

If a brand has no meaning, it has no value

Many brands are only managed through the communication of their packaging, as much through its structure and graphics as through verbal or non-verbal identity.

Proportionally, there are many more brands who cannot commit big budgets to advertising in order to give a voice to their brand. But absolutely all of them need to create meaning through their packaging’s communication.

Today more than ever, packaging is the most effective way of creating a powerful meaning for the brand. Who wants to watch or listen to adverts? To avoid them, there are both paid-for and free options available. But no one can avoid contact with packaging.

Here are four strategies that help to build value and meaning through packaging design.

Craft pack

As a counterpoint to today’s world of industrialization and mass-market products, there is a new trend towards ‘honest’ products, made with artisanal methods.

One way of applying this design strategy is to leave the material bare using desaturated colors or an aesthetic which seeks to highlight the manufacturing. It conveys care and commitment.

It aims to demonstrate that it is not a product made by machines, rather by people, for people. This humanity not only denotes quality, but also authenticity.

Place pack

When a product has a geographic place of origin which is relevant to the consumer, packaging is the best way to communicate it.

This strategy is often employed on exported products such as wine, coffee and chocolate. But it’s not about using a boring picture of a landscape or other such clichés which don’t add value.

We must surprise the consumer with innovative elements which show the provenance in an unexpected and attractive way, expressing pride in the place.

Wellness pack

Wellness is understood as the balance between physical and mental care, which gives us a feeling of satisfaction and tranquillity.

Packaging design, through colors, images, shapes and materials, constructs the identikit of our healthy choices. To represent this concept graphically, the color white is the star – it communicates purity and acts as a visual oasis.

Matte finishes are commonly used in these designs as a counterpoint to the excess represented by the varnish. This strategy is used for healthy foods and drinks.

Deco pack

Decoration of the home is a characteristic which attracts us all. When we talk about decorative packaging, we refer to those products which don’t want to hide inside a cupboard. Designs which look to complement our life-style.

They are designs which appeal to the senses, transforming themselves into sensory symphonies. Packages which become decorative elements through geometric patterns and a vivid use of color.

If these are some of the strategies which can be found in the market, they are not the only ones. Nor is it to say that a design which fits into one of the strategies cannot also contain elements of the others.

Branding is about identifying, and then communicating, that which makes us unique, relevant and different. A brand is successful when it tells stories which the consumers want to hear.

Because nowadays, to be one more is to be one less.

Now is the time to take advantage of the power of packaging design to communicate stories which touch the hearts and minds of consumers. Just as that delegate said: ‘The only important thing is the emotion that we generate in the consumer.’

Here you can find the first part of this article